Second Life - Episode 3

Its Cool To Care and myself spent an hour or so on Second Life today. We found that SKYPE works fine. As such what I suggest is that to facilitate communication in SL if anybody wishing to join in sets up a SKYPE account we can then set up a conference call and can all 'talk' to each other whilst interacting within SL. It is really a very weird sensation but so itladian!!!

I managed to make my way to a place called 'Publisher's Island' and found that my publisher (Arcturus) have a location there. 'Cool' and I also found a lecture theatre on a rooftop in that location. This would be an ideal location for a cyber presentation on ITLAD and CTF. I will discuss this with Arcturus next time I am in contact with them.

I am going to be very busy over the weekend but I will probably be back in SL on Monday. Maybe see you then.

Second Life - Dummy Run 1.

For those who are interested I will be in Second Life this afternoon from 1530 (UK time) onwards. This will be in just over two and a half hours time. I will locate myself in the bar in Flanagan's Apple in Matthew Street. You can find this location by simply doing a search on 'Matthew Street'. My Avatar is Daemon Bohm. I will be the guy with the 'Cheating The Ferryman' teeshirt and the weird grey mullet hair cut. (I allow myself to grow my hair longer in cyberspace - oh, and I give myself more to start with as well).

I note that there is now a voice facility on SL. I have not used it but I will have my microphone and speakers on just in case we can make direct contact.

Extraordinary People: The Human Camera

http://www.onthebox.com/program/1929767/extraordinary-people-the-human-camera.aspx

Channel 5 9pm tonight, looks really interesting.

Jacob's Ladder, Post Jungian map of Global Cinema

Every once in awhile (ok every day) I think about the film Jacob's Ladder and the way it brought about my premonitory painting. Just the other day I did another web search on the film and the writer, Bruce Joel Rubin and came up with this rather unusual website, whitlarks.com and a particular section called "The Big Picture: A Post-Jungian Map of Global Cinema." Within that was a discussion of Jacob's Ladder. James Whitlark discussed the influence of The Tibetan Book of the Dead on the film and mentioned a scene with a lecturing professor that was deleted from the film. The professor makes four points 1) everything is a manifestation of a single Divine Reality 2) people can directly intuit it 3) they each have a temporal "ego" and "eternal self" 4) the purpose of life is to identify with the divine spark within..."


I was also fascinated to learn from Whitlarks that the screenplay began with a nightmare Rubin had about being condemned to Hell, appearing in the image of the New York subway.

The direct link to this Jacob's Ladder web page is http://human-threshold-systems.whitlarks.com/bpchp6p5.html. HurlyBurly you might like this work as a good number of films are discussed, and Anthony, perhaps you know all this? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

HurlyBurly

Why do i love Hurlyburly so much?? Hurlyburly was originally a dark comedy play by David Rabe. More than three hours long, it focuses on the intersecting lives of several low to mid-level Hollywood players in the 1980s. Fueled by massive amounts of drugs, they attempt to find some meaning in their isolated, empty lives by engaging in endless discussions laced with misogyny. The central character Eddie's oft-repeated apathetic question "How does it pertain to me?," sums up his spiritual agony as he heads for catharsis. Rabe wrote the screenplay for a 1998 film version directed by Anthony Drazan. He condensed the action into two hours and updated the setting from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The cast included Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Robin Wright Penn, Garry Shandling, Anna Paquin, and Meg Ryan. Penn's performance won him the Volpi Cup and Drazan was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Penn also was nominated Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.




Sean Penn, who is arguabley the greatest actor of our generation (i'll let pacino & De Niro Compete with him though!), gives such a great performance as do the many other variety of brilliant actors in this film. I always described this film as a "Catcher in the rye - for grown ups.......with a sheeeet load of drugs and alcohol!" It's hedonism enjoyed and over analysed basically! The dialogue is without a doubt the greatest thing about this film, Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey have undeniable chemistry as they constantly lock horns over women and ego:

Mickey: You don't know what you're saying. You don't.
Eddie: I do.
Mickey: No. I know you think you know what you're saying, but you're not saying it.
Eddie: No, I know what I'm saying. I don't know what I mean, but I know what I'm saying. Is that what you mean?
Mickey: Yeah.
Eddie: Right. But it's not like anybody knows what anything means, right? It's not like anybody knows that. So at least I know I don't know what I mean, which is better than most people. They probably think they know what they mean, not just what they think they mean.

Eddie: I lie to myself. I'm a really great liar. And I'm very gullible.


Eddie: In the Middle Ages everyone really had to worry about witches and goblins, but what we have is stuff eating at us. We've got stuff we don't even... I mean, why do you think that all the warlords of the world are so anxious to get their own personal little stash of chemical weapons. They call them weapons of mass destruction, but they're not. They're very *very* selective about what they destroy. They annihilate people and preserve things. They love things. You and I would be dead, gas... puke... gone. Whereas, you know, other earlier older people - the ancients - could look to the heavens, which in their minds was inhabited by this thoughtful, meditative, you know, maybe a trifle unpredictable and wrathful, but nevertheless up there - this divine onlooker. We've got anchorpersons and talking heads. We've got politicians who decide life and death issues on the basis of their media concerns. That's what we've got.

Eddie: Flip is sarcastic.
Mickey: No, it's not. That's crazy. Sarcastic is mean, it's heavy - it's funny, sure, but it's mean. I do both, but this was flip

As irrelevant as this may seem!! I value the opinion of you guys more than anyone else. You're all intelligent, humourous and complex people and this is why i know if you havn't seen this film before, you will absolutely love it! Saying that, there is a lot in this film that will make you think about other things. As Sean's character quite accurately asks:

Eddie: Do you ever have that experience where your thoughts are like these totally separate, totally self-sustaining phone booths and there's like this vast uninhabited shopping mall in your head? Do you ever have that experience?

We know what he meant, right? I have nagged both Anthony and Karl several times but i thought i'd be a bit louder this time! Please allow this one off (yeah right) film review from me, i've been here over half a year and it's my Birthday tomorrow!! It's a great film, go watch it now!!! You can pick it up on ebay for either £1.00 or $1.50 depending where you are, you are magnificiant people and you deserve this film (looks for buckett), ok i'm done!! Normal posting will resume when i'm 27.

Talk at Leasowe Library

My latest lecture at Leasowe Library here on 'Gods Holy Acre' (Wirral) took place yesterday afternoon. I met up with quite a few really interesting people. As usual with my lectures the audience were somewhat surprised that they didn't get what they expected - a discussion about 'life after death'. Also as usual the post-lecture question and answer session was both lively and enlightening. From the feedback I received I think we have more members of our ever-growing itladian community.

