Derren Brown

When i first conversed with Anthony and again most recently, i mentioned to him about Derren Brown's work. A large amount of what Derren Brown does has similar insight, arguably, to Anthony's theory. In one experiment he hires two actors to have a collision in a crowded train station, he then get's a (apparently!) random woman ,who, with his assistance ,is able to replay the incident, zooming in on particular detail. This, in particular, lends itself to Anthony's theory on life being a recording similar to that of a dvd, which can be replayed, with the right technology under certain conditions. This is an example of just one, of many great "bits" that Derren Brown has done. I've seen him perform twice and read his first two books. His first is slightly more "card trick focused" but there is still some great theory in there. His second, is one of the best books i've read with a lot more insight in to his opinions and theories.

If anybody has been on the moon or perhaps that island from Lost for the past 6 or 7 years, Derren Brown is a performer that fuses the power of suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship to create some of the greatest tricks of the mind you will ever see. Anthony tells me there is a member here who is in contact with him and also that he is finding Anthony's work to be fascinating.

Is it possible that a lot of his work requires communicating with the Daemon? There are many things which i'm sure his work can lend to Anthony's theory.

Also i'm a huge fan of his and i wanted to make sure he saw through my nakedly self-serving attempt to suck-up, he does great work, yes he surely does.

Martin

Circular vs infinite time axis

Hi,

You've probably gathered by now I'm preoccupied with the notion of cicrular time!

Actually, I think it's circular whatever the temporal shape of the universe (discounting the finite bounded option e.g. a brick wall at some point in time beyond which there is nothing).

If the universe is infinite, then even the tiniest probability gets magnified. We know that it is not a case of if an event of finite probability will occur, but how frequently. And, as Tony pointed out in his book somewhere, any finite system must eventually come around to the same state. So even an infinite universe is de facto cyclic. In fact, I'm getting tired of saying this :)

The idea that death means total insensitivity should not come as a worry. It means that these unimaginable periods of time between our cyclic incarnations pass instantly.

About ghosts: In one Everett universe, the Roman Empire never fell (and didn't progress). In this universe at this moment, Roman legions march through our houses. Also, while I am alive in my universe, in others I died in my operation last year, in a collision with a lorry wheel on the motorway ten years ago, or in a childhood accident.

Some Everett universes are extremely close to this one - like a map of Durham is very close to Northampton in my road atlas. I can well believe that our Eidelon (is that correct spelling) drifts a little off-target occasionally, causing long dead or fantastic alternatives to come into view.

Picture house analogy

Just a short point. When we try to think or re-member something, isn't it interesting that we cover our eyes to do it? (Think of going into a film theatre to see things and that the projection of an image requires darkness for it to be seen).

Related to this is the fact that ghosts are associated with the dark as you'd expect with a projected image or print through of an earlier image, where the tape had been used several times (Live ghosts that respond to your existence are something else - stone tapes are what I mean here). A theory mooted in Anomaly, the journal of ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena) suggested that water was associated with ghosts and I wondered from that if the images were somehow projected onto wayer droplets, suspended in the air?

The Archos Synchronicity Machine

I have just responded to a comment made by Paige on the posting 'Quantum Fermi'. I described how my Archos MP3 player seems to have synchronistic and precognitive abilities. Clearly this is not really the case but it does lend credence to the theory that we all exist within our own Everett Universe that we recreate on a second by second basis. I have argued that coincidences and synchronicities are clues to this state of affairs. But I also believe that our life-memories are used as warnings with regard to things that are about to happen. I can explain this by a personal experience that took place almost exactly four years ago. I was driving on the M62 motorway that links Yorkshire with Lancashire in the North of England. This motorway goes through some pretty barren moorland and weather conditions in late November can get quite bad (remember the movie 'American Werewolf In London'? I am sure that the 'Slaughtered Lamb' pub is located not far off the M62).

Anyway I am driving along in pretty crappy driving conditions. Rain and hail are blasting down and the traffic is both heavy and fast. I have my Archos playing away through the car stereo. As I mentioned in the earlier comment I have over 14,000 MP3 tracks on the Archos so the chance of any one specific track coming up is remote in the extreme. As I am driving along a lorry comes out in front of me with a load of crash-barriers on the back. They looked fairly securely tied so I has happy to drive a short distance behind it. Suddenly a new track comes up on random play. It is 'Round of Blues' by Shawn Colvin. Now there is a history to this particular song. Way back in 1992 I had first heard this track on a free CD that came with a UK music magazine. From the first few bars I knew that this song would be important to me in some strange way that I could not describe. a few days later I bought the album with the track on it (Fat City). For some strange reason that I only now understand I said to my then (common-law) wife that this was the song I wanted played at my funeral. As the words came out of my mouth I remember thinking 'where on earth did that come from'. So strong was this feeling that I continued mentioning this over the years. When I met my present wife I again found myself stressing this self same instruction. I remember once playing the song to her so that she would remember it. Clearly, as I now know, my Daemon was at work.

So you can imagine my shock when this track suddenly appeared on my car stereo. I knew it was a warning. For some reason I put my breaks on and moved my car from the middle lane into the slow lane (my car at the time was a beautifully responsive Mazda RX-8 (as if you wanted to know that) so I was swiftly out of the way of the lorry in front. A split second after I moved, with Shawn still singing away, the barriers detached themselves and crashed down onto the motorway, landing exactly were I would have been. I would have hit them at sixty miles an hour. There is no way I would have survived. Fortunately because I moved no cars were close enough to be involved and the traffic easily negotiated itself around the obstruction.

If CTF is correct then the very last thing I would have perceived in my last life would have been the song 'Round of Blues'. It is as if I had a deep past-life memory association with my death and that song. This is why my Daemon planted the message of Fat City equals funeral. But this saved my life this time "round" as well because I knew that death was close!

But do you want to know what has really just freaked me out - I just looked up the lyrics which I have never really done before. I more enjoyed the tune and its bouncy guitar sound. What I just read made my blood run cold:

Here we go again
Another round of blues
Several miles ago
I set down my angel shoes
On a lost highway
For a better view

and later:

We lost a lot today
We get it back tomorrow
I hear the sound of wheels
I know the rainbow's end.

