Tuesday, 30 October 2007
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.
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.
Monday, 29 October 2007
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 :(
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?
- 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)).
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:
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.
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
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).
Sunday, 28 October 2007
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, 27 October 2007
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.
‘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.
Friday, 26 October 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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?
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.
"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?
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?
Monday, 22 October 2007
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.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.
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!”
© deviadah
Sunday, 21 October 2007
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?
Friday, 19 October 2007
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.
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"!
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"!
Friday, 12 October 2007
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?
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?
Thursday, 11 October 2007
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"
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
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
Sunday, 7 October 2007
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
Saturday, 6 October 2007
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
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
Thursday, 4 October 2007
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.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
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!
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!
Monday, 1 October 2007
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.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Speaking "unkown" languages
Hi there.
Last night I was reading ITLAD, page 354, where one Dr. Freeborn, in 1902, wrote up the case of an elderly English woman who had pneumonia, and who started to talk in Hindustani when she was in a particularly critical state. It was later discovered that she had lived in India as a child, and that the topic of her conversation was very much the language that a very young child might speak - talking about buying sweets etc. Still critical, she then went on to speak a little German and French, which she had picked up in her teenage years. The gist of the story is that she went through these languages in the order in which she learnt them over her life, suggesting that in her critical state, she was playing back her life in her mind, and that in her delirium, she was expressing herself outwardly.
That interested me in and of itself, because it's so fascinating, and the reason that I am posting this is because I read today in a couple of newspaper websites about a Czech guy who had a motorbike accident and woke up speaking perfect English, even though he was an elementary learner of the language. I have no idea what this may mean in terms of the book's contents and theory, but maybe it indicates at some level deep down that either we all in fact have within us all of the world's languages, (see page 352, where Alan Pring said in 1979, describing a NDE, that he "felt in some magical way that I would know everything that there was to know") or at least that we can tap into them somehow. Or perhaps in some way, this man's "track" got "jumped over" into someone else's!
Anyway, the links are below:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=66049&in_page_id=34
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=481651&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
One of the links mentions that the ability to speak languages one has never learnt is called "xenoglossy". And here, for what it's worth, is a link to Wikipedia's offering on the "condition".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoglossy
Anyone heard of any other stories like the biker one?
Last night I was reading ITLAD, page 354, where one Dr. Freeborn, in 1902, wrote up the case of an elderly English woman who had pneumonia, and who started to talk in Hindustani when she was in a particularly critical state. It was later discovered that she had lived in India as a child, and that the topic of her conversation was very much the language that a very young child might speak - talking about buying sweets etc. Still critical, she then went on to speak a little German and French, which she had picked up in her teenage years. The gist of the story is that she went through these languages in the order in which she learnt them over her life, suggesting that in her critical state, she was playing back her life in her mind, and that in her delirium, she was expressing herself outwardly.
That interested me in and of itself, because it's so fascinating, and the reason that I am posting this is because I read today in a couple of newspaper websites about a Czech guy who had a motorbike accident and woke up speaking perfect English, even though he was an elementary learner of the language. I have no idea what this may mean in terms of the book's contents and theory, but maybe it indicates at some level deep down that either we all in fact have within us all of the world's languages, (see page 352, where Alan Pring said in 1979, describing a NDE, that he "felt in some magical way that I would know everything that there was to know") or at least that we can tap into them somehow. Or perhaps in some way, this man's "track" got "jumped over" into someone else's!
Anyway, the links are below:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=66049&in_page_id=34
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=481651&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
One of the links mentions that the ability to speak languages one has never learnt is called "xenoglossy". And here, for what it's worth, is a link to Wikipedia's offering on the "condition".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoglossy
Anyone heard of any other stories like the biker one?
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Deja Vu receeding
Tony
You asked me to put comments on the Blog so here we go. I found your book very intriguing and it explains some of the feelings I've had in my life. Apart from the deja-vu feelings, which have now stopped since I had my car crash earlier this year, I used to make decisions that I would regret - yet know that I should not have made - as if I had made those same choices time and time again. It lead to me feeling quite depressed for some of my life - a feeling that one was stuck on the wheel of life again and again. I have had a strong belief in reincarnation but after reading your book I'm trying to reassess that belief and look at the 'chapters' of my life. I had felt that through many lives (different and successive ones) I was making the same mistakes over and over again.
I mentioned on my mail to you that I tried to avoid the events that led to my car crash. I had to attend a business meeting that I felt was unnecessary and could be carried out via teleconferencing (I work for a big IT company). I had a strong sense of premonition that I didn't want to go on the car journey. I never knew why I had those feelings - only that I should try and avoid attending the meeting. I tried to have the meeting changed or to have my attendance cancelled but to no effect. My colleagues felt that I had to attend the meeting in person. I resigned myself to my fate in the end and lo and behold I had a car crash just before I was due to attend the meeting. The only ill effect of the crash was that I had to attend a driving survival course, to order a new company car and my tax was messed up by a series of hire cars and relief cars until my new company car arrived so I can't see why I had such a strong premonition. I walked away from the car crash without a scratch and no body else was hurt - not a single other car was hit yet the reasons for why my car lost control are still uncertain (though there is a strong suspicion that I had a tyre blow out on a bend while breaking). I didn't have an NDE either - only a strong feeling that I should do my best to control the car so I missed the other cars - which I did. At one point in the accident I remember feeling a sense of surprise and thinking - 'ok I'm in an accident, I'll just sit tight and wait till this ends now.' The car eventually came to rest and I phoned the leasing company to tell them of the crash then my loved ones. Why did I have such a strong sense of premonition if my life wasn't curtailed and no other ill effects occurred. Unless my life has now branched and is now on a new path never before travelled before? As I've said, I've not noticed any Deja-Vu sensations of late - as if I'm starting afresh. I have a sense of renewed optimism. I'm attending a creative writing course to try and kick start a long lost dream to write. My wife and I had our first child and I feel that things are at last going well at work. I do remember that before the crash I had to stop off at motorway services for an urgent call of nature. I'm wondering if this very minor thing saved my life - that a worse accident may have occurred. Or - as suggested in your book - I am actually in a new universe - that I did die in the crash (rather sad for my wife and child especially as my wife was to lose her mother as well later this year) to all other observers except myself. It's a startling thought and one I try not to dwell on for long as it makes me feel very sad.
You asked me to put comments on the Blog so here we go. I found your book very intriguing and it explains some of the feelings I've had in my life. Apart from the deja-vu feelings, which have now stopped since I had my car crash earlier this year, I used to make decisions that I would regret - yet know that I should not have made - as if I had made those same choices time and time again. It lead to me feeling quite depressed for some of my life - a feeling that one was stuck on the wheel of life again and again. I have had a strong belief in reincarnation but after reading your book I'm trying to reassess that belief and look at the 'chapters' of my life. I had felt that through many lives (different and successive ones) I was making the same mistakes over and over again.
I mentioned on my mail to you that I tried to avoid the events that led to my car crash. I had to attend a business meeting that I felt was unnecessary and could be carried out via teleconferencing (I work for a big IT company). I had a strong sense of premonition that I didn't want to go on the car journey. I never knew why I had those feelings - only that I should try and avoid attending the meeting. I tried to have the meeting changed or to have my attendance cancelled but to no effect. My colleagues felt that I had to attend the meeting in person. I resigned myself to my fate in the end and lo and behold I had a car crash just before I was due to attend the meeting. The only ill effect of the crash was that I had to attend a driving survival course, to order a new company car and my tax was messed up by a series of hire cars and relief cars until my new company car arrived so I can't see why I had such a strong premonition. I walked away from the car crash without a scratch and no body else was hurt - not a single other car was hit yet the reasons for why my car lost control are still uncertain (though there is a strong suspicion that I had a tyre blow out on a bend while breaking). I didn't have an NDE either - only a strong feeling that I should do my best to control the car so I missed the other cars - which I did. At one point in the accident I remember feeling a sense of surprise and thinking - 'ok I'm in an accident, I'll just sit tight and wait till this ends now.' The car eventually came to rest and I phoned the leasing company to tell them of the crash then my loved ones. Why did I have such a strong sense of premonition if my life wasn't curtailed and no other ill effects occurred. Unless my life has now branched and is now on a new path never before travelled before? As I've said, I've not noticed any Deja-Vu sensations of late - as if I'm starting afresh. I have a sense of renewed optimism. I'm attending a creative writing course to try and kick start a long lost dream to write. My wife and I had our first child and I feel that things are at last going well at work. I do remember that before the crash I had to stop off at motorway services for an urgent call of nature. I'm wondering if this very minor thing saved my life - that a worse accident may have occurred. Or - as suggested in your book - I am actually in a new universe - that I did die in the crash (rather sad for my wife and child especially as my wife was to lose her mother as well later this year) to all other observers except myself. It's a startling thought and one I try not to dwell on for long as it makes me feel very sad.
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Second Life
Hi All
How many of you have joined 2nd Life since the post earlier this year? I've just joined and I'm trying to fathom out how to put clothes on my avatar then I'll zip over to Liverpool from the Azure Islands.
How many of you have joined 2nd Life since the post earlier this year? I've just joined and I'm trying to fathom out how to put clothes on my avatar then I'll zip over to Liverpool from the Azure Islands.