At the end of the session I was approached by the name of Barry Hoon. Barry was fascinated by the implications of our Daemon-Eidolon Dyad in relation to his particular area of interest. Barry has developed a startlingly original aid to developing personal insights. He calls this 'Quantum Drawing'. It works in a similar way to those images that were popular a few years ago whereby you looked at a series of dots and swirls of colour and suddenly a 3D image leaped out at you. Barry's quantum drawings just look like a swirl of lines and boxes but as one looks at the picture images begin to manifest themselves. One asks a question then waits for the images to furnish an answer. To me it is similar to a visual version of the I Ching.

Barry said that up until yesterday he had not really reflected on the mechanism by which his Quantum Drawings work. However on being introduced to the concept of the Daemon he suggested that maybe his pictures facilitated Daemonic-Eidolonic communication. I am very excited by this possibility.

Check out this latest angle on the Dyad at http://www.quantumdrawing.co.uk/

Second Life: Flanagan's Apple Meeting

The planned "Second Life" meeting has taken a step closer. I have checked out WiFi zones in Liverpool and I have found that one of the zones in Liverpool city centre is located in exactly where we need it: Flanagan's Apple itself. This is really great news because it means that those interested in meeting face to face in 'First Life' can also bring along their wifi enabled laptops and interface with the other itladians via Second Life.

The more I think about this plan the more the wonderful post-modernist themes strike me. I am sure that we could get a considerable amount of media interest in this idea - particularly if each of us, in our own geographic locations, mention this to our local radio stations or TV stations.

PARALLEL LIVES?

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ....JESAMYN..... SUSAN MARIE WITH HUSBAND,
SON, AND THE POET SAMUEL
MENASHE NYC 1990

As this is apropos to quantum entanglement and synchronicity, I thought I would post this odd story. Susan Marie and I met in November 2007 on a Grief Forum Website, which SM had joined for the express purpose of telling others about ITLAD, the theory and text. Both of us had lost our husbands under similar conditions, after having similar and highly unusual relationships with these beloved men.

We came to know each other, both joined Anthony's blog, and communicated by E mail.These facts emerged:

Both of us had spent our teens and twenties brooding in libraries, and came to love the works of Kierkegaard,Jaspers, Jung and Havelock Ellis;also Byron, Shelley, Keats and Bronte,both of us had aunts who were our mothers' older sisters, and with whom we had closer relationships than with our mothers, and who we lost to cancer in our 20's (SM was 29, I was 26) both of us had spent time in Paris at age 25, for unusual reasons;both worked briefly as reporters covering political events in our early 30's;both of us,together with our respective husbands. were close to a former mentor/Professor, who functioned like Uncles to both couples;both had tumultuous relationships with fathers who abandoned their daughters in girlhood. Both gave birth to one child only, a son born on Christmas Eve.And, at last, both of us were drawn to a Grief Forum in which neither of us felt we belonged,and became friends through writing each other about Anthony's book and theories.

Both became Blog members on Cheating the Ferryman, and both became rabidly envious of Anthony, Karl, and Hurly Burly!!!

Jesamyn.

Second Life Meeting

Karl has rightly pointed out that not all of you will know about Second Life. I have posted on this before (many months ago) but I will explain again. SL is a virtual on-line world with literally millions of people involved. in this world you create your own 'avatar'. You can decide how you wish to look. You then can interface with others in this cyberworld as you would with people in 'First Life'. It is really very strange at first, particularly as now whole sections of First Life cities have been created on SL and look so real. The picture opposite is my avatar (Daemon Bohm) sitting in Flanagan's Apple in SL's version of Matthew Street in Liverpool (see posting below). This is the location I am suggesting for our cyber-meeting. As you can see this pub has a poster of my book on the wall. Believe me this had nothing to do with me. This is the position I left Daemon when I logged off at 0945 BST today.

Now this is where things can get really interesting. For example as you may be able to just make out my avatar, Daemon Bohm (get it?!) wears a tee-shirt with the book cover on the back and a link to my website on the front. Clothing can be designed for you. Should any of you create your own avatar in can send you the tee-shirt that it can wear. This will help identify ourselves to each other in SL. Indeed in SL one can also set up groups. Indeed a thought that has just dawned on me is that when naming your avatar you can decide upon your first name. If we all have a first name of "Daemon" we can always identify each other. What do you think?

One of the members of this blog (Robin) I actually met on SL. I know that she is a regular there so maybe she will be able to act as our guide. I know that there have been some new developments - like actual voice communication so 'chatting' is even easier. Indeed I have found that if you use Skype whilst also on SL you can communicate as if by ESP.

Indeed you may be interested to know that my publisher is very SL savvy and I know that they have suggested many times that we use SL as a marketing and publicity tool.

Second Life can be checked out by following this hyperlink: http://secondlife.com/

I have not been on SL for a few months but I plan to go back today to have a look round. If you wish to find me just do a search on 'Daemon Bohm' and come and say hi.

Proposed Second Life Meeting

Over the last few months we have developed from a handful of individuals to a fascinating and ever extending group of like-minded souls spread across the globe. In many ways this adds to the buzz of the blog but in other ways it is a major restriction. By this I mean that a meeting of all of us would be impossible in the 'real world' . However after meeting up with Karl L Le Marcs, Hurly Burly, Its Cool To Care and Aloha Gary recently we all agreed that a meeting in Cyberspace should be arranged.

We could use Second Life as the tool by which this meeting could happen. As Karl said today at our meeting in yet another British Pub - The Bridge Inn in the very beautiful Port Sunlight - Second Life would be the perfect venue for a group of individuals interested in the possible illusory nature of external 'reality' (this 'Russian Doll' type scenario actually reminds me of a short story by Jorge Borges - we meet in a 'real' illusory reality to discuss the possibility that the real real reality is itself an illusion!!!)

Indeed I know the perfect illusory Second Life Location to meet. A pub called "Flanagan's Apple" located in Second Life's Version of Liverpool. In fact, to make it even more bizarre a group of us located over here in the UK could take our laptops to the real Flanagan's Apple and log-on remotely from there.

I suggest "Flanagan's Apple" because in the Second Life Version of this pub is a poster on the wall - a poster of my book! Now how Post Modernist and weird can this get?

What do you guys think about this weirdly itladian idea? Who knows, we may even be able to get some local radio or TV coverage on this Matrix-like scenario.

A Prophet or simply a self fulfilling prophecy?