Scary isn't it - just how relevant are the words "Several miles agoI set down my angel shoes on a lost highway" and "I hear the sound of wheels, I know the rainbow's end".

Its things like this that convince me more and more that CTF is more than just a simple theory!

Feynman's "One Electron Universe Theory"

In response to Carenza's wonderful electron theory I have posted below the section from the original version of ITLAD (then called 'Cheating The Ferryman') that never made it to the final version - in fact a lot of the supporting science was lost between the first and second version. This refers to Richard Feynman's 'One-Electron Universe' theory.

"The famous and extremely charismatic American Particle physicist Richard Feynman took this idea to its logical limit and proposed that there is only one electron in the universe. He suggested that this particle moves backwards and forwards in time with such an elaborate trajectory that at any moment we think we see many of them. He came to this conclusion after reviewing what actually happens in a collision of a gamma ray photon (see diagram) hits matter. The collision takes place and an electron (e1) shoots off in one direction and a positron shoots off in the other. The positron then collides with another electron (e2). The collision causes this second electron and the positron to be annihilated creating a photon once more. The net effect of this is that electron e2 had disappeared to be replaced by electron e1. Feynman suggested that even though both electrons are in existence at the same time they are, in fact, the same particle. He considered that the journey that the positron takes from the point of its creation with the gamma ray to the impact with electron e2 is, in fact a reverses journey, a journey backwards in time!

As such there is a continual ‘time-line’ of the same electron. It is, initially e2, it then collides with the positron and, in the guise of the positron goes backwards in time to become the original electron e1 that was caused by the first collision. It then changes time direction by becoming an electron again and carries forward in time. As Davies says:

“In its normal, electron phase, (e2) emits a photon and bounces back in time, then absorbs a photon and rebounds back to the future again. An observer located in time would see two electrons and a positron. But Feynman says this is really only one particle seen three times”.[i]

From this Feynman postulated that all the electrons in the universe are just this one particle bouncing backwards and forwards in time. In other words, as Paul Davies says:

“You and I, the Earth, the sun, the Milky Way and all other galaxies are composed of just one electron (and one photon and one neutron too) seen sqillions of times over. This offers a neat explanation as to why all electrons appear to be identical”.

This will also predict that the universe must be made up of equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, because every ‘zig’ must have a ‘zag’."

[i] Davies P “About Time – Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution” (Viking) Page 206 (1995)

Memories are made of this

The mechanism and release valve for memory is down to the pressure between the two worlds. Ideas go in as impressions (in-press-ions) - hence trauma providing the deepest and most memorable ones as peace brings nothing special but allows ideas that have built up within, to flow out as in therapy or as spontaneous memories. Think of a sponge. Squash it in your fist and you've got serious 'matter' (Reception of message (memory) or mass-age) - relax it and it expands (flows out) into nothing much (released energy): Transmission (imagination).

Daemon/ Eidolon ratio

When I was at school one of the playground tricks was to tug your trousers as hard as you could for as long as possible, then let go. The result was that your arm would automatically float up and stay raised for a certain amount of time. In relation to the Daemon and Eidolon this translates as the harder you work on the physical plane, the further you're catapulted into the mental plane: The harder your effort, the stronger your release into unconsciousness (dreamland, imagination, death). e.g's hard physical effort and sound sleep after as opposed to boredom and insomnia (no challenge); Drunkeness and the urge to try to hold onto something solid; accidents and unconsciousness/death.

This I call The Accumulation/ Discharge Cycle because it's a build up and release of energy that not only moves the individual but society and the world forward too I believe*. It's found in all rhythmic events of give and take (the pulse of the universe) birth, death, sex, the tides, the seasons and slides in nicely with Tony's theories as you see.

* The way I imagine society moving is like mud or lava rolling down a hill or one of these slinky toys moving down stairs, end over end ('The first shall be last and the last shall be first' then makes perfect sense): For those not familiar with it, this toy is a spring that tips over, so that the top flows onto a lower surface, followed by the rest of it.

The title I would choose

Hi everyone,

I'm not at all inclined, but if I wrote a book like yours Tony I'd have to give it the title 'The river Styx is amniotic fluid'! :)

Another insight I had regarding circular time is my idea of 'Lissajous universal population'. Lissajous figures are those pretty repeating patterns you get on an oscilloscope when you feed it with sinusoids of different frequencies.

Imagine a man at the equator of a perfectly spherical, waterless world. He has a perfect jeep which he drives east. Several months later he arrives back at the same spot and, because his driving and his jeep are perfect, his tyres feed neatly into the ruts he made when he left. Obviously, of course, if he keeps going he will just repeat the same journey and there will be a single pair of ruts.

Now, imagine a real world - all uneven and aspherical. The man gets back and this time his original ruts are forty miles south. He goes round again, and again, and again. Eventually, after ten to the seventieth power circuits, his tyres line up in the ruts again.

Now apply this to an electron in a time-circular universe. In this perfectly time spherical universe, there is one electron. However, something happens that makes the universe uneven in time (God ruffles it up a little :). After a billion billion years, the electron arrives back at the time we started from. Only, it has shifted a parsec. He can see another electron, looking just like him (only considerably younger :). On the second circuit around the universe it happens again, and again. In fact it happens ten to the seventieth power times. The universe seems full of 10^70 electrons. But in fact they are the same electron!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps this explains the phenomenon of particles appearing in multiple places in the universe (translocation?) ? It might even explain why there are so many particles in general. Perhaps if our universe were perfectly spherical in time, there would be one example of an electron, neutron, proton, etc.?

I need a holiday :(

Waves And Particles 2

Paige The Oracle made a very interesting posting earlier. I have responded to this post but I would like to take yet another section from the fisrt version of ITLAD. This is to do with wave-particle duality. It is an analogy I thought up that may get across the totally counter-intuitive nature of light.

- Light is shone through a single hole in a barrier. As the light flows out it encounters a second barrier, this time with two holes. The light acts like a wave in that each hole then starts its own wave pattern the other side of the second barrier. Immediately the two waves start to interfere with each other. A screen is set up after the second barrier. When the light hits this screen it shows a pattern of light and dark stripes. These stripes are called interference fringes. They correspond to where the light waves add together (constructive interference) and where the waves cancel each other out (destructive interference).