Friday, 7 September 2007
Dr Michael Newton's work on experience between lives
Tony, I enjoyed reading your book and wondered if you have ever read the material by Dr Michael Newton. Though this isn't in support of your hypothesis it's interesting to see. His books are here on Amazon and reviews can be found on the net elsewhere:
http://www.near-death.com/newton.html
Newton performed hypnotic regression on a very large number of patients to discover the life of the 'spirit' in-between lives. Unfortunately nobody interviewed ever mentions about the repetition of the current life which is intriguing. I am often suspicious of past life regression because of the depth and breadth of the subconscious (and thus the Daemon) providing information that the hypnotist wants to hear. Still - his two books are an interesting read even though I may not believe what he's 'found'. He explains Deja Vu as remembering a pre-life review that a souls has before entering the life it's about to embark upon. Key milestones are seen and the soul is 'primed', so to speak, so it recognises them.
Anyway - I'll post again soon.
David
http://www.near-death.com/newton.html
Newton performed hypnotic regression on a very large number of patients to discover the life of the 'spirit' in-between lives. Unfortunately nobody interviewed ever mentions about the repetition of the current life which is intriguing. I am often suspicious of past life regression because of the depth and breadth of the subconscious (and thus the Daemon) providing information that the hypnotist wants to hear. Still - his two books are an interesting read even though I may not believe what he's 'found'. He explains Deja Vu as remembering a pre-life review that a souls has before entering the life it's about to embark upon. Key milestones are seen and the soul is 'primed', so to speak, so it recognises them.
Anyway - I'll post again soon.
David
Sunday, 2 September 2007
A Request - Amazon Website Reviews
Many of you have told me that you have enjoyed reading Is There Life After Death (ITLAD). You could really help me out if you could place a review of the book on your country's Amazon website. All you need to do is search out my book - simply search on 'Anthony Peake' - and then click on 'add a review'. In order to be allowed to do this you need to have purchased a product from that particular Amazon site. If you have done so you will have to enter your email address (the one you used to purchase the goods) and your Amazon password. You will then be in to give the book a star rating and make some comments. You can be as truthful as you like. Indeed you can give yourself an Amazon identity name that will ensure you cannot be identified.
This will really help me because people do read these comments and make a decision to purchase or not. Indeed the more comments reflects the books popularity. Indeed for those of you in Germany, Netherlands,USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia as well as the UK, it will help get my theory known in those countries.
Cheers
Tony
This will really help me because people do read these comments and make a decision to purchase or not. Indeed the more comments reflects the books popularity. Indeed for those of you in Germany, Netherlands,USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia as well as the UK, it will help get my theory known in those countries.
Cheers
Tony
Friday, 31 August 2007
Tony's interview on John Govier's late night radio show
I listened with interest to Tony's interview on Weds 29th August, as I was certain that there is life after death. However, what totally threw me was when he talked about TLE - it was almost as if he was personally discussing me. I suffer from this & get time delay when I'm due to have a seizure - but it isn't long enough in reality to stop myself falling, however it seems like it's minutes before it actually happens. I'm "outside myself" totally detatched if that makes sense. I seem to know what's going to happen because I'm seeing it - it's like watching myself on a film - like "oh this is the bit where I fall down the stairs" . The interesting thing is until Wednesday I didn't think to make any connection with life after death/deja vu etc with my TLE. It's opened up a whole new series of thoughts & theories. Has anyone else had an experience like this? I could use a few tips if anyone can help me, I'm finding it a bit "scary" .
Thanks,
PS sorry if this rambles & doesn't make a whole lot of sense - this is my 1st ever post to a blog!
Thanks,
PS sorry if this rambles & doesn't make a whole lot of sense - this is my 1st ever post to a blog!
Yet another radio interview - this time in Spain
The interviews seem to be coming in thick and fast at the moment. BBC Radio Devon are keen to have me come back and do a phone-in and this afternoon I have agreed to be interviewed on the major English-language radio station in Southern Spain (REMfm) tomorrow (Monday 3rd September). I will be on air from 13:10 BST for about twenty minutes. This may be longer depending upon the response they receive from their listeners. (Thanks to Steve Taylor for this contact). Apparently they have over 1 million listeners down there so this cannot be bad. If you have the time by all means listen in on http://www.rem.fm/ . I have no idea which way this interview will go because they will not have read the book and only looked at the website.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
BBC Radio Interview - Wednesday 29th August @ 2200
I was recently interviewed by John Govier of BBC Radio Devon, Cornwall, Guernsey & Jersey. This will be broadcast on Wednesday 29th August at 2200 (British Summer Time). This can be listened to online at the following websites:
www.bbc.co.uk/devon
www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall
www.bbc.co.uk/jersey
www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey
This is quite a different interview than the ones I have done so far.
www.bbc.co.uk/devon
www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall
www.bbc.co.uk/jersey
www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey
This is quite a different interview than the ones I have done so far.
Friday, 17 August 2007
Web Radio Interview Tonight - 17th August
For those of you who are interested I will be interviewed by Glastonbury Radio tonight between 2300 and 0000 (UK time). This can be listened to on the web by logging on to www.glastonburyradio.net
Sunday, 5 August 2007
PKD's Counter-clock World ... More Synchronicity
Michael Holder has requested that I place his following comments here rather than they be lost as a response to a posting:
In your blog entry dated Thursday,15 February 2007 (titled Synchronicity - Anarch Peak)
you wrote that "... yesterday I found another synchronicity that made me very excited. In one of his earlier novels, Counter Clock World one of the main characters is somebody called Anarch Peak .. "
The entry prompted me to read Counter-clock World next. I knew nothing of the detailed content of this book, other than the general premise of lives running backwards, from the grave to the womb. Now that I have finished reading Counter-clock World, I have a couple of points to make.
I understand, your excitement at the 'synchronicity' of a central character having a very similar surname to you, that is 'the Anarch Peak'. The 'Anarch' is obviously a religious 'job title', his actual name being 'Thomas Peak', and there is also a character, (the 'Rome' contact), who identifies himself as 'Tony'.
However, it was other 'coincidences' that intrigued me. The 'Anarch Peak' is kidnapped by the powerful and mysterious organization called The People's Topical Library service, and is taken, as hostage, to a remote branch of the library service. Oddly, I had just had this book brought to the central library, from a remote branch of MY library service. And this is the only PKD book I've ever reserved from another branch of the Library Service.
But there is something far more significant than that. According to your blog entry, you only found the similarity of your name with the 'Anarch Peak' on the 14 Feb. this year, so I must assume your book ITLAD had already been printed. This makes the following coincidence even more surprising ... On page 216 of Counter-clock World, in a somewhat incidental context, PKD uses the term 'Eidolon'! As this is one of the key terms in your Daemon/Eidolon dyad concept (!!), together with the similarity of your surname with a character in the same book, I find this combined synchronicity astonishing. It would be interesting to know how many times the term 'Eidolon' appears throughout all of PKD's writings. Not very many I would suggest (but maybe more than the average author).
As you will remember if you read the book, the significance of 'the Anarch Peak' in the story, is that he has recently been 'old-born' from the dead (ie. resurrected), and has potentially dangerous knowledge about the true nature of the after-life, and also the theological and philosophical insight and vocabulary to be able to communicate that knowledge in ways that other 'old-borns' cannot. It seems that the 'Anarch Peak' has a theory of after-life/near-death experiences which makes him a potential danger to the People's Topical Library Service (whose counter-clock function it is to eradicate knowledge, by destroying books and manuscripts, rather than conserving them).
So both the 'Anarch Peak' and the 'Anthony Peake' have developed theories of after-life/near-death experiences. The similarity between you, and the character in the PKD book, would seem to have a deeper significance than simply a similarity of surname. In some respects, they (you) seem to have a functional similarity too.
You asked, "... tell me if I am placing significance where it is not but I do find this really weird ......" It seems to me to be highly significant, but no less weird for that.
In your blog entry dated Thursday,15 February 2007 (titled Synchronicity - Anarch Peak)
you wrote that "... yesterday I found another synchronicity that made me very excited. In one of his earlier novels, Counter Clock World one of the main characters is somebody called Anarch Peak .. "
The entry prompted me to read Counter-clock World next. I knew nothing of the detailed content of this book, other than the general premise of lives running backwards, from the grave to the womb. Now that I have finished reading Counter-clock World, I have a couple of points to make.
I understand, your excitement at the 'synchronicity' of a central character having a very similar surname to you, that is 'the Anarch Peak'. The 'Anarch' is obviously a religious 'job title', his actual name being 'Thomas Peak', and there is also a character, (the 'Rome' contact), who identifies himself as 'Tony'.
However, it was other 'coincidences' that intrigued me. The 'Anarch Peak' is kidnapped by the powerful and mysterious organization called The People's Topical Library service, and is taken, as hostage, to a remote branch of the library service. Oddly, I had just had this book brought to the central library, from a remote branch of MY library service. And this is the only PKD book I've ever reserved from another branch of the Library Service.
But there is something far more significant than that. According to your blog entry, you only found the similarity of your name with the 'Anarch Peak' on the 14 Feb. this year, so I must assume your book ITLAD had already been printed. This makes the following coincidence even more surprising ... On page 216 of Counter-clock World, in a somewhat incidental context, PKD uses the term 'Eidolon'! As this is one of the key terms in your Daemon/Eidolon dyad concept (!!), together with the similarity of your surname with a character in the same book, I find this combined synchronicity astonishing. It would be interesting to know how many times the term 'Eidolon' appears throughout all of PKD's writings. Not very many I would suggest (but maybe more than the average author).
As you will remember if you read the book, the significance of 'the Anarch Peak' in the story, is that he has recently been 'old-born' from the dead (ie. resurrected), and has potentially dangerous knowledge about the true nature of the after-life, and also the theological and philosophical insight and vocabulary to be able to communicate that knowledge in ways that other 'old-borns' cannot. It seems that the 'Anarch Peak' has a theory of after-life/near-death experiences which makes him a potential danger to the People's Topical Library Service (whose counter-clock function it is to eradicate knowledge, by destroying books and manuscripts, rather than conserving them).