Tupac Shakur was an incredibley talented and versitaile artist. Perhaps the greatest thing about him was his honesty as a human being, he was good bad, creative, destructive, he personified the entire human spectrum. Many people didn't not see this talent due to the gangsta rap image he went out of his way to create in order to hide his entirely intense female side.

There are many conspiracey theories regarding 2pac's death. For those of you that aren't familiar with his work, 2pac predicted his own death in his lyrics on a very regular occasion, he even acted it out in an extremely eiree music video "I ain't mad at cha". This is why he spent so much time in the studio and that over 10 years after his death he still has material being released. A year or two before he died, Tupac changed his name to Makaveli. It is a common misconception that Machiavelli faked his own death. There is no historical evidence that he did, despite this the connections were made and motives were established for this change of identity.

Are people that predict these kind of things tuned into the future, or are they simply creating it out of the need for attention or creative frustration? I'm not sure how much Anthony knows about the late, great Mr Shakur but i think it may be worth looking onto as there is another link between creative writing and an ability to predict the future events?

In the event of my Demise
when my heart can beat no more
I Hope I Die For A Principle
or A Belief that I had Lived 4
I will die Before My Time
Because I feel the shadow's Depth
so much I wanted 2 accomplish
before I reached my Death
I have come 2 grips with the possibility
and wiped the last tear from My eyes
I Loved All who were Positive
In the event of my Demise


I recommend you check out a film called Gridlock'd starring Tim Roth and Tupac, he was an extremely talented actor who was just reaching his peake when he died! Tupac had an incredible talent for poetry, obviously as he wrote rap lyrics for a career. He has had several books of poems published that would surprise many, some dedicated to his mother, one dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. Is there a strong link between communication with the Daemon and an abilty to write such poetry?

If in my quest 2 achieve my goals
I stumble or crumble and lose my soul
Those that knew me would easily co-sign
There was never life as hard as mine
No father-no money-no chance and no guide
I only follow my voice inside
if it guides me wrong and I do not win
I'll learn from mistakes and try 2 achieve again.

Karl would disagree, but he's one of those virgin lifers!! Here's a link to some more poetry.

http://seadeeper.com/poems/tupac.html

Hyperthymesty (2)

Interesting cartoon that shows the mysteries of hyperthymesty (see post below)

Hyperthymesty (1)

Those of you who have read ITLAD and others who have attended my lectures will know that crucial to CTF is the suggestion the human brain records every sensation, event, image etc that it perceives. I suggest that the experiments of Wilder Penfield support such a supposition. However these re-experiences were stimulated under extreme conditions within an operating theatre. In order for the theory to work there has to be evidence of events taking place under 'normal' circumstances. In the book (and in the lectures) I discuss the case of Solomon Shereshevski (this name has been transliterated into many different spellings), a patient of the great Soviet psychiatrist Alexandr Romanovich Luria. This man seemed to remember every event of his life in absolute detail. Indeed as a very important aside he was also a temporal lobe epileptic. However this was a very unusual case. However recently there has been a spate of cases of a new psychological state called Hyperthymestic Syndrome.

The word Hyperthymesty is based on the Greek word thymesis for “remembering” and hyper, meaning “more than normal” - and this is exactly what people with this syndrome can do - with stunning results.

In February of 2006, the journal Neurocase reported on "A.J.," a 40-year-old California woman known only by her initials who could instantly recall details of her past with astonishing specificity. Dr. James McGaugh and his colleagues at the University of California-Irvine had been studying her for more than five years, and her case was the first of its kind to be recorded and chronicled in scientific research. Since then another two cases have been found and there is a clear suspicion that many more will be uncovered.

There is not a great deal of background information with regard to "A.J. (or indeed the other case that I have a name for - Brad Williams, a radio news reporter for Midwest Family Broadcasting in La Crosse, Wisconson). It would be interesting to find out if these individuals are temporal lobe epileptics, migrainers or autistic. If so then yet another element of ITLAD is evidenced from empirical research.

You may be interested to know that Brad's elder brother, Eric, a screenwriter in Glendale, Calif., is filming a documentary, "Unforgettable," about his younger brother's ability to recall nearly every day of his life.To view a trailer and scenes from the documentary, go to http://www.unforgettabledoc.com/. This looks like a very interesting movie with profoundly itladian aspects.

You will recall that Philip K Dick was preoccupied with memory - this interest culminating in his story (and subsequent movie) 'Total Recall'. As we know PKD is the most itladian of all writers (possibly because of his possible temporal lobe epilepsy).

As many people have said to me recently - the evidence for CTF can be found everywhere but only now ... if the book had been published ten years ago such supporting material would be unavailable. ITLAD had to be published when it was because the time is right. I wonder how much more there is to come.

DMT

OK This could be dangerous territory but it is interesting.Well at least I think it is!!! After moving house, and with all that it entails,I found this clipping that I had saved BEFORE discovering Anthony Peake (thanks to Susan Marie!!!) and it now seems strangely relevant but ALAs IT SEEMS TO INVOLVE .... eeeeeek drug-taking!!!! It was an article about a substance called DMT which seemed to say that if taken, elicits a vision of Alternate Realities or Parallel Universes....and apparently this substance floods the brain upon death.... oh dear I am SO TEMPTED to try it and buy it!!!! Susan Marie and myself have spoken at length re contacting our departed loved oness and she sent me Anthony Peakes books.... any thoughts on this???Before our Mentor himself discovers it??!!!
Jesamyn .

Polynesian Huna

I was indulging in my favourite pastime of reading weird and wonderful pieces of literature last night when I picked up a copy of a book given to me by a friend last week whose words at the time were: “I think you might be interested in this” – They were right!

The book is: The Power Of Aloha: The Hawaiian Guide To Love, Health And Wealth by Kala H. Hos and John Selby.

Until recently, the mysterious practices of Polynesian Huna masters have been considered by the outside world to be highly esoteric, caught up in occult superstitions and existing entirely beyond our contemporary scientific notions of reality. This attitude was finally shattered during the last decade, as highly respected scientific research - described in popular science books such as Dean Radin's excellent The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena - demonstrated beyond professional question that the awesome power of consciousness, through which the ancient Huna masters generated their apparent miracles, does in fact exist and furthermore, can readily be employed by all of us, once we learn how.

The Huna teachings and techniques have emerged from the heart of the extensive Polynesian culture over several thousands of years. As with all ancient cultures, there exist numerous myths about the origins of this society's spiritual wisdom.