In this way Thomas Young in 1800 proved that light functions as a wave. However in 1905 Einstein proposed that light was also made up of individual particles. He even gave them a name; photons. As far as he was concerned it was the only way that a particular puzzle for early 20th century science could be explained. When light was shone on a solid object it seemed to ‘kick out’ electrons from the surface. This phenomenon, known as the ‘photoelectric effect’, could not be explained. However, as Einstein said in his 1905 paper, if light is made of particles then each particle hits the surface and knocks out the electrons. This supposition was supported by experimentation and in recognition of this discovery Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. One problem solved, many opened. This dual nature of light (wave and particle) was to cause a radical review of our perception of electro-magnetic radiation. If light was also made up of discrete packets how can this be squared with the fact that light is also a wave? We need to re-visit the Young Experiment.

We need to understand what would, or should, happen if photons were sent through the two slits. As an analogy imagine that the two holes were holes in a barn door, the holes being about three times the size of a soccer ball. Now we kick balls against the door. After a few dozen balls are kicked through the holes we stop the exercise. We will then find two piles of balls on the other side of the barn door. We would expect to find the pattern (two piles of footballs) to be exactly the same if, instead of both holes being open at the same time, each hole was open on its own for half the time and then the other hole for the other half. What you would not expect would be a group of balls centred half way between the two holes, right behind the solid door. Footballs, like particles, do not interfere with one another.

Now imagine a single photon being fired at the barrier. The photon, in order to get to the other side, has to go through one or other of the two holes. Recording such a small particle of light needs a super sensitive photographic plate and this is set up at the other side of the barrier.

Each photon, as it arrives, registers on the photographic plate as a single white spot. As thousands, then millions of photons arrive at the plate a pattern begins to emerge. Common sense would lead you to assume that there would be two circles of white light coinciding with the trajectory of each photon through whichever hole it selected, just like our piles of footballs in our barn door analogy. However we are dealing with the quantum world where common sense does not exist. In fact what we do get is the interference pattern again. Now think about this; each particle goes through one hole on its own, however something seems to interfere with it as it goes through to form the unexpected interference pattern. This leaves us with one of only two options, both of which are peculiar in the extreme. The first option is that the photon starts out as a particle, and arrives as a particle, but en route it seems to go through both holes. In doing so it interferes with itself as it comes through the holes, and then works out exactly where to place itself on the photographic plate to ensure that ultimately, and with all its fellow protons, a perfect pattern of light and dark stripes is to be found. The mystery of this first option is how does the photon manage to go through both holes at the same time, and having done that how does it ‘know’ where to place itself on the photographic plate?

The two languages of Eidolon & Daemon

The world of the conscious (Eidolon) communicates through the voice - this is because it is internal energy being released up and out from the visible (bound) world. The world of the unconscious (Daemon) is purely symbolic (visual). This is because it is attention, aimed down and in (reality formation from energy - fusion as opposed to fission). The Daemon is outside, looking in - Eidolon is inside, looking out. This is why the former sees the future (imagination) and the latter is only aware of the past (memory).

Think of thunder and lightning. Sound travels behind light, yet paradoxically, according to Einstein, the faster you go, the slower time seems to move. Is this because your perception takes in a larger and larger sphere of existence, so that small (slow)sequences become one continual, all encapsulating unity of flow? (Matter is differentiated because it has cooled into separate sections of reality, whereas heat leads to flow and combination of matter into undifferentiated energy). Think of the sun or gas giants in the solar system, then compare these to the Earth and other formed planets. Think also of a volcano and how despite external changes to your body (crust/ volcanic cone), internally you feel no different from your youth or childhood (the living you or potential/energy as opposed to actual/real (the body as opposed to mind)).

Reliving Life Before Death 2.

Further to Karen's blog of yesterday I would like to place on here a section of ITLAD that was lost in the first editing process. The very first version of the book was considerably more scientific than the version in the bookshops. Certain theories such as the 'Cosmic Anthropic Principle', Willis Harman's 'M3 Metaphysic' and an in-depth analysis of David Deutsch's 'Fabric of Reality' were lost. I am hoping that there may be sufficient interest for this 'harder version' to be published in the future.


This is the section that I would like to be considered in the light of the experience of Karen's father-in-law:

A Passage To India
Bhagawhandi was dying. That was obvious to all who knew her. The doctors had diagnosed a malignant brain tumour, an astrocytoma, which was impossible to remove. She was only nineteen years old. What surprised everybody was how remarkably cheerful she was, accepting totally that she had but a short time to live. The tumour was growing larger day by day and was inching forward towards her temporal lobe. Up until this stage she had suffered the occasional seizures but nothing particularly debilitating. However as soon as pressure was placed upon her temporal lobe her seizures became more frequent – and stranger.

In the early stages of her illness the seizures had been grand mal convulsions but her new ones were altogether of a different nature. She would not lose consciousness, but would drift into an epileptic – like dream-state, similar to that described by Hughlings Jackson. She began to experience the classic ‘reminiscence’ as described in chapter 4.

However this dream-state soon developed into something far stronger. Bhagawhandi began to have very realistic hallucinations about being back in India, and not just India but the India of her childhood. In these semi-waking states she actually found herself back on the dusty streets of her old village, interacting with people and circumstances long disappeared in the mists of time. She would find herself listening to a speech being made in the village square. On one occasion she was in a church, in another in a graveyard. She claimed that she was actually re-living these memories as actual events.

As Bhagawhandi’s present life began to ebb away she began to live more and more in her new world created from her own past. The visions ceased being occasional and began to take up most of her waking hours. She lay, her young face rapt in attention to a world inside her own mind, with a faint, mysterious smile on her face. What was happening had a profound effect upon the nursing staff around her. All accepted that something very strange, but very wonderful was taking place. Nobody disturbed her allowing her her dreams.

The psychiatrist responsible for her was also fascinated. He felt awkward but was keen to know exactly what was taking place. He asked her quietly “Bhagawhandi, what is happening?”

“I am dying”, she answered, “I am going home. I am going back where I came from-you might call it my return.”