So both the 'Anarch Peak' and the 'Anthony Peake' have developed theories of after-life/near-death experiences. The similarity between you, and the character in the PKD book, would seem to have a deeper significance than simply a similarity of surname. In some respects, they (you) seem to have a functional similarity too.
You asked, "... tell me if I am placing significance where it is not but I do find this really weird ......" It seems to me to be highly significant, but no less weird for that.
Thursday, 2 August 2007
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine & The Bohmian IMAX
I am very excited by Karl's linking of my theories to his. Clearly there are many similarities but I also feel that Karl's idea may explain why schizophrenics feel so lost in this world. I am very keen to have some feedback from other bloggers on Karl's ideas.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Radio Interview - Canada & USA
I will be interviewed on the Rob McConnell Show on the station XZone Radio. This can be found on www.xzone-radio.com . This will take place on Monday night, July 30 2007 from 11 pm – 12 am Eastern / 8 pm – 9 pm Pacific time. For those really hardy souls in the UK this will be at 4 am to 5 am Tuesday 31st July.Europe will be one or two hours ahead depending upon location. The show is then broadcast again 4 hours later. Check out theexzone website for full details.
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine In Relation To The Bohmian IMAX
Hello, and firstly I would like to thank Tony for inviting me to post on his blog, and also for his emailed comments to all my considerably hypergraphic emails! As discussed with Tony, I have much to say on his extraordinary book, and also some of the previous blogs (“Cordoba” especially – Being a fellow Boltonian to the original poster - so I am hoping to write a reply on that subject soon), but for my introduction I would like to post the following to introduce a thesis of my own arisen in part (no, mostly) from Tony’s book:
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine In Relation To The Bohmian IMAX
("Misallignment of the Bohmian IMAX" theory of Mental Health)
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine is one of mystical nature.
It makes the patient see pictures similar to a cinematograph (or Bohmian IMAX) and produces, as well as removes, thoughts and feelings, but its function consists mainly in the transmission or draining-off of thoughts and feelings.
As well as producing motor phenomena in the body to deprive the male potency and weaken him, it also creates sensations that in part cannot be described, because they are strange to the patient himself, and that in part, are sensed as electrical or magnetic.
And it was also alleged to be responsible for other occurrences in the patient’s body, such as cutaneous eruptions, abscesses or other pathological processes.
The very first known example of such a “Schizofreniform Influencing Machine” delusion is that of one, and the now legendary, James Tilly Matthews and his “Air Loom”. Matthews was a tea merchant and suspected spy for the UK against the French in the late 1790s. He claimed his mind was being controlled by a sinister gang operating a machine he termed an “Air Loom” which was hidden in a London cellar and sent out invisible, magnetic rays.
John Haslam, highly respected Director of St Mary’s of Bethlem Hospital, London (which of course later became known as the infamous “Bedlam”), quoted Matthews in 1810:
“As well as having an armoury of tortures at its disposal, the gang also mobilises various techniques of mind control. One of these is “brain-saying”, which is a magnetically induced sympathetic surveillance at a distance, a silent mode of telepathic communication….”kiting”, or the capacity to hijack the brain and to implant thoughts in it beyond the control and resistance of the sufferer…”
James Tilly Matthews was committed to Bethlem Hospital as being Insane. His case was published in 1810 in Haslam’s seminal work on Paranoid Schizophrenia, “Illustrations Of Madness” (his quote above comes from the book). Matthews was kept in Bethlem at the behest of the Home Office Minister, Lord Liverpool (to whom Matthews had shouted “treason” from the House of Commons gallery following the UK Government’s refusal to back his spying claims): This, despite two distinguished physicians, Drs Birkbeck and Clutterbuck, subsequently declaring him completely sane.
John Haslam’s “Illustrations of Madness” became a classic in the medical literature of Paranoid Schizophrenia, and was the first Psychiatric study in book form of one individual. Matthews himself was important in the history of Psychiatry for more practical reasons. During his involuntary confinement he took part in a competition to draw plans for the rebuilding of the new Bethlem hospital, and the drawings that were used to build the new hospital show some features proposed by Matthews.
James Tilly Matthews was eventually released from Bethlem but died in 1815.
It is also interesting to note that while Haslam kept notes on Matthews, Matthews himself kept notes on Haslam and his treatment in Bethlem. This formed part of the evidence looked at by a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1815. The findings of this committee led to the dismissal of Haslam and reformation of the treatment of patients in the Bethlem Hospital.
It may be easy to dismiss Matthews’ claims of a machine that can control one’s mind as simply the result of a delusion caused by a mental illness because of the early date (1810). However, his is by no means an isolated case.
In operations from the late 1940s until the early 1970s there were many covert CIA projects (most infamously MKULTRA and ARTICHOKE), involving many prominent members and institutions of the medical and scientific communities to investigate and experiment with various forms of behaviour modification and control using, in many cases, unwitting human subjects.
“Whispers” is a collection of case histories of paranoia that Ronald K. Siegel, an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Bio-Behavioural Sciences at UCLA, had studied. One of these cases was a man named Tolman who believed that his mind was being controlled by POSSE (Personal Orbiting Satellites for Surveillance and Enforcement). Siegel’s implications are that claims like these are similar to those of James Tilly Matthews, and indeed they are, but it is clear that Siegel is trying to dismiss Tolman’s claims by implying that similar reports existed two centuries before this technology could ever even have existed!
I must stress at this point that I’m not making any of this up, go check it out for yourself, and also go find the artist Rod Dickinson’s fantastic construction of an actual functioning “Air Loom” in 2002 from the original drawings of James Tilly Matthews himself circa 1810.
There is much to be written on Matthews and Tolman and many many more cases of Paranoid Schizophrenic mind controlling testimony throughout the years which brings me to my original thesis:
Whilst Matthews thought these mind control signals where being beamed via waves from the Air Loom to control his mind; and while Tolman thought these signals were being beamed at him from some Outer Space entity, the intriguing answer to link these two famous cases and all those cases I have spoken to recently of existing Paranoia, Schizophrenic, Bipolar Depression and other Mental Health Sufferers who talk with passion about a “steering agent” or “mind controller”, could be reached with a slight tweaking of Tony's Bohmian IMAX theory.
What if these signals, or voices, or controls experienced by the patients are not actually “beamed” into their heads externally but from internally; from the Daemon! BUT, with a significant misalignment of the Bohmian IMAX similar to a badly dubbed film, or a skipping DVD. The Daemon is experiencing the replay of its life from a different time scale than the Eidolon, causing unexpected voices, not pertinent to the empirical evidence of the Eidolon. This Psycho Neurological Bohmian IMAX Misalignment Theory could help to explain Mental Health issues such as Bipolar Depression, Paranoia, Schizophrenia and even Delusion.
Imagine watching a DVD on your TV with the sound down, and playing a CD at the same time. The mixture would be confusing, you may have a car chase seen on the DVD accompanied by a gentle ballad: Or a love scene with a background of heavy metal music. The senses would be confused, and this is the way the mind would react (to a much greater degree) to a misalignment of the Bohmian IMAX causing the symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia, and maybe providing some answers to the widely shifting moods of Bipolar Depressives whose Daemon is experiencing a depressive memory of its eternal recurrence whilst the Eidolon is empirically experiencing something pleasant resulting in unexplained sadness and depressive feelings within the patient. Similarly the Daemon may be playing back extracts from conversations in its past life which the Eidolon takes as “voices” as the timing of the two Cartesian Theatres are out of synch.
I know that Anthony Peake is keen to discuss my theories further with me, and indeed I intend to continue my own research and I do have even more that I could say at this point but I feel enough has been said already to hopefully generate some responsive comments or ideas from this blog’s members which would be greatly appreciated for the continuity of my work and the development of the theory.
In my next blog, if there is sufficient interest from Anthony and the readers of this blog, I will attempt to discuss my own recent research into the Neurological effects on Depression, especially around the Dentate Gyrus region of the brain (well known for its study toward the phenomenon of déjà vu) and the Neurogenesis (creation of new neurons within the brain) from learning, and memory which feeds the Hippocampus all within the Temporal Lobe, and the possible benefits towards future research into the causality and treatment of Depression.
A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine In Relation To The Bohmian IMAX
("Misallignment of the Bohmian IMAX" theory of Mental Health)
The Schizophrenic Influencing Machine is one of mystical nature.
It makes the patient see pictures similar to a cinematograph (or Bohmian IMAX) and produces, as well as removes, thoughts and feelings, but its function consists mainly in the transmission or draining-off of thoughts and feelings.
As well as producing motor phenomena in the body to deprive the male potency and weaken him, it also creates sensations that in part cannot be described, because they are strange to the patient himself, and that in part, are sensed as electrical or magnetic.
And it was also alleged to be responsible for other occurrences in the patient’s body, such as cutaneous eruptions, abscesses or other pathological processes.
The very first known example of such a “Schizofreniform Influencing Machine” delusion is that of one, and the now legendary, James Tilly Matthews and his “Air Loom”. Matthews was a tea merchant and suspected spy for the UK against the French in the late 1790s. He claimed his mind was being controlled by a sinister gang operating a machine he termed an “Air Loom” which was hidden in a London cellar and sent out invisible, magnetic rays.