When we look closely at the two short Polynesian words that make up the word Huna, we gain instant insight into the deeper nature of the Huna wisdom tradition. First of all, in this ancient language, hu refers to all things "masculine" while na refers to all things "feminine". Thus the word Huna is a verbal expression of the primary creative act of merging the world's energy poles into one living whole, just as the Chinese express it through the yin-yang symbol. Depending on the context, we also find that hu refers to action, movement, chaos, change, or power ... while na refers to the qualities of order, calm, peace, and endurance.

The underlying nature of hu-na is the practice, in all dimensions, of bringing our different aspects into a greater harmony and balance so that we become whole spiritual beings, capable of potent material manifestation and compassionate relating. The Polynesian understanding of hu-na runs exactly parallel to the new scientific models of quantum reality in the field of wave mechanics, where two seemingly opposed principles or qualities (objective/subjective, cognitive/intuitive, male/female, doing/being, space/time, self/other, wave/particle etc) exist only through their quality of being in complementary relationship to each other. Recently added to this list of complementary pairs in science (and known thousands of years ago in Huna) is what scientists now call the "consciousness/environment dialogue", where external reality continually and intimately influences internal consciousness, and vice versa.

The key notion here regarding these linked pairs is that we can't have one without the other. As the Huna masters knew long ago, consciousness and the outer world are parts of a greater whole - they're not distinct entities, as classic Cartesian science and our general Western worldview have led us to believe.

The Huna tradition stands as one of the primary guides to harmonizing our inner and outer experience purposefully so that, instead of feeling we're victims of the outside world, we begin to employ our conscious powers actively to influence the outer world for our increased wellbeing and enjoyment.At deep levels of human awakening, the attainment of Huna wisdom and empowerment emerges through the direct encounter of our human consciousness with the primal workings of the universe as an infinite whole. As we purposefully expand our awareness of life to experience the union of the inner and outer, we naturally become more and more attuned to the underlying principles of life - the hu-na secrets.

At heart, Huna is a pragmatic approach for using the power of your own mind to influence events and developments in the outer world.

The premise of Huna is that everyday human consciousness does carry the power to broadcast thoughts and images (mana'o) into an interconnecting "pre-matter" or "ether" or, as the Hawaiians call it, "aka substance". Furthermore, this broadcast of energized information has the power to effect directly not only physical matter, but also the thoughts of others.

If this primary Polynesian spiritual premise is correct, then our entire material approach to life in Western culture has been sadly off the mark, rendering us relatively impotent through our belief that our thoughts don't directly impact the outside world.

Throughout history, many of our wisest scholars and scientists have openly claimed that they could sense the presence of an invisible yet almost palpable power of manifestation that exists within their own minds. Isaac Newton, the patriarch of classic Western science, stated clearly that, for him, the primary force of change in the world would prove to be "the mystery by which mind could control matter." Francis Bacon, father of the experimental method, was highly interested in studying such "mind over matter" phenomena as telepathic dreams, psychic healing, transmission of spirits and the power of the mind on the casting of dice. Most great names in contemporary physics, such as Max Planck, Neils Bohr, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schroedinger and David Bohm, have written about the still-mysterious influence of consciousness on external matter and events.

And we can add to that list the name of Anthony Peake, and maybe one-day my own.

[The above was written and composed usng extracts from "The Power of Aloha: The Hawaiian Guide to Love, Health and Wealth" by Kala H. Kos & John Selby]

A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs

Jill Bolte Taylor discovers her Daemonic Consciousness

I would like to thank Dr. Art Funkhouser, Ed Gilchrist and Gary Plunkett who all contacted me at almost exactly the same time with regard to this wonderful piece of itladian science.

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ... Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career." Jill Bolte Taylor

A video of Jill describing her encounter can be viewed via the right hand column of this blog. Please note that for some reason you will only get half a picture. However the sound works fine. If you wish to watch it with the whole picture click http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

When watching it please recall how I suggest that the non-dominant hemisphere of the brain contains a consciousness that I term the 'Daemon'. Our everyday consciousness (that which knows itself as 'I' or 'me') inhabits the dominant hemisphere. This I call the the Eidolon. What I think happened to Jill is that her stroke gave her access to the perceptions of her own Daemon. As William Blake termed it, she opened up her "Doors of Perception" and for a short time perceived the true nature of reality - the "Bohmian IMAX". Of course some individuals (such as TLErs) have regular access to this alternative reality.

Another interesting point is that Jill's experience also mirrored many of the elements of the classic Near-Death Experience. If my theory is correct then that is exactly what should happen.

Yet more evidence, if it was needed, that ITLAD and CTF are real paradigm changing concepts.

Julian Jaynes - "The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"

A huge influence upon me and my writing is a book entitled “The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” written by American psychologist Julian Jaynes. I first read this book in the early 1980's and its concepts fizzed around in my head for many years. In early 2000 when ITLAD began to formulate in my mind one of the first books I went back to re-read was this great work. Jaynes was stimulated to write his book by an absolutely classic Daemonic communication that took place when he was a post-graduate student. He describes it thus:

“In Boston, I had for about a week been studying and autistically pondering some of the problems in this book, particularly the problem of what knowledge is and how we can know anything at all. My convictions and misgivings had been circling about through the sometimes precious fogs of epistemologies, finding nowhere to land. One afternoon I lay down in intellectual despair on a couch. Suddenly, out of an absolutely quiet, there came a firm, distinct loud voice from my upper right which said, “Include the knower and the known”. It lugged me to my feet absurdly exclaiming “hello?” looking for whoever was in the room. The voice had an exact location."

This event so amazed Jaynes that he began researching the incidence of 'voices in the head', particularly ones that seem to guide and influence. After a few years he formulated a literally mind-blowing theory with regard to the evolution of human consciousness that has massive echoes of ITLAD. I could not do this book justice within posting but it is well worth a read.

The Julian Jaynes Society is an organisation that actively promotes JJ's theory of 'Bicameralism' and its website a veritable treasure-trove of itladian material. They also have a very interesting forum that I have contributed to once or twice. The website can be found by following this link: http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Mysterious America

Brent Raynes runs a wonderful website and magazine called Mysterious America. Brent interviewed me last year and we are in regular contact with regard to areas of mutual interest. In this month's edition he references me and my new book together with a link to my YouTube lecture. Knowing the subjects that interest you guys I am sure that a swift look at Brent's site will reward you with some fascinating reading material - some of which may find its way back to this site.

Brent's site is also an indirect link to Philip K Dick. A regular contributor, and friend of Brent is the writer Brad Steiger. Brad, in turn, was a close friend of Philip K Dick. I recently asked Brad what he thought PKD would have made of my theories - particularly the Daemon-Eidolon Dyad. Brad replied that he thought that Phil would have loved it. Makes me feel both proud and humble at the same time!