During the next week she disappeared totally into the world of her memories. She ceased responding to all external stimuli but lay with the same faint smile on her face. Three days later she quietly slipped away, returning permanently to her own past. And in this way she died, as the psychiatrist poetically described it “or should we say, arrived, having completed her passage to India”.[i]

At first sight this case, so described in Oliver Sacks’ wonderful book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, seems to have many similarities with the discoveries of Wilder Penfield described in an earlier chapter. Indeed Sacks and his associates came to the same initial conclusion. However on reflection this was seen as a far more complex phenomenon. The Penfield memories were very similar to tape recordings in that if interrupted they would, if started again, go through the memorised event again. For Bhagawhandi the hallucinations were much wider in terms of their structure. To extend the analogy of videotape it seems that Penfield’s patients accessed their memories via a videocassette recording. The recall was presented in a rigidly linear format with no options on random access. Bhagawhandi’s memories on the other hand seemed to be recorded upon a format such as a DVD. Not only was random access available but also differing viewpoints and sound effects could be selected. This three-dimensional memory recall is exactly how Karl Pribram believes memory, and perception to work. Sacks’ tragic young patient was re-accessing her memories as recorded in the holographic-like processes suggested by Pribram and Bohm.


[i] Sacks O “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat” (Duckworth) 1985

Maury's dream interpretation

Personally I think Maury's interpretation of his dream is wrong. The physical object falling on his neck didn't spark off the dream retrospectively but was simply a precognative warning from outside his consciousness (the Daemon trying to tell him the object was loose and was going to fall on him). He, being totally wrapped in sleep was oblivious to the external world but this sensor mechanism wasn't and tried to warn him. Even upon waking he was unaware of his daemon, so tried to reason out what happened purley from the mechanistic universe angle of Newton - hence the object must have caused the dream backwards, rather than an unconscious part of him, tried to warn him in his dream state of that which it was aware of.

Censorship reason

The reason we have a censor mechanism in the brain is that physical actions have to happen sequentially i.e. one at a time in a particular direction. Data inflow though does not need this control but does need sorting and interpretation after the experience (censorship again or at least manipulation). The way I see it, action stops thought and thought stops action: It's one or the other at a time, not both - hence sleep, fever and contemplation disable the body but enable the mind to go wandering and wondering as consciousness, health and general activity allow us to explore the physical world but also in a sense trap us here. Autistic savants and even people like Einstein (and me even) are pretty inept at physical skills because of this situation but brilliant in those areas they apply their minds to

Waves of Particles

Looking at the physics angle, in nature there are two analogies that I think fit, showing that light is waves of particles. Think of the sea for instance and the way water wraps itself around breakers or bursts through gaps in the structure. Then think how trees (composed of cells) slowly flow round obstructions, like mud or lava does at a visible level (not years but moments).

Reliving life before death

I have been interested in whether we survive death for as long as I can remember and have read many books on the subject one being 'Conversations with God' by Neil Donald Walsh. I must say that some of the comparisons especially regarding the "Matrix" theory are uncanny although Walsh's take on the subject is more overly a spiritual one.
I recently suffered a bereavement, my father-in-law passed away last month sadly with cancer and both my husband and myself had been caring for him for many weeks because he did not want to die alone in a hospital/hospice. We put our lives on hold and were with him 24/7 when we managed to get one night off the Marie Curie nurse couldn't cope and called an ambulance, ultimately he was admitted to a hospice were he lived out his last week. We were both with him at his passing and I was remembering how he and I used to sit and chat for hours about things such as religion, conspiracy theories etc etc and ultimately "is there life after death". This is really hard for me to put in writing because I loved him but, all the time I was thinking 'come on' tell me what you are seeing 'come on' tell me what you are experiencing' we talked about this many a Sunday morning whilst I was preparing Sunday lunch. Every time he looked into my eyes I was thinking 'tell me' and I feel awful for that. But, the strangest thing happened he asked me where his Nan was? then I realised he wasn't talking to me. He went on to ask where John was? John was his grandad. Now, my father-in-law was 68 his grandparents died back in the 1950's. The point Im trying to get across here is that my father-in-law went back through his life whilst we sat with him just before his passing. My husband kept commenting at his dad's ramblings as him going back over his life as he was mentioning things that happened many years before then breaking out of this recounting and asking us what the time was! and when we said jokingly 5 mins after the last time you asked he looked at us puzzled. Then a Macmillan nurse gave him an injection which basically made him sleep and 4 hours later he died.
The funeral was held 2 weeks later and for 2 weeks both my husband who is a complete sceptic and myself who is open minded had the most weirdest of experiences which I will describe later in another posting if anyone is interested.
I had a weird dream/thoughts the night before we were to hand my father-in-laws keys back to the sheltered accommodation housing association. I was extremely tired yet I could not sleep it was as though I was being kept awake?. My thoughts were constant and of only my father-in-law and it was as if he were upset that he had nothing of value to leave me?. I could see him clearly he was wearing the clothes he was buried in and on his tie pin instead of the words 'father of the bride' which his daughter had made for him for her wedding day the words clearly said 'Life Changer' and he was insistent that I had something from him to cherish yet no words were spoken?. He kept giving me impressions that I was to have something that we had left in his house yet we had cleared his house completely all except for the hoover. He never had any money he never had any jewellery he was a man of little means an uncomplicated soul yet he was insistent in my mind that I should have something that we had left in the house?. I never mentioned this to my husband and the next morning he went back to the house to take the hoover from the broom cupboard then hand back the keys. On his return he handed me an envelope and said look what I found shoved behind the hoover in the broom cupboard. When I opened it there was letters and photo's and a box. Inside the box was his mothers wedding ring!. I cried and told my husband of my sleepless night he in turn got upset but, at least I can make sense of my sleepless night as he had in fact left something of emense value behind in the house which I will cherish and hand down to my daughter.

Quantum Fermi?

Fermi argued it was unlikely that we were the first intelligent creatures in the universe to rise technologically, and that with even a tiny head start on us, the galaxy should be teeming with aliens by now. Perhaps we inhabit that tiny fraction of universes where we ARE the first, and thereby haven't been fed to ET's pets!

On a different note: Some people who've had NDEs recall tunnels, bright lights, and sometimes people greeting them. That sounds like a baby's eye view of childbirth to me. Perhaps an NDE is a premonition of the first major experience beyond death?