John Haslam, highly respected Director of St Mary’s of Bethlem Hospital, London (which of course later became known as the infamous “Bedlam”), quoted Matthews in 1810:
“As well as having an armoury of tortures at its disposal, the gang also mobilises various techniques of mind control. One of these is “brain-saying”, which is a magnetically induced sympathetic surveillance at a distance, a silent mode of telepathic communication….”kiting”, or the capacity to hijack the brain and to implant thoughts in it beyond the control and resistance of the sufferer…”
James Tilly Matthews was committed to Bethlem Hospital as being Insane. His case was published in 1810 in Haslam’s seminal work on Paranoid Schizophrenia, “Illustrations Of Madness” (his quote above comes from the book). Matthews was kept in Bethlem at the behest of the Home Office Minister, Lord Liverpool (to whom Matthews had shouted “treason” from the House of Commons gallery following the UK Government’s refusal to back his spying claims): This, despite two distinguished physicians, Drs Birkbeck and Clutterbuck, subsequently declaring him completely sane.
John Haslam’s “Illustrations of Madness” became a classic in the medical literature of Paranoid Schizophrenia, and was the first Psychiatric study in book form of one individual. Matthews himself was important in the history of Psychiatry for more practical reasons. During his involuntary confinement he took part in a competition to draw plans for the rebuilding of the new Bethlem hospital, and the drawings that were used to build the new hospital show some features proposed by Matthews.
James Tilly Matthews was eventually released from Bethlem but died in 1815.
It is also interesting to note that while Haslam kept notes on Matthews, Matthews himself kept notes on Haslam and his treatment in Bethlem. This formed part of the evidence looked at by a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1815. The findings of this committee led to the dismissal of Haslam and reformation of the treatment of patients in the Bethlem Hospital.
It may be easy to dismiss Matthews’ claims of a machine that can control one’s mind as simply the result of a delusion caused by a mental illness because of the early date (1810). However, his is by no means an isolated case.
In operations from the late 1940s until the early 1970s there were many covert CIA projects (most infamously MKULTRA and ARTICHOKE), involving many prominent members and institutions of the medical and scientific communities to investigate and experiment with various forms of behaviour modification and control using, in many cases, unwitting human subjects.
“Whispers” is a collection of case histories of paranoia that Ronald K. Siegel, an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Bio-Behavioural Sciences at UCLA, had studied. One of these cases was a man named Tolman who believed that his mind was being controlled by POSSE (Personal Orbiting Satellites for Surveillance and Enforcement). Siegel’s implications are that claims like these are similar to those of James Tilly Matthews, and indeed they are, but it is clear that Siegel is trying to dismiss Tolman’s claims by implying that similar reports existed two centuries before this technology could ever even have existed!
I must stress at this point that I’m not making any of this up, go check it out for yourself, and also go find the artist Rod Dickinson’s fantastic construction of an actual functioning “Air Loom” in 2002 from the original drawings of James Tilly Matthews himself circa 1810.
There is much to be written on Matthews and Tolman and many many more cases of Paranoid Schizophrenic mind controlling testimony throughout the years which brings me to my original thesis:
Whilst Matthews thought these mind control signals where being beamed via waves from the Air Loom to control his mind; and while Tolman thought these signals were being beamed at him from some Outer Space entity, the intriguing answer to link these two famous cases and all those cases I have spoken to recently of existing Paranoia, Schizophrenic, Bipolar Depression and other Mental Health Sufferers who talk with passion about a “steering agent” or “mind controller”, could be reached with a slight tweaking of Tony's Bohmian IMAX theory.
What if these signals, or voices, or controls experienced by the patients are not actually “beamed” into their heads externally but from internally; from the Daemon! BUT, with a significant misalignment of the Bohmian IMAX similar to a badly dubbed film, or a skipping DVD. The Daemon is experiencing the replay of its life from a different time scale than the Eidolon, causing unexpected voices, not pertinent to the empirical evidence of the Eidolon. This Psycho Neurological Bohmian IMAX Misalignment Theory could help to explain Mental Health issues such as Bipolar Depression, Paranoia, Schizophrenia and even Delusion.
Imagine watching a DVD on your TV with the sound down, and playing a CD at the same time. The mixture would be confusing, you may have a car chase seen on the DVD accompanied by a gentle ballad: Or a love scene with a background of heavy metal music. The senses would be confused, and this is the way the mind would react (to a much greater degree) to a misalignment of the Bohmian IMAX causing the symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia, and maybe providing some answers to the widely shifting moods of Bipolar Depressives whose Daemon is experiencing a depressive memory of its eternal recurrence whilst the Eidolon is empirically experiencing something pleasant resulting in unexplained sadness and depressive feelings within the patient. Similarly the Daemon may be playing back extracts from conversations in its past life which the Eidolon takes as “voices” as the timing of the two Cartesian Theatres are out of synch.
I know that Anthony Peake is keen to discuss my theories further with me, and indeed I intend to continue my own research and I do have even more that I could say at this point but I feel enough has been said already to hopefully generate some responsive comments or ideas from this blog’s members which would be greatly appreciated for the continuity of my work and the development of the theory.
In my next blog, if there is sufficient interest from Anthony and the readers of this blog, I will attempt to discuss my own recent research into the Neurological effects on Depression, especially around the Dentate Gyrus region of the brain (well known for its study toward the phenomenon of déjà vu) and the Neurogenesis (creation of new neurons within the brain) from learning, and memory which feeds the Hippocampus all within the Temporal Lobe, and the possible benefits towards future research into the causality and treatment of Depression.
A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
another new experience
Hi Tony,
Well I'm on - but as a novice blogger it's a whole new experience -hope you got my thoughts on email. Good luck with plays -thought the Graeae was fab!
Bevy
Well I'm on - but as a novice blogger it's a whole new experience -hope you got my thoughts on email. Good luck with plays -thought the Graeae was fab!
Bevy
Monday, 16 July 2007
Cordoba
This has been posted as a reply to my recent blog. However I feel that it is so important that it should be placed on the front page to ensure that it is not overlooked.
Michael Houlder said...
Monday 16th July 2007
Tony,
As you requested in your e-mail to me, I've posted the letter I sent to you (see below) after our meeting at your lecture on Thursday 5th July at Bolton Central Library. I've also posted Vivienne's "predictive e-mail" from the evening before the event, as I refer to this throughout letter. Also, as well, I've appended your e-mail reply to my letter, as it adds more detail about your own 'Córdoba convention' at the SMN meeting the following weekend.
If you really are 'staggered' by our Córdoba coincidences, as I broadly outlined them to you on the phone (and in the letter), then wait until you hear about the fine detail and precision timing of them. From your own experience the following weekend, you are obviously beginning to realise that this phenomenon (whatever it is) is real. We do have a web-site pending about all of this, where we will describe these events in detail, and show illustrations of the physical evidence relating to them. You and your readers can register for e-mail notification when it is published, at our temporary announcement page at
"Córdoba Exploration ... at ... mysite.orange.co.uk/cordobaexploration/index.html
____________________________
The 'predictive e-mail' from Vivienne, referred to in the letter to Tony (further below) follows.
Viv____@_____.com
Subject: FW: Peake's 414
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 23:40:38 +0100
M
Got all 3 messages thank you, read and enjoyed all – wow what a very impressive 414 page!
I understand your reaction to his material now. It’s uncanny but I suppose that is what we are growing to expect so don’t lose your nerve. I wonder if he has visited Córdoba? I can see you both collaborating somehow in a future book as I think you may hold a piece of his jig saw puzzle. If only you could muster a bit of passion about your work he could be citing you in a future prologue. Have you ever tried writing a screen play?
Well it’s getting late and I’m almost ready for the dream time. Hope Mark comes along tomorrow – I feel his presence is required somehow.
See you tomorrow
Namaste
V
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael [mailto:m____@________.com]
Sent: 04 July 2007 20:20
To: Viv______
Subject: Peake's 414
V
I just thought you might be curious
M
______________________________
Original letter sent from Michael Houlder to Tony Peake, on Monday 9th July follows
(unexpurgated except for personal contact details):-
"Something's happening here ... what it is ain't exactly clear ..."
Hello Tony
I enjoyed your lecture at Bolton Central Library on Thursday evening (5th July), and speaking to you briefly afterwards, both in person during the book-signing -- and later on the mobile, about our shared enthusiasm for Córdoba. As I mentioned at the time, Mark refused to tell me who it was that I was calling. I guess he thought it might spoil the surprise. He simply told me to dial the number and mention Córdoba to the person who answers. Although I suspected that it might be you, I did think that it could be another member of the audience, who happened to share my (our) fascination with that amazing city. That it should be you, and a fellow Dick-head (as you efficiently describe us), adds a new dimension to our long history of Córdoba weirdness here in Bolton.
It was obvious, from your presentation, that you are a long-time CSNY fan, so I assume you'll have no problem placing the lyrics above. I know it was originally about the State suppression of political protest in the 1960s … but I think it is a useful anthem for the state of mind/minds that my friends and I have been in for some time.
I wish that there had been time for a public Q+As at the end of your lecture, as there are a number of issues arising from your ideas which intrigue me deeply, but about which I think I need some clarification. I had already had chance to download and read your article Cheating the Ferryman in close detail before attending the lecture, and I finally obtained a library copy of your book only two days before the event, so I had some chance to scan your ideas in the book, but may have misinterpreted one or two points. Now that I have bought my own copy of your book, I will study it in much closer detail, at my leisure, before troubling you with any simple misunderstandings. I assure you, though, I will be asking questions later! Hopefully, I may have chance to address these through e-mails, or even in person if we do have the opportunity to meet-up again soon, as you suggested on the phone. I'm convinced that we will have a great deal to compare notes over. I will take a week or two, to really consider your book, before asking you for any detailed clarification.