The link is http://www.mysterious-america.net/. If you are interested with regard to what Brent says about me this can be found at the end of my Reality Checking column.

Pulfrich Pendulum Effect

I was reading through the very first version of ITLAD today when I came across this little gem that for some reason did not make it into the heavily edited,and less scientifically-based, second version. (indeed the version that was eventually published was the third). In the chapter on time I suggested that the reader should:

"Make a pendulum out of approximately one metre of string and a bob (any reasonably heavy object will do). Find an old pair of sunglasses and take out one of the lenses. Put the sunglasses on then swing the pendulum in a straight arc at right angles to your line of sight. Now look at the bob. You will be surprised to see that the bob does not appear to swing in a straight line but describes an ellipse. What is happening is that the dark eyeglass is delaying the signal from that eye because it is reducing the amount of light being received. The receptors in your eye are therefore taking longer to respond and as such your brain is receiving the signal from this eye later than that from the uncovered eye. As the bob speeds up so the delay becomes greater and the eye with the filter lens ‘sees’ the bob further and further behind that seen by the unoccluded eye – in effect the past being perceived as the present. To accommodate this, and to continue with stereo vision, the brain mixes the two signals and in doing so you causes you to perceive an effective horizontal shift of the moving object. By perceiving two differing sections of movement-time you ‘see’ a totally inwardly created adaptation of ‘reality’.

This is known as the Pulfrich Pendulum Effect and was first described by Carl Pulfrich (1858-1927) in 1922.

In the mid 1970’s it was discovered that this Pulfrich Effect can be observed with objects lit by a stroboscope and even when viewing an ‘electric snowstorm’ on a de-tuned television set.
In one of those peculiar ironies Pulfrich himself was incapable of seeing the effect named after him because he was blind in his left eye. (See page 664 of The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1998) and M J Morgan & P Thompson “Apparent motion and the Pulfrich Effect – Perception, 4, 3-18 (1975)."

Greetings All!

Salutations fellow thinkers,

I've just joined this blog, at the invitation of Mr. Peake. We met on the Institute of Noetic Science community website Shift in Action. It is what I call a "renaissance fellowship" of forward thinkers and futurists in the area where science, theosophy, and philosophy can be seen as one great thought. It is truly a league of extraordinary human beings. Come join us at - www.shiftinaction.org

I am pleased to meet you all. I have reviewed some of the most recent posts, and a related You Tube video or two. Rich nutrients for the brain here indeed.. I currently write from North Pole, Alaska, as I listen to Lemurian Sunrise and Tears over Fujiama by Da Wo's: Shanawo & Renee-Wo, from the album Ancient Wave. Intriguing music.

I believe I was supposed to come here now. As I read (and saw) Anthony's discussions on the Matrix, and other related topics, I perceive we (all of us) have been entangled. I have thought much on the Matrix related to our lives. The Star Wars concept of "the force" comes to mind as well. Remember "Back to the Future?" There are others I am sure. I believe the writers are picking up, (as are we) the reverberations from a future where the quantum interaction of aware minds and realized physicality will be the the energetic reality of day to day life for everyone in this experience. Wow. What a time to be here!

Peace and joy to you fellow travelers, and well met!,

Jon

Brain in a VAT

Subsequent to the suggestion made by Susan Marie a few days ago I am in the process of designing a book synopsis for my publisher. It is my intention to write a book discussing the philosophical underpinnings and subsequent implications of CTF. We have touched upon this subject many times on this blog and I am of the opinion that a really fascinating book could be written on this subject.

As part of my research I have started to re-read the fascinating The Matrix & Philosophy book edited by Professor William Irwin of Kings College Pennsylvania. (I know that Bill is an occasional reader of this blog so if you are out there in cyberspace, Bill, maybe post a comment). As we are all very aware The Matrix movies are profoundly itladian in their philosophy so a book on this subject will be full of fascinating parallels. One that particularly caught my attention last time I read the book is a thought experiment suggested by retired Harvard philosopher professor Hilary Putnam.

Professor Putnam's 'brains in a vat' proposal can be found in his "Reason, Truth & History" (Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp 1-21). He proposes a scenario:

"Imagine that a human being (you can imagine this to be yourself) has been subjected to an operation by an evil scientist. The person's brain (your brain) has been removed from the body and placed in a vat of nutrients which keeps the brain alive. The nerve endings have been connected to a super-scientific computer which causes the person whose brain it is to have the illusion that everything is perfectly normal. There seem to be people, objects, the sky, etc.; but really, all the person (you) is experiencing is the result of electronic impulses travelling from the computer to the nerve endings. The computer is so clever that if the person tries to raise his hand, the feedback from the computer will cause him to 'see' and 'feel' the hand being raised. Moreover, by varying the program, the evil scientist can cause the victim to 'experience' (or hallucinate) any situation or environment the evil scientist wishes. He can also obliterate the memory of the brain operation, so that the victim will seem to himself to have always been in this environment. It can even seem to the victim that he is sitting and reading these very words about the amusing but quite absurd supposition that there is an evil scientist who removes people's brains from their bodies and places them in a vat of nutrients which keep the brains alive. The nerve endings are supposed to be connected to a super-scientific computer which causes the person whose brain it is to have the illusion that..."

Putnam then adds an interesting twist on this scenario. He adds:

"This time let us suppose that the automatic machinery is programmed to give us all a collective hallucination, rather than a number of separate unrelated hallucinations. Thus, when I seem to myself to be talking to you, you seem to yourself to be hearing my words. Of course, it is not the case that my words actually reach your ears — for you don't have (real) ears, nor do I have a real mouth and tongue. Rather, when I produce my words, what happens is that the efferent impulses travel from my brain to the computer, which both causes me to 'hear' my own voice uttering those words and 'feel' my tongue moving, etc., and causes you to 'hear' my words, 'see' me speaking, etc. In this case, we are, in a sense, actually in communication. I am not mistaken about your real existence (only about the existence of your body and the 'external world', apart from brains). From a certain point of view, it doesn't even matter that 'the whole world' is a collective hallucination; for you do, after all, really hear my words when I speak to you, even if the mechanism isn't what we suppose it to be. (Of course, if we were two lovers making love, rather than just two people carrying on a conversation, then the suggestion that it was just two brains in a vat might be disturbing.) "

Is this not exactly what I suggest is happening in my Bohmian IMAX? However unlike Putnam (and, by implication the writers of the Matrix - the Wachowski Brothers) I suggest a neurological scenario by which this may be an actuality and not a speculative fiction. I present evidence that for most of those reading these words (specifically those who experience deja vu) this life, this 'phaneron', is an illusion, a Maya, created by the brain itself.