I hold entirely with the eternal return idea - because I believe time is circular like most other dimensions appear to be. For a long time however, I was depressed at the thought of continual repetition which, despite its eternal nature, is a single life. Its much like a still picture on an (analogue) television - it repeats fifty or sixty times per second. But its a still nonetheless. On a more positive note, the quantum physical aspect suggests that while the universe repeats, our perception need not. How we 'collapse the wave function' may be different each time, thereby permitting our lives to pan out in different ways.

In that respect I suggest the 'Watersian Multiplex' model where death is like leaving a multiplex cinema only to re-enter. But you don't have to see the same film. All the films repeat endlessly, but there are infinite films to choose from.

Actually, I think we change film constantly and not just at death. Rather than an ever expanding tree of possibilities, I see the universe as a network of 'states' some of which have multiple paths leading to them. I argue this because if state A is achieved through events B and C, it doesn't necessarily matter if B happens before C or vice versa, provided the end state is the same. Both historical timelines lead to the same state. Hence the network in place of the tree.

Polish Edition - Czy istnieje życie po śmierci?

ITLAD has now been published in Poland. It seems to be doing very well. Already there are nearly 5,000 references for the book on Google. The full title is:

‘Czy istnieje życie po śmierci ?Naukowa odpowiedź na pytanie , co się z nami dzieje , gdy umieramy’

In 1999 I visited Warsaw on business a few times and found it to be a fascinating city. I am so pleased that the first foreign language edition of ITLAD will be available in the bookshops there.

I am now keen to make links with any Polish readers that would like to join in on this site. If anybody out there has friends or relations in Poland can they let them know.

I am keen to have a presence within the Polish web community. Should anybody be able to help me in this please let me know.

Joan of Arc Play

As well as writing non-fiction I have been asked to write a play about Joan of Arc. I am very aware that there have been many plays written on this subject, including the famous one by George Bernard Shaw. However my approach is going to be radically different (as usual!). I intend to focus in on the curious reports of her 'Voices'. Joan insisted in her trial that she had been guided from the age of 13 by voices. These voices seemed to know a great about Joan, including her future. It has long been believed that these voices were reported by Joan as being those of St Michael, St Catherine of Alexandria and St Margaret of Antioch. However in 1996 historian Karen Sullivan reread the trial transcripts and all the historical material referring to Joan’s voices and comes to a startling conclusion: no saints were ever named prior to the trial! Sources outside the trial referring to these saints by name are all either anti-Joan and cite the trial, or they come at least 14 years after the trial when the notion of specific saints being the source of Joan’s voices has become commonplace mythology. Joan, apparently, never mentioned these saints by name to her closest relations, friends, or companions in arms who testified she heard the voice of God.

Joan's 'voices' were, in fact, a singular voice. This voice Joan called 'Council'. If my Daemon-Eidolon Dyad theory is correct then this voice was her Daemon. This would explain this being's curious precognitive abilities.

In the play I will focus purely on this aspect of Joan's life. I have read all the trial manuscripts and I intend to dramatise this relationship over three acts. What is really exciting is that my producer has found two young actresses who look very alike. My intention is to have the two on stage communicating as a Daemon and Eidolon would. Indeed this will allow me to present the Daemon-Eidolon Dyad in a dramatic and very effective way.

It is hoped that the play will be first performed next year as part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture celebrations.

Sleep Paralysis

I wasn't too sure wether to get greedy and start a new Topic for this but something that seems to be very tied in with this subject is "Sleep Paralysis".

This has happened to me many many times and you can feel the pull or strain on your brain when it does happen.

Say, for example you are lying in a certain position on your bed, you have a particular view of certain objects in the room. Sleep paralysis seems to cause you to intitialy think you're awake when you can see these objects. Then you realise you're actualy still asleep becuase you can see your body also, but it won't move. You try desparately to throw your arms and legs but your are paralized. Eventualy, after what feels like shaking your head violently, you manage to wake yourself up and re-enter your body .

Anybody else experience this or see a link between this and our Two "Dreams that cheat time" posts?

Dreams That Cheat Time 2

Hurly Burly's contribution below is really quite fascinating in that it supports a crucial element of CTF; that the mind's relationship with 'reality' (or more accurately, 'The Bohmian IMAX') is similar to the relationship between an observer and a DVD recording. The future has already been recorded and under certain circumstances consciousness can 'fast forward', pick up an image or sensation and then go back again. Hurly-Burly mentions Maury's dream. This is how Maury himself described it:

"I was slightly indisposed and was lying in my room; my mother was near my bed. I am dreaming of The Terror. I am present at scenes of massacre; I appear before the Revolutionary Tribunal; I see Robespierre, Marat, Forquier-Tinville, all the most villainous figures of this terrible epoch; I argue with them; at last, after many events which I remember only vaguely, I am judged, condemned to death, taken in a cart, amidst an enormous crowd, to the Square Of Revolution; I ascend the scaffold; the executioner binds me to the fatal board, he pushes it, the knife falls; I feel my head being severed from my body; I awake seized by the most violent terror, and I feel on my neck the rod of my bed which had become detached and had fallen on my neck as would the knife of the guillotine. This happened in one instant, as my mother confirmed to me, and yet it was the external sensation that was taken by me for the starting point of the dream with a whole series of successive incidents. At the moment that I was struck the memory of this terrible machine, the effect of which was so well produced by the rod of the bed’s canopy, had awakened in me all the images of that epoch of which the guillotine was the symbol."

Clearly this is exactly the same sensation as described by Hurly Burly. Clear evidence, in my opinion, for the reality of my Bohmian IMAX theory.

Finally Hurly-Burly also mentions another phenomenon that has long fascinated me. This is termed 'hypnagogic' imagery. This is when a person experiences peculiar unbidden images whilst in that state between being awake and asleep. They are conscious but their mind's eye sees images that can be peculiar or very normal. When experienced just before sleep they are termed 'hypnagogic' and in the morning as we awaken they are termed 'hypnapompic'. I agree with H-B that these experiences are an attuning into the Daemonic mind. I also consider that if controlled these images may prove to be precognitive. I am interested to know if any other members or readers of this blog experience this sensation. I know of only one book on the subject - a book that I have never been able to source. it is called, surprisingly enough, 'Hypnagogia' and was written by a person called Andreas Mavromatis. There are two second-hand copies on Amazon USA for sale at the massive price of $202! So if any of you have read this tome it would be great to hear from you.