It was a great compliment you gave me on Thursday, when you said on the phone that you would like to send me a draft copy of the first chapter of you latest book. I am grateful for that. I would be delighted to provide any feedback you might find useful. I should warn you, however, that my own interest in quantum physics, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, Córdoba, Philip K.Dick, Bob Dylan (if that rings bells) etc. etc., can only be described, at best, as those of an advanced amateur. I have no professional involvement in any of these fields of research. I do have a MA in Philosophy, and did specialise in the Philosophy of Science, but I do not teach these subjects academically. It was just a deep and prolonged hobby. Any research or study I undertook was extensive, but not professional, and simply the result of a desperate need to try to figure out what on earth is happening to the reality I once thought was so “unproblematic“.
With that caveat in place, I would certainly be very pleased to meet you again, and discuss our mutual enthusiasms for PKD., Córdoba, and for the vast range of subjects that impinge on what it is to be a conscious something in this weird old world of ours; particularly as your arrival in Bolton, to deliver your lecture, seems to have had a far wider coincidental/providential context for my friends and myself, than you can currently understand.
As I said on Thursday evening, I completed my final MA dissertation (back in 1997) with the title:
David Bohm’s Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory as a Modern Logos Doctrine”.
It is not only his concepts of Implicate/Explicate Order and the Holomovement that interest me, but also his later notion of ‘Active Information’ (a development of his earlier ‘Quantum Potential‘ concept), which is somehow encoded within the implicate order, and in-forms wave-particle entities with superpositions and characteristic states. I see this as a clear parallel to the ancient Logos concept of Heraclitus, the later Stoics, and in Hellenistic theology and philosophy. Earlier in the MA course I also wrote a module essay on the implications of the EPR Paradox for our conception of time and space. Less directly related to the philosophy of science, but also of some relevance to your theory, I think, I also did a study of Plato’s concept of the contingent immortality of psyche (mind/soul), and Aristotle‘s concept of ousia (‘substance’). In addition, I also have continuing interest in the British Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) in regard to perception and theories of causation, and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, who’s notion of the Transcendental Self and transcendental ideality of space and time, may also be of relevance to your theory.
I have been attempting for quite some time (perhaps too long) to develop a comprehensive framework for relating Bohm’s theory, cellular automata in computer theory, and human consciousness, as well as some key concepts in western philosophy and theology. Not least among these, in the context of your theory. It includes a cybernetic interpretation of personal resurrection (or should that be re-erection -- if a caller to one of you phone-in shows on your website is to be followed). This is not a purely abstract or speculative attempt, but a genuine and rational response to the unfolding weirdness of my own life, and increasingly the weirdness of those around me (the weirdness of their experience, that is, not the weirdness of them as people - that‘s beyond explanation). I have posted some of these ideas to a website, but have not formally launched it. I will be pleased to give you the URL at a early later date, perhaps after we have had the chance to talk through some of our mutual ideas in person.
As well as this brief survey of my intellectual interests (and how they may have some significance to your theory as I currently understand it), I think I should also give you some idea of the impact your arrival in Bolton has had on myself and my friends who attended your lecture on Thursday ... particularly with regard to the enthusiasm that you and your wife appear to have for Córdoba. I would normally be extremely hesitant to mention these things to an almost complete stranger, but many of the key issues which you have obviously spent considerable time researching, and marshalling into your book, are the very issues which have preoccupied me and my friends for several years now, and with increasing urgency. Precognition and prescience, the significance of meaningful coincidence and 'synchronicity', even your central concern with the encounter with death, have all imposed themselves increasingly on us for several years. It has been over twenty years, in my particular case, since I was shaken from an attitude of 'militant agnosticism' about any such issues. I would once have dismissed them outright as 'New Age' nonsense. I remain deeply sceptical and rational in my attitude to these phenomena, but I cannot easily dismiss them now, especially as such experiences seem to have extended to my friends, like a virus. Central to those experiences have not only been my personal visits to Córdoba, but also a wide range of extraordinarily precise 'coincidences' relating to Córdoba which have targeted us all.
Initially it was only myself who had experienced these 'Córdoba coincidences', and I attributed it to some kind of ‘synchronistic’ response to my interest in the cultural and intellectual heritage of Córdoba. But now it seems to have propagated itself to my friends, once they became aware of it. This troubles me. It is not entirely unlike the reaction of characters in The Three Stigmata to the central “character” of Palmer Eldritch. At least they are not yet growing chromium plated, stainless-steel hands and eyes. However, it is almost as though Córdoba itself, or some spirit of Córdoba, is imposing itself on our consciousness. As enthusiasts for the city, I'm sure you and your wife will be fascinated by our stories.
It is because of the ’ubiquity’ (?!) of these recurring coincidences, that Mark approached you at the very end of the evening on Thursday, to find out if Córdoba held any significance or meaning for you. The fact that you have been there, done that, and literally worn the T-shirt (and continue to do so you told me) was astonishing, but I have to say, not surprising! Such has been the power and presence of these 'Córdoba coincidences' in our lives. As I mentioned to you while on the phone on Thursday, my friend Vivienne told me that she had sent an e-mail to me late in the evening of the previous night (Wednesday), in which she wonders whether you, too, may have been to Córdoba. I hadn't checked my e-mails on Thursday, since she’d sent it, and I only read her e-mail myself for the first time on the day after our meeting and phone-call. I have attached a copy of this e-mail as a JPEG screenshot - it seemed the best way to be sure that the date/time stamp of her first sending of it stayed on it (those things can change depending on which mail-server one uses, if I just sent it as a ‘forwarded‘ or ‘reply‘ to the e-mail). It is important that you see that she did send it on the evening before your lecture, and before our meeting. (Wednesday 4th July at 11.40 pm).
Vivienne's reference in her e-mail to the '3 messages' are to 3 e-mails which I had previously sent to her earlier on Wednesday. I had (I admit my guilt) scanned and e-mailed the Prologue and Epilogue from your book, which I had only obtained on loan from Bolton Central Library the previous evening (Tuesday). I apologise now for any copyright infringement and abuse of your intellectual property, but I did want her to read something of your book, in order to be primed for the lecture the following evening. I also wanted to show her just how closely my literary (PKD) and scientific interests (Bohm, QT generally, neuroscience, etc) matched your own. Hence her comment about my “reaction to his material”. The 'enjoyment' she mentions, from reading those messages, are regarding these sections of your book, and her response must be genuine, as she certainly wouldn't have expected a copy of her private e-mail to me to find its way to you like this. She agreed to my request to send you a copy of the e-mail now, as she realises how important it is that you are aware of the significance of our Córdoba-mania, and her own 'intuition' about your possible (likely) visiting of Córdoba. That was some kind of prescience, and is a measure of the presence Córdoba has in the minds of our little group. Her suggestion, in the same e-mail, that you and I may possibly have some basis for a collaboration is also remarkable, considering your kind offer to send me a draft of the first chapter of your latest book. Further, she also clearly expressed her concern that our friend Mark should also attend your lecture, as there was some doubt that he might, due to illness within his family. In the end circumstances “nudged” his decision to attend. His attendance did prove to be ’required’, as it was only his unprompted query to you, about whether Córdoba meant anything to you, which revealed your obvious affinity with it. Vivienne’s remarkable prescience in these three matters shows how significantly your own attempt at a framework for understanding precognition and prescience is taken by us.
You may be tempted to begin to start to suspect that her e-mail to me was a post-facto fabrication by us to impress you, but I assure you it was not. As one Dick-head to another, I know you will accept the reality of this phenomenon. Something really is happening here …even if it’s not entirely clear what it is.
Vivienne’s other reference to “a very impressive 414" refers to the fact that I also sent her a scan of page 414 of your book, which is an index page. I sent this as something of an ‘in-joke’, but this highlights another key sequence of coincidences which have developed for us over the last three years, the recurrence of the number 414 in extraordinary circumstances, and on several occasions in direct relationship to Córdoba! I know this may seem like an imitation of the recent Jim Carey film 'The Number 23" but I assure you that our experiences with 414 were occurring long before that flimsy was released, and we have documentary evidence of that too. These 414 coincidence have had a precision and significance far beyond those of the number “23” in the film. Our coincidences with “414” is probably 18 times more than that of the number 23 (cryptic joke intended - but do the math/s)!!
We have many examples of documentary and physical evidence relating to these coincidences. We are all very aware of that much general chatter about "coincidence" is often simply anecdotal, so we have all been very keen to obtain any physical evidence we can to document and prove these occurrences. We are accruing quite a significant archive about these matters.
We have other threads of coincidence which seem to have revealed themselves too. We even had a flurry of coincidences about "coincidence" itself, which began with my randomly dipping into a book on the shelves of the local Weatherspoon’s pub, and the very first words that I see on a random opening of the book were:
“Coincidences usually have the air of practical jokes on the part of Providence.”
That line is not from The Celestine Prophecy, or some other New Age hand-book as you might expect, but a line from a Lord Peter Wimsey novel of 1926, by Dorothy L.Sayers (Clouds of Witness, p.125). These ’coincidence coincidences’ culminated in my stumbling on the sole remaining copy of a novel called ‘Coincidence’ by David Ambrose, in a remainders bookshop in Bolton, and was on the very same day that the Dingbats (a picture puzzle) in the Bolton Evening News was of an arrangement of the letters of the word ‘coincidence’ in the form of a smiling face (“A happy coincidence!”.) Not only that, but on the following day that week’s New Scientist was published, with a feature article titled “How to make Coincidences”. This doesn’t exhaust the ‘coincidence coincidences‘, the documentary evidence for which I will happily show you at a later date. It was as though the very notion of ‘coincidence’ itself was being forced upon our attention. You can imagine my interest (but ultimate disappointment) when Vivienne directed me to the book “The Celestine Prophecy”. The ‘coincidences’ that so excited James Radfield are extremely thin compared to those we have been experiencing here in Bolton.