I do not need bizarre 'brains in vats' or malevolent aliens to bring about my thought experiment - just observed neurological science and subjective experiences as reported by many of my readers and thousands of others around the world - and in doing so present not only an alternative paradigm of existence but also a potential explanation of why mortality may be an illusion.

Of course, as I continue to stress, this is just a theory ......

Johann Gottlieb Fichte's "fictional" Daemonic Encounter

I have just started reading Fichte's The Vocation of Man and came across a really fascinating section. In the introduction to book 2 (Knowledge) Fichte describes and amazing encounter between Fichte and 'a wondrous shape'. The 'shape' explains to Fichte why it is that reality is not as real as he (Fichte) believes. Now I am fully aware that 'dialogue' such as this has been used a philosophical tool since Socrates but for a second suspend belief and assume that Fichte is describing a real event. Could this not be considered a Daemonic Encounter? Indeed does this not remind you of two particular scenes in that most Itladian of movies, Vanilla Sky? ( the scene in the bar where David Aames (Tom Cruise) first encounters the 'guide' implanted in his mind to tell him that the world he thinks is real is an inwardly generated illusion, and the final scene where the 'guide' convinces Aames that everything is really an illusion and that his only option is jumping off the building):

Chagrin and anguish stung me to the heart. I cursed the returning day which called me back to an existence whose truth and significance were now involved in doubt. I awoke in the night from unquiet dreams. I sought anxiously for a ray of light that might lead me out of these mazes of uncertainty. I sought, but became only more deeply entangled in the labyrinth.

Once, at the hour of midnight, a wondrous shape appeared before me, and addressed me: -

"Poor mortal," I heard it say, "thou heapest error upon error, and fanciest thyself wise. Thou tremblest before the phantoms which thou hast thyself toiled to create. Dare to become truly wise. I bring thee no new revelation. What I can teach thee thou already knowest, and thou hast but to recall it to thy remembrance. I cannot deceive thee; for in every step thou thyself wilt acknowledge me to be in the right; and shouldst thou still be deceived, thou wilt be deceived by thyself. Take courage - listen to me, and answer my questions."

I took courage. "He appeals to my own understanding. I will make the venture. He cannot think his own thoughts into my mind; the conclusion to which I shall come must be thought out by myself; the conviction which I shall accept must be of my own creating. [356] Speak, wonderful Spirit!" I exclaimed, "whatever thou art! Speak and I will listen. Question me, and I will answer."

The Spirit. Thou believest that these objects here, and those there, are actually present before thee and out of thyself?

I. Certainly I do.

Spirit. And how dost thou know that they are actually present?

I. I see them; I would feel them were I to stretch forth my hand; I can hear the sounds they produce; they reveal themselves to me through all my senses.

Spirit. Indeed! Thou wilt perhaps by and by take back the assertion that thou seest, feelest, and hearest these objects. For the present I will speak as thou dost, as if thou didst really, by means of thy sight, touch, and hearing, perceive the real existence of objects. But observe, it is only by means of thy sight, touch, and other external senses. Or is it not so? Dost thou perceive otherwise than through thy senses? and has an object any existence for thee, otherwise than as thou seest it, hearest it, &c.?

I. By no means.

Spirit. Sensible objects, therefore, exist for thee, only in consequence of a particular determination of thy external senses: thy knowledge of them is but a result of thy knowledge of this determination of thy sight, touch, &c. Thy declaration - 'there are objects out of myself,' depends upon this other - 'I see, hear, feel, and so forth?'

This dialogue continues for some time and in the end "I" (Eidolon) is convinced by "Spirit" (Daemon) that 'reality' (Bohmian IMAX) is an illusion.

Here we have Fichte being presented with one itladian theme (the Bohmian IMAX) by a being very similar to our Daemon in a very similar set of circumstances (late in a sleepless night) to those described by Friedrich Nietzsche:

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?”

Could it be that both Nietzsche and Fichte had minds very open to their respective daemons and that these daemons gave clues to the itladian nature of reality?

(the painting at the top of this post is The Wanderer by Casper David Friedrich.

Philosophical Support of CTF

I have been reading a good deal of philosophy recently. I have always been interested in German Romantic painting - particularly the art of Casper David Friedrich. this has lead me to the philosophical underpinnings of the romantic movement in the early 19th century. I know that Susan Marie has written about the similarities between ITLAD and Kant and it therefore came as no surprise to me to find that central to Kant's philosophy is that the entire world as we experience it (the phenomenal world) is dependent upon our apparatus for experiencing it. As such he argued that things as thy appear to us are not identical with the things as they are in themselves ( the noumenal world). This position is known as transcendental idealism and sounds very similar to me to The Copenhagen Interpretation of Bohr.

However I was really surprised (and quite delighted) to recently come across the writings of another German philosopher of that period, Johann Gottleib Fichte (1762-1814). Fichte took Kant's transcendental idealism to its logical (and profoundly itladian) conclusion in suggesting that if reality is beyond all possibility of apprehension, as Kant claimed, then we have no grounds for claiming that there is anything out there at all. The entire phenomenal world is therefore not an independent reality, but the creation of the individual ego that creates this world for itself. Fichte argued that at his death his world will cease to exist with him. His world needs him as its observer to continue being. However he also argued that other people also exist in their own worlds and somehow we all exist independently but also interrelated. (Bohmian IMAX and Implicate Order).

Clearly ITLAD argues that there is a Kantian noumenal world that exists external to the observer. This has to be in order for the LeMarcsian Virgin Life to take place. The challenge is understanding how that relates to later iterations of the Bohmian IMAX which one could reasonably argue is a phenomenal model (I have aways considered ITLAD to be phenomenal, now I know why).

I need to read more of this guys stuff. I have ordered a copy of his book The Vocation of Man and I will work my way through it. Indeed I am now stimuated to write something (article, book?) on the philosophy of Itlad and how it reflects the ideas of many famous thinkers of the past.

How Soon Is Now (2) - The Phantom Premise

[a continuation of an evolving thought-process began in previous posts: How Soon Is Now and Peakeian Daemonology ; and stimulated by Ken, Jesamyn and Susan-Marie's recent comments regarding Time]

When, exactly, IS now? Is it now as I write this in a London hotel (at 4am on a particularly insomniacal night); or is it now as I type this (at 1.00 pm in a Thames-side pub); or is it now as you read this (whatever time that may be)?
The answer is most certainly, none of the above, as each instance of potential 'now-ness' has already become the past and was already the past well before you perceived the initial illusionary moment of now.