Dreams that cheat time.

Please forgive me for being vague but i am posting not only from work, but also from memory with regards to what i am making reference to. Anthony, one of the things that stuck with me about your book is the story about the guy (see vague) that had a dream of being executed, which coincided with his headboard hitting his neck. Point being, the dream had lead up to something that hadn't happened yet, that or, as you argue, time and space didn't follow it's normal course and worked backwards.

The reason this stuck with me is because i can remember almost hundreds of similar occasions where i have had dreams like this. They seem to occur mostly when you are are inbetween sleep and waking up. When you are first dosing off at night or even when you go for a nap in the afternoon, morning, whatever your laziness dictates.
Now you may be suprised that i've gone nealry two paragraphs without mentioning a film? It's ok, i won't. But what i will point out is that over the years i have gotten used to falling asleep with a film playing to itself, apparently. Dialogue from some of my favourite movies has often coincided with my dreams as the television blasts out the sound to my sleepy self. This has been a great way of learning about "Lucid dreaming". (ok i lied) In "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" and even more in "Science of sleep", there are tremendous insights into how aware we are as to what is going on when we dream. Michael Gondry needs to read your book sir, i believe he would enjoy it!




So back to the dreams themselves, these include very similar dreams to the one mentioned in your book. For example, I remember having a dream about my father. My father died when i was 6 so i used to have a large amount of reoccuring dreams as a child and even going into my teen years. In my dreams my father was somewhat of a "bad guy" coming to get me if you will, obviously just the misunderstandings of a child aware of a void. As i grew older i began to turn and face him more in my dreams and, of course, as i did the dreams began to stop. I remember one dream, i was about 14, as he came toward me i turned towards him and threw a kick, at that exact same time, the lightbulb in my room which was above my bed fell out and landed on my shin, The impacts felt silmataneous and i went out told my mother what her silly dead husband had just done to me!

Many other dreams though just involve loud noises, like cupboards being slammed at the same time as certain events that happen in dreams. As i've said, i've noticed this more in periods of dosing. Would this indicate that we are more aware of the elements around us when we are in this state of "inbetween"? Either way, all of these dreams share the same problem of understanding how they are leading
up to a climax which doesn't happen in "real time" untill we wake up. Any similar experiences?

Jacob's Ladder

There was a comment here on this site that named Jacob's Ladder and I thought I would share some stuff (probably known by most of you here). Anyways, DNA resembles, in form, two serpents that are entwined, much like the Caduceus of Hermes, and is referred to as the double-helix. Jeremy Narby’s book The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the origins of knowledge centres around this theme and delivers and interesting theory that explains how ancient people knew of the hidden secrets to life, DNA, and correctly represented its shape and form as that of two entwined serpents or a ladder. I quote Genesis 28:12:

“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.”

In alchemy the Caduceus of Hermes symbolise the Above and the Below, the Visible and the Invisible, and the serpent crawling and twirling around it represents the movement in and out, up and down, these two realities.

I once wrote a dream (part of a story) and I will quote it here as I think it shows what I mean:

There is a ladder with a rung at the bottom and a rung at the top, but none in-between, and it stands of its own accord in the middle of a vast barren wilderness. I know I’m supposed to climb it but the two rungs are too far apart. I look around and there is nothing that can aid me. For some reason a depression overpowers me and I fall to my knees sobbing.

A weird blinking cube of glass turns up from out of nowhere. I pick it up and hold it in my hand. Inside lights, colors and shapes morph and transform to my delight. It keeps me occupied for a long time and I don’t even notice that the quilt of night covers the world…

A bright white full moon appears in the black sky completely devoid of stars, and it asks:
“Why are you playing with the cube and not climbing the ladder?”
“I can’t reach the other rung, and the cube was so alluring…”
Then the moon began to laugh so loud that the ground shook causing the ladder to fall stirring up the sand all around it. I then discover to my amazement that the grains of sand revealed all the other rungs. They were there all along only invisible and I looked back up at the moon.
“I didn’t know,” I say and the moon still laughing looks back down at me and replies with mock in its voice:
“No, you didn’t try!”

Jacob's Ladder is a symbol and it can be spotted not only in the shape of DNA, but in Freemasonry, in Alchemy, in Christianity, in Yoga (chakras and kundalini), in Norse mythology where it is Nidhogg and not a serpent ascending and descending, Personally I see the ladder as the spine and the serpent the inner fire, the prana, that needs to be awakened and moved up into the pineal gland where great things can happen once it is awakened.

© deviadah

Brad Steiger

I am really excited that I have opened up email communication with the great Brad Steiger. For those of you who do not know about him he is a prolific writer on cryptozoology and Ufology. But what is even more exciting is that Brad was a close friend of Philip K Dick. Brad has a copy of the PKD chapter of my new book and will be reading it soon. he tells me that this time of the year sees him in great demand (Halloween and all that). If you wish to check him out take a look at www.bradandsherry.com .

Many Times Before

I am 19 and i live in Leeds, UK. I personally feel like there is not just me, like im being directed from within so to speak, i experience Deja Vu alot, and by alot i mean very often maybe a few time a week. I also feel like i carry alot of history in my mind, and not just history i have lived through, like even though i may have lived this life over and over in an Eternal Return, i have lived it through all the different periods in human history. I seem to know things that i havent read or watched, so i havent been influenced by anything, and its more than just a knowledge, its like i can feel it if something is mentioned about different times, like i was there. I hope that you can let me know what you think?

Many Times Before

I am 19 and I live in Leeds, UK. I personally feel like there is not just me, like I'm being directed from within so to speak, I experience Deja Vu alot, and by a lot I mean very often maybe a few time a week. I also feel like I carry a lot of history in my mind, and not just history I have lived through, like even though I may have lived this life over and over in an Eternal Return, I have lived it through all the different periods in human history. I seem to know things that I havent read or watched, so i havent been influenced by anything, and its more than just a knowledge, its like i can feel it if something is mentioned about different times, like i was there. I hope that you can let me know what you think?