So you see, several of us here in Bolton have had a very pronounced sense of 'expectation' (even prescience) in regard to your lecture in Bolton. This sort of prescience and coincidence has been quite typical of experiences of our little group her in Bolton over the past five years. As Mark evidently mentioned, we are just a group of friends and acquaintances, who have known each other since school. We are not a self-selecting cult obsessed with weirdness. However, although we have know each for over 30 years, it is only in the last five to seven years that these phenomena have become so pronounced. Indeed, there have been periods of years, sometimes of a decade, when we hadn’t seen each other, or expected to see each other again. But we do seem to have been brought together again over these past few years, by some extraordinary coincidences, or the practical jokes of Providence. For what purpose this ‘gathering’ may have occurred I’m unsure.
As I mentioned to you on Thursday evening, I found the publicity leaflet about your lecture as I was walking out of Bolton Central Library with a copy of PKD's Ubik in my hand. I had actually finished reading it, and had been in to the library to renew the book, in order to show some of my friends certain content in it that I knew they would find amusing. To reassure you of the authenticity of this story, I’ve attached a scan of the cover of the library copy of UBIK, which I still have on extended loan (until 16 July), together with the self-service receipt for the original loan period, which has the book title and loan period printed on it. You will see that the original loan period ended a week before your lecture.
Not only that, but the PKD. book that I read in March, immediately prior to UBIK, was VALIS, the two books which you highlighted on your power-point presentation as being the most significant in regard to your own theory. I have been an admirer of PKD writings for many years (without being too obsessive a fan). I read other of his books, such Man in the High Castle, Palmer Eldritch, Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream..?, and many of his short-stories, over a period of fifteen years and more. Choosing to read Valis and Ubik this year was simply a matter of getting around to them now. Or so I thought. I now realise that the timing was in someway contrived, somehow, as a primer for your lecture and perhaps our future discussions. When those two books appeared on your screen on Thursday I very nearly laughed out loud at the outrageous coincidence of it.
As I said, we have all become very conscious of obtaining any physical evidences of coincidence, or fulfilled precognitions and presentiments, where possible, because we all still retain a "show me scepticism" about these matters. We are all reasonably intelligent and rational people. We are all quite sceptical of much so-called ‘New Age…’ so-called '…thinking'. But we are also open-minded and have had any knee-jerk cynicism about these matters knocked out of us. As you will appreciate, once the philosophical implications of some of Dick's ideas and themes have lodged themselves in one's brain, there is no theory about the ultimate nature of reality that is too far out-there to at least be given some consideration. We are both obviously aware, as Dick was, that there is far more to this weird reality we seem to find ourselves in than “meets the eye” (or even “fits the brain” probably). A degree of rational and scientific integrity is vital however, if we are not to float off into the realms of unsupported New Age speculation.
I do try to avoid, at least at the moment, any theory of ultimate and/or subjective reality that may lead to the 'tar traps' of solipsistic closure. Like ‘tar traps’, once you step into a solipsistic interpretation, there is no pulling yourself free. That way lies psychosis and self-implosion. That is one of the difficulties I do currently have with your theory. However, just because I’d like to think that this reality I seem to inhabit is not solely the product of the hallucinations of my dying brain doesn’t mean it isn’t. I have honestly considered, in the past, that I am lying Matrix-like in some VR environment, generated in a vast supercomputer in some high-tech prison (or rehabilitation facility) in the 25th century or beyond, and in this atheistic secular future, this supercomputer is probably housed in the Mezquita-Cathedral in Córdoba to keep it cool. Hence the system's own attempts to make me aware of my “true home“ with constantly programmed references to Córdoba cropping up in my VR world. Either that, or your theory is correct in every detail, and my dying brain is currently wedged under a bus on the Roman Bridge in Córdoba, probably beneath the statue of Raphael (the archangel of healing and my Being-in-White), and all of this is a replay. Perhaps, even, you are the Daemon to my Eidolon, come to Bolton to guide me home to my fatal destiny in Córdoba. That would explain why we seem to share so many cultural and scientific interests. They are the exact same interests. My interests.
As you know, reading too much PKD can seriously damage one’s ontological frame-of-reference. Buffalo Springfield were bang on the money …
"Paranoia strikes deep ... Into your life it will creep ..."
Best wishes for the rest of the lecture tour. ...
I hope to speak to you again soon, and look forward to meeting up with you, perhaps in Liverpool. I have been thinking of paying a visit to the “Gormleys” on Crosby beach, so maybe we could tie it in with that. However, I’m sure that Vivienne and Mark would be very pleased to meet you again here in Bolton, to tell you their own tales of prescience and coincidence.
I’m sure we’ll sort something out.
Regards
Michael - or Mick (but never ‘Mike’)
__________________
Anthony Peake's reply (Tuesday 10th July 2007) to this letter follows:-
Mick,
Wow, wow and thrice wow!
I am simply staggered by the significance of all this. You may or may not be aware but I was away for the weekend at the annual gathering of the Scientific & Medical Network (www.scimednet.org). I am a member of this organisation and they had requested that I do a short presentation of my Cheating The Ferryman theory. The SMN is a fascinating organisation and has some very powerful intellects involved. (indeed in the audience for my talk I counted five university professors at seven PhD's!!). Now what is interesting is that over dinner on Friday night I got chatting to those on my table about the curious synchronicities of Thursday night. There was great interest and, get this, of the five people on the table three had been to Córdoba in the last two months!!! Indeed for the rest of the weekend many of the delegates got involved in collecting what became termed 'Córdoba moments' and we had many lively discussions regarding Jungian synchronicity. It was both strange and a little disturbing. This has to be significant but of what I am unsure.
And then I receive your email. What can I say. It is like an episode from The X Files. I hope you don't mind but I have fowarded it to a few of those delegates who were particularly interested in Córdoba. I await there responses with interest.
Now, you may or may not be interested but as well as the list of talks below I will be doing a presentation at the North West Group of the SMN on Saturday 8th September. This will be in Rawtenstall. It would be great if you could get along. I can introduce you to some really interesting 'fellow travellers' along the road towards rational understanding of the borderlands of science and mysticism. We (i.e. The SMN) are keenly looking for new members and I think you and your friends are ideal candidates. Check out the website and see what you think. My talk in Rawtenstall will focus on the quantum physics of Cheating The Ferryman and will be identical to a talk I gave in Geneva in February. If nothing else I am sure you will find this interesting.
I would be really grateful if you could do me another favour. As you will see below I also have a blogsite. I can give you full access to be able to start you own blog thread - rather than just replying to somebody elses. Now I would be really pleased if you joined as a member and placed on there your letter to me (taking out any personal details such as your address and phone number. There are, again, some really interesting people who are full members of this blog and it is really international. It has Canadians, Americans, Australians and even Philippinos. Some of this are internationally renouned experts in their field so you comments will be read, I am sure, with great interest. Again let me know and I will send you a formal invite.
As discussed I have attached a copy of the first chapter of the original version of my first book. It describes in detail some of the weird synchronicities that took place during my research. Let me know what you think.
Look forward to hearing from you
Tony
_________________________
END-NOTE TO BLOG POST:
Tony:-- I hope this is helpful for you. As mentioned at the top, any of your readers can register for e-mail notification about our Córdoba coincidences web-site when it is published, at our temporary announcement page at
"Córdoba Exploration ... at ... mysite.orange.co.uk/cordobaexploration/index.html.
Your own Córdoba convention will now obviously be a significant entry. I look forward to hearing more about it.
best wishes,
Mick
16 July 2007 12:20
Michael Houlder said...
Monday 16th July 2007
Tony,
As you requested in your e-mail to me, I've posted the letter I sent to you (see below) after our meeting at your lecture on Thursday 5th July at Bolton Central Library. I've also posted Vivienne's "predictive e-mail" from the evening before the event, as I refer to this throughout letter. Also, as well, I've appended your e-mail reply to my letter, as it adds more detail about your own 'Córdoba convention' at the SMN meeting the following weekend.
If you really are 'staggered' by our Córdoba coincidences, as I broadly outlined them to you on the phone (and in the letter), then wait until you hear about the fine detail and precision timing of them. From your own experience the following weekend, you are obviously beginning to realise that this phenomenon (whatever it is) is real. We do have a web-site pending about all of this, where we will describe these events in detail, and show illustrations of the physical evidence relating to them. You and your readers can register for e-mail notification when it is published, at our temporary announcement page at
"Córdoba Exploration ... at ... mysite.orange.co.uk/cordobaexploration/index.html
____________________________
The 'predictive e-mail' from Vivienne, referred to in the letter to Tony (further below) follows.
Viv____@_____.com
Subject: FW: Peake's 414
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 23:40:38 +0100
M
Got all 3 messages thank you, read and enjoyed all – wow what a very impressive 414 page!
I understand your reaction to his material now. It’s uncanny but I suppose that is what we are growing to expect so don’t lose your nerve. I wonder if he has visited Córdoba? I can see you both collaborating somehow in a future book as I think you may hold a piece of his jig saw puzzle. If only you could muster a bit of passion about your work he could be citing you in a future prologue. Have you ever tried writing a screen play?
Well it’s getting late and I’m almost ready for the dream time. Hope Mark comes along tomorrow – I feel his presence is required somehow.
See you tomorrow
Namaste
V
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael [mailto:m____@________.com]
Sent: 04 July 2007 20:20
To: Viv______
Subject: Peake's 414
V
I just thought you might be curious
M
______________________________
Original letter sent from Michael Houlder to Tony Peake, on Monday 9th July follows
(unexpurgated except for personal contact details):-
"Something's happening here ... what it is ain't exactly clear ..."