We think of Time as a linear progression from A to B with causality and effect: Past, Present and Future; Time’s Arrow! Time, in Einsteinian terms, is curved; curve something enough and it eventually bends back upon itself: But how soon is now? Is now an anomaly of space-time and indeed is your conception of now precisely that of mine? Recent neurological research would suggest not, as our perception of now is delayed, by the neuronal configuration in our brains, in being presented to our consciousness. Can this “Consciousness Buffer” be identical, to a trillionth of a second, for every solitary human being? I personally doubt it, so my now and your now can be very different.

Consider the now of an Eidolon and Daemon compared to the now of a Virgin Life; The now of the Eidolon and Daemon are by definition different to each other as the Daemon is conscious of future events; now-with-an-eye-on-the-past being necessarily different from now-with-an-eye-on-the-future. And consider the now of the Virgin Life: this now will also differ from the Eidolonic now as every moment is new and not a replay, but all of this leads me to more and more questions, the leading ones being:

Is Time a consciousness construct? Is Time an empty ephemeral evanescence? Does Time require an observer? Is Time a constant stream or a series of quantised 'Now's?

Or is Time the phantom premise.

A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs

Apocalypse Now / Eternal return - Julian Baggini

First off let me highly recommend the amazing book by Julian Baggini "The pig that wants to be eaten" and 99 other thought experiments. It gives sevreral philosophical ponderings and ethical dilemas, it's one of the best books i've read in ages (*coughs*, oh apart from this one book, i forget the name of it).

Anyway number 69 (no serioulsy) The Horror makes an interesting speculation about the end scene of Apocalypse now:

" 'The horror! The Horror!'
Many have speculated about what inspired Colonel Kurtz to utter those famous last words. The answer lies in what he realised just before he let out his last breath. In that moment, he understood the past, present and future were all illusions. No moment in time is ever lost. Everything that happens exists for ever.

That meant his impending death would not be the end. His life, once lived, would always exist. And so, in a sense, the life he had lived would be lived again and again, eternally recurring, each time exactly the same and thus with no hope of learning, of changing, of righting past wrongs.
Had Kurtz made a success of his life he could have borne that realisation. He could have looked upon his work, thought 'it is good' and gone to his grave serene in triumph over death. The fact that he instead reacted with horror testified to his failure to overcome the challenges of mortal existance.
'The horror! The horror!' Would you react to the thought of eternal recurrence any differently?

Sources: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Fredrich Neitzsche (1891); Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1902)

Baggini goes on to point out 'Even if our lives are not fated to be infinitely repeated, whether or not we can bear the thought that would be is, for Neitzsche, a test of wether we have 'overcome' life. Only the 'overman', who has complete self-mastery over his fate, could look upon his life with enough satisfaction to accept his eternal recurrence.

It is important to remember that what Neitzsche is talking about is not a kind of Groundhog Day. IN that film, Bill Murray found himself in the same day again and again, but each time he had the opportunity to do things differently. Hence he had the possibility of redemption, of escaping the cycle, by finally learning how to love. Neitzsche's form of recurrence is one in which there is no awareness that one is doing the same thing again, and there is no opportunity to do it differently. It is literally the exact same life, lived again and again...

The overman accepts the idea of recurrence without the blinkers and filters that protect us from the pain of remembering. That is why Neitzsche believed the overman was so rare, and why the rest of us would react like Kurtz to the thought of history repeating itself again, and again and again.

Overman. Interesting. Discuss (my fingers are tired)

The Terminator and altering the future/past

I remember having a discussion about the plausibility of one aspect of the movie, The Terminator. A man appears and saves Sarah Conner and ends up being the father of her child, John. That child, in the future, sends the man back in time to save Sarah Conner. However, I had the scenario wrong and I was arguing that the child went back in time and was his own father. (This is not really a post about the Oedipus complex. Bear with me.) Viewed in linear-time, you have something like the following (and track left to right with your eyes):

_______\/_______/\_____

where \/ is a man who was not born yet appearing out of no where and /\ is a man disappearing into no where. So, the question is: How can a man who has not been born yet appear at some point in time. And if he can't appear then how can be ever be born?

But if we take the view of time as stations along a train track, as Anthony discusses in ITLAD, then you have something more like the following (and look at the whole picture at once):

         __________
        |        /|\
_______\|/________|_____

So, you can see that it makes more sense. The man goes back in time and is capable of being a father and meets a woman and they have a baby. That baby happens to grow up to go back in time and is capable of being a father ... Cause and effect are removed from the equation because all the pieces are there, always will be there, always have been there. This would be the view that time is an artifact of our perception. Nothing really changes in this view. Things happen and it's harder to assign cause and effect to the various pieces.

Now think about events where death was averted (such as in not taking our usual train because of a strong feeling that we should wait and the train crashes). To say that we avoided death or that our life was changed implies a linear time concept with cause and effect. What happens now changes what happens in the future. But if we think about the events in our life as static and we are merely tracking through them, then what we do now does not alter the future because the future has already been mapped out. So, we chose not to take the A train and thus avoided the fatal crash because that's what we do -- present tense.

I realize this all seems very boring and deterministic and does not leave room for free will, chance, randomness, whatever. But I've been thinking about our BIMAX and what if the recording was made at the Big Bang? What if the flow of time REALLY is an artifact and our DVD has always existed and we are simply watching a pre-recorded recording? I'm not quite finished ITLAD yet but Anthony spends quite some time on the nature of time and I'm wondering why since all the BIMAX, Many Worlds, etc. pieces seem to rely on time moving forwarded with the future unknown.

If any of this makes a lick of sense to you, comments are appreciated. Thank you and "I know you are going to say that" ;-)

Deja Vu and getting older.

I responded with a comment made by Dreamer with regard to my posting two days ago. On completing it I thought that it was probably useful to place it as a full posting as well as a comment. Dreamer made the observation that as we get older, the incidence of deja vu experiences become less and less. Dreamer's observation is supported by a good deal of empirical research on the subject. I presented an Itladian suggestion as to why this may be.