On the 14th October 2007 I was interviewed by Brett Raynes of Mysterious America. Brett's area of interest is UFO's and allied phenomena. We agreed that the implications of CTF have some bearing upon elements of ufology including the 'abductee phenomenon'. Indeed the writer Whitley Streiber has suggested that his experiences as described in his book, and subsequent film, 'Communion' may have been brought about about by a form of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Indeed Brett was particularly interested in my Daemon-Eidolon Dyad and pointed out to me that sections of John A. Keel's book 'The Mothman Prophecies' could be explained by the Dyad. I was very excited about this particularly as Brett is in direct contact with both John Keel (who was played by Richard Gere in the movie version of 'The Mothman Prophecies') and Brad Steiger, the world renowned cryptozoologist and close friend of Philip K Dick. I am hoping that this may open up a dialogue between myself and these two influential researchers. Check out Brett's site: http://www.mysterious-america.net/ . A transcript of my interview will be posted on this website in the next few weeks.

Since the interview Brett and I have swopped regular emails and I am hoping that this will continue.

It was my intention to send the manuscript to my publisher today, the 18th March 2007. I had finished the book last night and I had burned the document onto a CD Rom and placed it in an envelope with the intention of taking it to the post office this morning.

However I was not really happy with this final chapter. I felt that a book of this nature should end on an interesting and intriguing note and in my opinion it was slightly flat. However I had no original material that would fit the bill.

This morning my Daemon seemed actively trying to delay me going up to the post office. It kept making my attention focus in on anything rather than the task in hand. At one stage I found myself watching a DVD of the BBC television series Atom (well worth watching by the way, particularly the last twenty minutes of the final programme) when I really should have been out and about. At around 2:00pm I decided I would have to make a move. I had my keys in my hand and I was walking to the front door when I had an overwhelming urge to check my emails. Why then I have no idea as I had checked them five minutes before. Literally as I looked at the screen an email dropped into my inbox. It was headed ‘Amazing Experience’. I couldn’t resist so I opened it. I am hoping that the Canadian lady who sent it will place her version on this blog soon so I do not wish to deflect from that but suffice to say the email described an event that was absolutely perfect for the last chapter of my book. it contained virtually all of the elements I had discussed in previous chapters and presented a perfect ending to the book.

In future I will always follow my own advice and "listen to your Daemon"!

Thoughts In Time

After reading Is There Life After Death?, I was struck by the sound logic of a Peakean "Bohemian IMAX". Contemplating Nietzsche's theory of Eternal Recurrence never really worked for me. Too rigid and unyielding to the universal idea of change. Maybe it was Friedrich's strict 19th century upbringing, his inbred complicity with patriarchal authority or something, I don't know, but I saw two major problems with the idea. First of all, I couldn't believe that it was even possible to retrace one's life exactly, moment by moment in time. But worse yet, Nietzsche's conception allowed no room for the growth of human consciousness and therefore, existentially, it made no sense to me. What could possibly be the point of repeating the same life, ad infinitum, ad nausea, if nothing could ever be learned from the experience and then changed?

The Bohemian IMAX provided just that - meaning - the freedom of consciousness, the freedom of being to be transformed and grow. And there are other things too when one thinks about it. Peake's ADE fulfills so many of those grand aspirations of the human imagination. Time-travel, the Fountain of Youth, reunion with loved ones and old friends as we once knew them and ultimately, immortality and eternity itself - all of it is there and all of it already within our grasp as infinite, sentient beings.

Maybe we should have suspected that modern computer technology was leading us in that direction all along. Unconsciously perhaps, man has pursued the path of photography, cinema and digital sound recording in an ever-expanding effort to more accurately reproduce images. But why? Could it be that our race is secretly obsessed with preserving the past to the point of interactive participation? We long to know what people "looked like", what they did and what they thought. We want to "be there", again and again. We'd like to "speak to them", to set things right. And more than that, we'd like to feel as we once did. We yearn to relive our moments of victory and somehow undo our regrets. The theory of the "Bohemian IMAX" offers exactly this fantasic possibility.

In an effort to capture sense perception, to "relive it", our creative forms have moved away from those traditional arts of music, sculpture, painting, architecture and storytelling. Now we deal mostly in images, inventing them, recording them, and all mainly, for "the eyes only". But if current video games are any indication, the young are hungry for a more real participation and that means being able to control these images.

The Bohemian IMAX brings all of this to life. The five senses are not merely providing perceptual access to the outside world; they are recording it and in sequence, on a level of consciousness that we can barely even imagine. The miracle of existence is not just a cycle of continuous rebirth - we are perpetually creating our own personal worlds and thay are worlds that are completely interactive. These represent our real homes. At death, the sensory replay that cosmically expresses itself presents our world just as it last was, but the perceiver, the person who recorded it is, by necessity, changed! Thus, the growth of consciousness. But that is not to say there aren't questions and issues to be addressed.

How much will we remember from our last organic tour of this unique life? What can we do to increase those memories... now? Surely one's life is nothing less than one gargantuan mnemonic device, its people and places inherently designed to trigger impressions of what has happened before and meant to "clue us in". But what is the mechanism of "forgetting", of making the past unconscious? How do we overcome it? How do we "learn to forget" and how do we learn to remember? Those are the challenges with which we are now faced. And more than that, how should we really live accordingly? How do we perfect our lives, the ultimate of human art forms? And finally, what comes next?

Sportsman and Daemonic Interventions

A few days back Dave placed a very interesting posting with regard to playing football and suddenly acquiring unknown skills. In my reply I commented about the concept of being in the "zone". Synchronpidity again raised its head today. I was doing some general research when I came across a book called "The Psychic Side of Sport" by Michael Murphy and Rhea H. White. Published in 1978 this book cites many fascinating examples of what I would term Daemonic Interventions. For example when Pele first appeared in a World Cup match in 1958 he played the entire game in "kind of trance, as if the future was unfolding him before his own disinterested eyes". Roger Bannister described how he ran the first sub-four-minute mile an a trancelike state - "I felt complete detachment". Of course the classic was Bob Beamon's world record long jump at the Mexico Olympics in 1968. On trying to explain what happened Beamon has always insisted that for those few seconds time slowed down for him and he felt detached between "time and space"

Alchemy Forums

Well for my first post I will spam a little (but since in a way it was spam that got me here I figure it will be alright).

Anyway, Gnosticism is very interesting, and I discovered it in my alchemical studies and the two have a lot in common. I haven't read everything here on this blog yet, but I can say this; whatever death may hold there needs to be death before death.