Hello Tony
I enjoyed your lecture at Bolton Central Library on Thursday evening (5th July), and speaking to you briefly afterwards, both in person during the book-signing -- and later on the mobile, about our shared enthusiasm for Córdoba. As I mentioned at the time, Mark refused to tell me who it was that I was calling. I guess he thought it might spoil the surprise. He simply told me to dial the number and mention Córdoba to the person who answers. Although I suspected that it might be you, I did think that it could be another member of the audience, who happened to share my (our) fascination with that amazing city. That it should be you, and a fellow Dick-head (as you efficiently describe us), adds a new dimension to our long history of Córdoba weirdness here in Bolton.
It was obvious, from your presentation, that you are a long-time CSNY fan, so I assume you'll have no problem placing the lyrics above. I know it was originally about the State suppression of political protest in the 1960s … but I think it is a useful anthem for the state of mind/minds that my friends and I have been in for some time.
I wish that there had been time for a public Q+As at the end of your lecture, as there are a number of issues arising from your ideas which intrigue me deeply, but about which I think I need some clarification. I had already had chance to download and read your article Cheating the Ferryman in close detail before attending the lecture, and I finally obtained a library copy of your book only two days before the event, so I had some chance to scan your ideas in the book, but may have misinterpreted one or two points. Now that I have bought my own copy of your book, I will study it in much closer detail, at my leisure, before troubling you with any simple misunderstandings. I assure you, though, I will be asking questions later! Hopefully, I may have chance to address these through e-mails, or even in person if we do have the opportunity to meet-up again soon, as you suggested on the phone. I'm convinced that we will have a great deal to compare notes over. I will take a week or two, to really consider your book, before asking you for any detailed clarification.
It was a great compliment you gave me on Thursday, when you said on the phone that you would like to send me a draft copy of the first chapter of you latest book. I am grateful for that. I would be delighted to provide any feedback you might find useful. I should warn you, however, that my own interest in quantum physics, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, Córdoba, Philip K.Dick, Bob Dylan (if that rings bells) etc. etc., can only be described, at best, as those of an advanced amateur. I have no professional involvement in any of these fields of research. I do have a MA in Philosophy, and did specialise in the Philosophy of Science, but I do not teach these subjects academically. It was just a deep and prolonged hobby. Any research or study I undertook was extensive, but not professional, and simply the result of a desperate need to try to figure out what on earth is happening to the reality I once thought was so “unproblematic“.
With that caveat in place, I would certainly be very pleased to meet you again, and discuss our mutual enthusiasms for PKD., Córdoba, and for the vast range of subjects that impinge on what it is to be a conscious something in this weird old world of ours; particularly as your arrival in Bolton, to deliver your lecture, seems to have had a far wider coincidental/providential context for my friends and myself, than you can currently understand.
As I said on Thursday evening, I completed my final MA dissertation (back in 1997) with the title:
David Bohm’s Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory as a Modern Logos Doctrine”.
It is not only his concepts of Implicate/Explicate Order and the Holomovement that interest me, but also his later notion of ‘Active Information’ (a development of his earlier ‘Quantum Potential‘ concept), which is somehow encoded within the implicate order, and in-forms wave-particle entities with superpositions and characteristic states. I see this as a clear parallel to the ancient Logos concept of Heraclitus, the later Stoics, and in Hellenistic theology and philosophy. Earlier in the MA course I also wrote a module essay on the implications of the EPR Paradox for our conception of time and space. Less directly related to the philosophy of science, but also of some relevance to your theory, I think, I also did a study of Plato’s concept of the contingent immortality of psyche (mind/soul), and Aristotle‘s concept of ousia (‘substance’). In addition, I also have continuing interest in the British Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) in regard to perception and theories of causation, and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, who’s notion of the Transcendental Self and transcendental ideality of space and time, may also be of relevance to your theory.
I have been attempting for quite some time (perhaps too long) to develop a comprehensive framework for relating Bohm’s theory, cellular automata in computer theory, and human consciousness, as well as some key concepts in western philosophy and theology. Not least among these, in the context of your theory. It includes a cybernetic interpretation of personal resurrection (or should that be re-erection -- if a caller to one of you phone-in shows on your website is to be followed). This is not a purely abstract or speculative attempt, but a genuine and rational response to the unfolding weirdness of my own life, and increasingly the weirdness of those around me (the weirdness of their experience, that is, not the weirdness of them as people - that‘s beyond explanation). I have posted some of these ideas to a website, but have not formally launched it. I will be pleased to give you the URL at a early later date, perhaps after we have had the chance to talk through some of our mutual ideas in person.
As well as this brief survey of my intellectual interests (and how they may have some significance to your theory as I currently understand it), I think I should also give you some idea of the impact your arrival in Bolton has had on myself and my friends who attended your lecture on Thursday ... particularly with regard to the enthusiasm that you and your wife appear to have for Córdoba. I would normally be extremely hesitant to mention these things to an almost complete stranger, but many of the key issues which you have obviously spent considerable time researching, and marshalling into your book, are the very issues which have preoccupied me and my friends for several years now, and with increasing urgency. Precognition and prescience, the significance of meaningful coincidence and 'synchronicity', even your central concern with the encounter with death, have all imposed themselves increasingly on us for several years. It has been over twenty years, in my particular case, since I was shaken from an attitude of 'militant agnosticism' about any such issues. I would once have dismissed them outright as 'New Age' nonsense. I remain deeply sceptical and rational in my attitude to these phenomena, but I cannot easily dismiss them now, especially as such experiences seem to have extended to my friends, like a virus. Central to those experiences have not only been my personal visits to Córdoba, but also a wide range of extraordinarily precise 'coincidences' relating to Córdoba which have targeted us all.
Initially it was only myself who had experienced these 'Córdoba coincidences', and I attributed it to some kind of ‘synchronistic’ response to my interest in the cultural and intellectual heritage of Córdoba. But now it seems to have propagated itself to my friends, once they became aware of it. This troubles me. It is not entirely unlike the reaction of characters in The Three Stigmata to the central “character” of Palmer Eldritch. At least they are not yet growing chromium plated, stainless-steel hands and eyes. However, it is almost as though Córdoba itself, or some spirit of Córdoba, is imposing itself on our consciousness. As enthusiasts for the city, I'm sure you and your wife will be fascinated by our stories.
It is because of the ’ubiquity’ (?!) of these recurring coincidences, that Mark approached you at the very end of the evening on Thursday, to find out if Córdoba held any significance or meaning for you. The fact that you have been there, done that, and literally worn the T-shirt (and continue to do so you told me) was astonishing, but I have to say, not surprising! Such has been the power and presence of these 'Córdoba coincidences' in our lives. As I mentioned to you while on the phone on Thursday, my friend Vivienne told me that she had sent an e-mail to me late in the evening of the previous night (Wednesday), in which she wonders whether you, too, may have been to Córdoba. I hadn't checked my e-mails on Thursday, since she’d sent it, and I only read her e-mail myself for the first time on the day after our meeting and phone-call. I have attached a copy of this e-mail as a JPEG screenshot - it seemed the best way to be sure that the date/time stamp of her first sending of it stayed on it (those things can change depending on which mail-server one uses, if I just sent it as a ‘forwarded‘ or ‘reply‘ to the e-mail). It is important that you see that she did send it on the evening before your lecture, and before our meeting. (Wednesday 4th July at 11.40 pm).
Vivienne's reference in her e-mail to the '3 messages' are to 3 e-mails which I had previously sent to her earlier on Wednesday. I had (I admit my guilt) scanned and e-mailed the Prologue and Epilogue from your book, which I had only obtained on loan from Bolton Central Library the previous evening (Tuesday). I apologise now for any copyright infringement and abuse of your intellectual property, but I did want her to read something of your book, in order to be primed for the lecture the following evening. I also wanted to show her just how closely my literary (PKD) and scientific interests (Bohm, QT generally, neuroscience, etc) matched your own. Hence her comment about my “reaction to his material”. The 'enjoyment' she mentions, from reading those messages, are regarding these sections of your book, and her response must be genuine, as she certainly wouldn't have expected a copy of her private e-mail to me to find its way to you like this. She agreed to my request to send you a copy of the e-mail now, as she realises how important it is that you are aware of the significance of our Córdoba-mania, and her own 'intuition' about your possible (likely) visiting of Córdoba. That was some kind of prescience, and is a measure of the presence Córdoba has in the minds of our little group. Her suggestion, in the same e-mail, that you and I may possibly have some basis for a collaboration is also remarkable, considering your kind offer to send me a draft of the first chapter of your latest book. Further, she also clearly expressed her concern that our friend Mark should also attend your lecture, as there was some doubt that he might, due to illness within his family. In the end circumstances “nudged” his decision to attend. His attendance did prove to be ’required’, as it was only his unprompted query to you, about whether Córdoba meant anything to you, which revealed your obvious affinity with it. Vivienne’s remarkable prescience in these three matters shows how significantly your own attempt at a framework for understanding precognition and prescience is taken by us.
You may be tempted to begin to start to suspect that her e-mail to me was a post-facto fabrication by us to impress you, but I assure you it was not. As one Dick-head to another, I know you will accept the reality of this phenomenon. Something really is happening here …even if it’s not entirely clear what it is.
Vivienne’s other reference to “a very impressive 414" refers to the fact that I also sent her a scan of page 414 of your book, which is an index page. I sent this as something of an ‘in-joke’, but this highlights another key sequence of coincidences which have developed for us over the last three years, the recurrence of the number 414 in extraordinary circumstances, and on several occasions in direct relationship to Córdoba! I know this may seem like an imitation of the recent Jim Carey film 'The Number 23" but I assure you that our experiences with 414 were occurring long before that flimsy was released, and we have documentary evidence of that too. These 414 coincidence have had a precision and significance far beyond those of the number “23” in the film. Our coincidences with “414” is probably 18 times more than that of the number 23 (cryptic joke intended - but do the math/s)!!
We have many examples of documentary and physical evidence relating to these coincidences. We are all very aware of that much general chatter about "coincidence" is often simply anecdotal, so we have all been very keen to obtain any physical evidence we can to document and prove these occurrences. We are accruing quite a significant archive about these matters.
We have other threads of coincidence which seem to have revealed themselves too. We even had a flurry of coincidences about "coincidence" itself, which began with my randomly dipping into a book on the shelves of the local Weatherspoon’s pub, and the very first words that I see on a random opening of the book were:
“Coincidences usually have the air of practical jokes on the part of Providence.”
That line is not from The Celestine Prophecy, or some other New Age hand-book as you might expect, but a line from a Lord Peter Wimsey novel of 1926, by Dorothy L.Sayers (Clouds of Witness, p.125). These ’coincidence coincidences’ culminated in my stumbling on the sole remaining copy of a novel called ‘Coincidence’ by David Ambrose, in a remainders bookshop in Bolton, and was on the very same day that the Dingbats (a picture puzzle) in the Bolton Evening News was of an arrangement of the letters of the word ‘coincidence’ in the form of a smiling face (“A happy coincidence!”.) Not only that, but on the following day that week’s New Scientist was published, with a feature article titled “How to make Coincidences”. This doesn’t exhaust the ‘coincidence coincidences‘, the documentary evidence for which I will happily show you at a later date. It was as though the very notion of ‘coincidence’ itself was being forced upon our attention. You can imagine my interest (but ultimate disappointment) when Vivienne directed me to the book “The Celestine Prophecy”. The ‘coincidences’ that so excited James Radfield are extremely thin compared to those we have been experiencing here in Bolton.
So you see, several of us here in Bolton have had a very pronounced sense of 'expectation' (even prescience) in regard to your lecture in Bolton. This sort of prescience and coincidence has been quite typical of experiences of our little group her in Bolton over the past five years. As Mark evidently mentioned, we are just a group of friends and acquaintances, who have known each other since school. We are not a self-selecting cult obsessed with weirdness. However, although we have know each for over 30 years, it is only in the last five to seven years that these phenomena have become so pronounced. Indeed, there have been periods of years, sometimes of a decade, when we hadn’t seen each other, or expected to see each other again. But we do seem to have been brought together again over these past few years, by some extraordinary coincidences, or the practical jokes of Providence. For what purpose this ‘gathering’ may have occurred I’m unsure.
As I mentioned to you on Thursday evening, I found the publicity leaflet about your lecture as I was walking out of Bolton Central Library with a copy of PKD's Ubik in my hand. I had actually finished reading it, and had been in to the library to renew the book, in order to show some of my friends certain content in it that I knew they would find amusing. To reassure you of the authenticity of this story, I’ve attached a scan of the cover of the library copy of UBIK, which I still have on extended loan (until 16 July), together with the self-service receipt for the original loan period, which has the book title and loan period printed on it. You will see that the original loan period ended a week before your lecture.
Not only that, but the PKD. book that I read in March, immediately prior to UBIK, was VALIS, the two books which you highlighted on your power-point presentation as being the most significant in regard to your own theory. I have been an admirer of PKD writings for many years (without being too obsessive a fan). I read other of his books, such Man in the High Castle, Palmer Eldritch, Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream..?, and many of his short-stories, over a period of fifteen years and more. Choosing to read Valis and Ubik this year was simply a matter of getting around to them now. Or so I thought. I now realise that the timing was in someway contrived, somehow, as a primer for your lecture and perhaps our future discussions. When those two books appeared on your screen on Thursday I very nearly laughed out loud at the outrageous coincidence of it.
As I said, we have all become very conscious of obtaining any physical evidences of coincidence, or fulfilled precognitions and presentiments, where possible, because we all still retain a "show me scepticism" about these matters. We are all reasonably intelligent and rational people. We are all quite sceptical of much so-called ‘New Age…’ so-called '…thinking'. But we are also open-minded and have had any knee-jerk cynicism about these matters knocked out of us. As you will appreciate, once the philosophical implications of some of Dick's ideas and themes have lodged themselves in one's brain, there is no theory about the ultimate nature of reality that is too far out-there to at least be given some consideration. We are both obviously aware, as Dick was, that there is far more to this weird reality we seem to find ourselves in than “meets the eye” (or even “fits the brain” probably). A degree of rational and scientific integrity is vital however, if we are not to float off into the realms of unsupported New Age speculation.
I do try to avoid, at least at the moment, any theory of ultimate and/or subjective reality that may lead to the 'tar traps' of solipsistic closure. Like ‘tar traps’, once you step into a solipsistic interpretation, there is no pulling yourself free. That way lies psychosis and self-implosion. That is one of the difficulties I do currently have with your theory. However, just because I’d like to think that this reality I seem to inhabit is not solely the product of the hallucinations of my dying brain doesn’t mean it isn’t. I have honestly considered, in the past, that I am lying Matrix-like in some VR environment, generated in a vast supercomputer in some high-tech prison (or rehabilitation facility) in the 25th century or beyond, and in this atheistic secular future, this supercomputer is probably housed in the Mezquita-Cathedral in Córdoba to keep it cool. Hence the system's own attempts to make me aware of my “true home“ with constantly programmed references to Córdoba cropping up in my VR world. Either that, or your theory is correct in every detail, and my dying brain is currently wedged under a bus on the Roman Bridge in Córdoba, probably beneath the statue of Raphael (the archangel of healing and my Being-in-White), and all of this is a replay. Perhaps, even, you are the Daemon to my Eidolon, come to Bolton to guide me home to my fatal destiny in Córdoba. That would explain why we seem to share so many cultural and scientific interests. They are the exact same interests. My interests.
As you know, reading too much PKD can seriously damage one’s ontological frame-of-reference. Buffalo Springfield were bang on the money …
"Paranoia strikes deep ... Into your life it will creep ..."
Best wishes for the rest of the lecture tour. ...
I hope to speak to you again soon, and look forward to meeting up with you, perhaps in Liverpool. I have been thinking of paying a visit to the “Gormleys” on Crosby beach, so maybe we could tie it in with that. However, I’m sure that Vivienne and Mark would be very pleased to meet you again here in Bolton, to tell you their own tales of prescience and coincidence.
I’m sure we’ll sort something out.
Regards
Michael - or Mick (but never ‘Mike’)
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Anthony Peake's reply (Tuesday 10th July 2007) to this letter follows:-
Mick,
Wow, wow and thrice wow!
I am simply staggered by the significance of all this. You may or may not be aware but I was away for the weekend at the annual gathering of the Scientific & Medical Network (www.scimednet.org). I am a member of this organisation and they had requested that I do a short presentation of my Cheating The Ferryman theory. The SMN is a fascinating organisation and has some very powerful intellects involved. (indeed in the audience for my talk I counted five university professors at seven PhD's!!). Now what is interesting is that over dinner on Friday night I got chatting to those on my table about the curious synchronicities of Thursday night. There was great interest and, get this, of the five people on the table three had been to Córdoba in the last two months!!! Indeed for the rest of the weekend many of the delegates got involved in collecting what became termed 'Córdoba moments' and we had many lively discussions regarding Jungian synchronicity. It was both strange and a little disturbing. This has to be significant but of what I am unsure.
And then I receive your email. What can I say. It is like an episode from The X Files. I hope you don't mind but I have fowarded it to a few of those delegates who were particularly interested in Córdoba. I await there responses with interest.
Now, you may or may not be interested but as well as the list of talks below I will be doing a presentation at the North West Group of the SMN on Saturday 8th September. This will be in Rawtenstall. It would be great if you could get along. I can introduce you to some really interesting 'fellow travellers' along the road towards rational understanding of the borderlands of science and mysticism. We (i.e. The SMN) are keenly looking for new members and I think you and your friends are ideal candidates. Check out the website and see what you think. My talk in Rawtenstall will focus on the quantum physics of Cheating The Ferryman and will be identical to a talk I gave in Geneva in February. If nothing else I am sure you will find this interesting.
I would be really grateful if you could do me another favour. As you will see below I also have a blogsite. I can give you full access to be able to start you own blog thread - rather than just replying to somebody elses. Now I would be really pleased if you joined as a member and placed on there your letter to me (taking out any personal details such as your address and phone number. There are, again, some really interesting people who are full members of this blog and it is really international. It has Canadians, Americans, Australians and even Philippinos. Some of this are internationally renouned experts in their field so you comments will be read, I am sure, with great interest. Again let me know and I will send you a formal invite.
As discussed I have attached a copy of the first chapter of the original version of my first book. It describes in detail some of the weird synchronicities that took place during my research. Let me know what you think.
Look forward to hearing from you
Tony
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END-NOTE TO BLOG POST:
Tony:-- I hope this is helpful for you. As mentioned at the top, any of your readers can register for e-mail notification about our Córdoba coincidences web-site when it is published, at our temporary announcement page at
"Córdoba Exploration ... at ... mysite.orange.co.uk/cordobaexploration/index.html.
Your own Córdoba convention will now obviously be a significant entry. I look forward to hearing more about it.
best wishes,
Mick
16 July 2007 12:20
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