In the Gospel of Philip it says:

"Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing."

And this is where alchemy comes in, where one transmute the dead body (stone) into a living.

I just started a forum on alchemy, and so far there is very little there (but it has only been going for a day). I hope those that find alchemy of interest will stop by. And if not... well I will see you all here!

Go to: Alchemy Forums

Childhood Experience

I would like to share an experience that I had in my childhood.

I am now 50 years of age but have always vividly remembered a small moment of my childhood days.

I was 7 or 8 years of age and playing football at school with my classmates. When I say playing I really mean standing still and watching everyone run about, perhaps kicking the ball when it presented itself to me.

Suddenly, I had an extreme realisation that I could do this too. Something in my brain absolutely convinced me that I could play football. From that instant I hunted the ball and ran with it towards goal. From that moment on I was hooked on football and eventually became a very competent player, just missing out on a professional career.

I might add that there was no football links with my family at the time, it just came like a bolt out of the blue.

Football has been a constant source of enjoyment to me and has enhanced my life. I have always remembered the day that something clicked, I can't say it was a voice but it was very vivid.

I have just finished reading your book, Is There Life After Death, which I thoroughly enjoyed and found very thought provoking. Could I have experienced a " Daemon " intervention ?

Dave

Intro

Hi all,

I'm a recently invited newby with a background in software. I also think too much, which is probably why I was invited to join this blog!

For a long time I concurred with Anthony's ideas, insofar as I was fairly convinced that time is circular (so that everything repeats over and over, including our lives). I found that quite depressing until Anthony's book introduced the quantum aspect, by which I take to conclude that we don't necessarily experience the same life again and again (though I suspect most of us do).

On a personal level, I have had a preoccupation with cyclical concepts all of my life - so much so I gravitated towards a tiny corner of software concerned with cyclical processes - digital signal processing. I've always had the feeling that life was a refamiliarisation exercise. Odd! For a while I thought I might have Asperger's Syndrome as people with this condition do exhibit a preocupation with repetitive things.

More recently, I've been thinking about the 'Quantum Suicide' experiment. Last year I had to go into hospital for an operation and it just ocurred to me:- presumably when the anaesthetic was being administered, there was at least one universe where, for some reason, the anaesthetic doesn't work. According to the Quantum Suicide idea, I should have found myself staring back at a perplexed anaesthetist but, no! I went out like a light! No anaesthetic immortality for me!

On that basis, I don't recommend anyone try the Quantum Suicide experiment!

I did actually have a 'Quantum Suicide' experience many years ago, and survived. However, the people that need to know about it are not in this universe so I won't bother to mention it!

Best,
CW

Northern Lights

The book Northern Lights is to be made into the film 'The Golden Compass'. In the book everyone has a Daemon that is manifested in reality. It looks like Pullman had taken the greek idea for his book.

ITLAD Launched on Wowio.com

Can I request a favour? A new website has been launched in the USA called wowio.com. This presents a simply great idea; it allows people to download books for free. This allows potential readers to evaluate a book and decide if they want to go out and buy it. Now I know that many of you have already bought the book and read it. I am hoping that you may have mentioned the book in passing with friends. They may have been interested but unwilling to go out and buy a book they may not like. Wowio is the answer. I would be so grateful if you could let as many people as possible know about this free offer and ask them to take a look at 'Is There Life After Death'. It will cost them nothing. Not a bad deal eh? My book was launched on the site two weeks ago and it is already no 10 in the best sellers list. With your help we can get it up to number one. After all I wrote the book to get the idea 'out there' to as many people as possible.A direct link to my book on wowie is

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=1700

Please note that at the moment this facility is only available in the USA.

Cheers & thanking you in anticipation.

Carlos Castaneda

It has been one of those strange ironies of life. We all have books that we would like to read "if we can ever find the time". For over 35 years I have been aware of the "Don Juan" books of Carlos Castenada but for some reason I have never got round to reading any of them. This is quite strange because at university one of my specialisms was the sociology of religion and this involved a whole section on Shamanism. At that time I used Mircea Eliade's book Shamanism as my main source of material. Indeed it was Eliade's other classic book The Myth of the Eternal Return that was to assist in my development of Cheating the Ferryman.

A few days ago I received a fascinating email from one of my readers, Perry James. Perry pointed out to me that CTF is supported by the writings of Carlos Castanada

Castaneda was an Anthropology student at UCLA in the 1970's and he wanted to conduct a study about the American Indian Shaman, and their use of peyote. He became an apprentice to the sorcerer Don Juan Mantis, and the books chronicle his time as an apprentice, with Don Juan, and also his Benefactor, Don Genero, over many years.

In time one learns that his teaching was given on two distinct levels. Firstly, to combat the addiction to the day to day, ordinary world of reality, he was given hallucinogenic drugs, Peyote and plants in order to shift his awareness away from the fixated awareness that binds the senses to perception, that the day to day reality is all there is. Simply because, we are told, the time that we are born we are taught to 'Label the world' which Perry suggests relates to the education of the Eidolon. Secondly, he would receive a 'sharp blow' to the back from Don Juan, which would then place Castaneda into an heightened, lucid state of awareness, where it was very easy for him to grasp the ideas and concepts that he was being given. Perry proposes that this was to open up the self-awareness of the Daemon

Now here is the interesting part, his teachers gets to choose to cheat death, because they, Don Juan and Don Genero have created a dreaming double, which can dart past the Eagle, who would otherwise consume the souls of ordinary men.

Castaneda is then left to pull together all of the knowledge that he has acquired in both levels of teaching from Don Juan, which then becomes for him, a journey of remembering, and initiating a communication between his higher and lower selves, or the Eidolon and the Daemon, in order to fully understand the knowledge that he has received as an apprentice, and so then in time, become a sorcerer himself, as part of that process, he then imparts his own knowledge to his own apprentice.

I would like to thank Perry for pointing this out to me. Had I known this a few years ago I may have called the theory Cheating the Eagle!

Russian Language Edition

Just a quick note to let you all know that my publisher has negotiated a deal whereby ITLAD will be translated into Russian and will be published by a Russian publishing house. This is very exciting news because the market in Russia is very good for books such as mine. This adds to the Dutch and Polish deals that were agreed a few months ago.