If the pure memory argument is to work (i.e. that these circumstances subconsciously remind me of a similar set of circumstances encountererd earlier in my life) is to hold water then surely the more life experiences we have (i.e. getting older) the more these coincidences should take place. The evidence suggests the opposite. I propose that there are two CTF reasons for this:

1. As we get older our ability to recall memories (engrams) of our previous 'life-run' fade. In our early years they are still there just below the surface of conscious awareness. As such they can regularly surface into eidolonic consciousness. With time these memories fall deeper into daemonic consciousness and thus are not so accessible to 'unbidden eidolonic recall'.

2. As we get older it is more likely that we will experience a Daemonic Mutation. By this I mean an intervention by our Daemon that brings about a change that takes us off the path of our Bohmian IMAX and trajects is into the Bohmain IMAX of another version of ourselves - the one that followed the path after the intervention. For example a daemonically induced precognitive dream is heeded and the subject does not catch a particular airline flight. Last time the subject was killed when the plane crashed. This time they avoid death. From that moment on the 'plot' or 'script' of that person's Bohmian IMAX has been changed totally. As such they (and their Daemon) will have no memories to recall because it is all new experience. As such Deja vu's will also cease.

So it is not at all surprising that as we get older deja vu's happen less and less. However I am becoming very interested in the theories that suggest that there is a 'Consciousness Field' (suggested by Laszlo, Halliday and McTaggart among others). It may be that some post-Daemonic Mutation deja vu experiences could be facilitated by memories not contained within daemonic consciousness but within 'The Field' - what Eugene Halliday termed Reflexive Self-Consciousness and a similar concept, The Akashic Record. For me these are both potential elements of David Bohm's Implicate Order and compliment CTF.

7 Waves Radio Interview - Thursday 20th March

I will be interviewed by 7 Waves Radio here on the Wirral this coming Thursday (20th March) at 13:30 (UK time). I was interviewed by this local station this time last year so I will be giving an update on what has happened over the last year and discussing my new book. Although only broadcast over a small area 7 Waves can be listened to on-line. If anybody out there is interested you can send a message or question via the 'contact' tab at the top right hand side of their web page into the station whilst I am 'live'. It would be great to hear from you - even better if you say where you are contacting from. Log on at:

http://www.7waves.co.uk/live-across-the-wirral/

I am hoping that if this goes well we may be able to have a longer 'phone-in' session that will allow an on-line discussion that will involve you guys from far afield such as The States, Canada, New Zealand etc.

Deja Vu and song lyrics

One of the stimulants to write ITLAD was to find an explanation for deja vu. I have had this sensation since I was very young and like most people I had the sensation before I knew that there was a word for it.

In recent years I have them fairly rarely and as such when the take place they always take me by surprise. This morning I had the overwhelming feeling that I had read Dreamer's comment on my IONS posting before. This was quite precise. At some indeterminate time in my past I have read that comment sitting on this sunny spring morning looking out my study window. Both the contents of the comment and the circumstances are fully entwined. Clearly for me this is not a simple 'subconscious recognition' of a similar event in my past. I know that these set of circumstances have never happened before.

Because I was in a state of heightened observation I was able to 'observe' the sensation as it took place. I knew exactly what Dreamer was going to say at the end of the comment before I read it. I knew that Lynne McTaggart would be mentioned and that Dreamer would place references to ITLAD and CTF on the sites she is involved in. For me this was a possible precognition.

Of course one could argue that I had already subconsciously scanned the end of the email but my mind had not processed it. But if my mind had not been involved how could I recognise it?

Indeed this is something I seem to experience a lot; that something - an idea, a song or a memory, will leap unbidden into my mind and stimulate a displacement action. A classic took place recently. For some reason when I open or close the curtains in one of our rooms I will, unfailingly, start to non-verbally sing one particular section of the song Machine Gun Kelly by James Taylor (off the simply excellent album Mud Slide Slim). I was at a loss as to why this took place every time I closed one particular curtain. It was only a few days ago I realised what was happening. Part of me, a part of me outside of my everyday awareness (my Daemon?), would glance at the bookcase to the right of the curtain in question. This is one of my wife's bookcases, so contains books I have never read (we have quite different tastes in reading). As I was about to close the curtains, but before James started singing in my head, my everyday awareness (Eidolon?) spotted one book - Just Between Us by Cathy Kelly. There was the answer to the mystery. Every morning and evening my subliminal consciousness was making a series of links that went something like this; Cathy Kelly will probably also be known as Catherine Kelly - Katherine Kelly was the wife of Machine Gun Kelly. Machine Gun Kelly is a song I have known since 1971 and one lyric of that song is:

I'll tell you about Katherine Kelly,

Tired on being such small time

Figured they'd kidnap a rich man's son

Make it in the world of crime

But the odd thing is that this was not the verse that my mind picked up upon but an earlier verse:

Machine Gun Kelly was a simple man,

But the woman was as heard as hell

And these were the lines that crept into my mind. I had unconsciously read the book title which had stimulated an unbidden memory of a song which then immediately appeared in my mind - but not the section of the song that mentions the actual link - the name K(C)atherine Kelly.

Could this be what happened this morning with Dreamer's comment?

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

I have recently joined The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). I have now spent a few days looking round its website and enjoying the benefits of its membership and I am sure that many members of this blog (particularly you guys in The States and Canada) may find it of great interest. I have already placed a handful of my blog entries on this site onto it and they are causing a fair degree of interest. Early days but I am sure that sooner or later ITLAD and CTF will be noticed by this organisation. It would be great if we could have some of our fascinating debates that we have on this site mirrored on the IONS site - particularly as a lot more people will be reading them. If any of you would like to check out IONS and consider joining please take a look at the website http://www.noetic.org/ . I think the best option is the 'Shift In Action Partnership Program'. This costs $10.00 a month and the benefits are really quite impressive. Like anything else the more you put in the more you are likely to get out. You get your own section of the site and you can then blog to your hearts content about any subject (including ITLAD and CTF!)

It will be interesting to see if non-members can log onto the Shift In Action site - this is

http://www.shiftinaction.com/

I am also keen that some of the UK bloggers think about joining up. I note that IONS is not very well represented in the UK. If we had enough members I am sure that we could set up a second UK branch. There is one in London and that really seems to be it.

Of course I do not wish this to in any way replace this blog site, but as a way of expanding our profile in the USA.

It would be interesting to have your feedback on this suggestion.

The Fountain - My Review (As Promised!)

So i watched it this morning and found it quite an interesting watch. I definately agree that it needs several viewings before a fair opinion can be formed. The film captures the absurdity of being afriad of death. Death is as necessary as life, they're two sides of the same coin. Like Rachel Weisz put it, stars die and give birth to other stars, it's true that we are just like them. The ending in particular gives a nice visual on one of the many themes of this film, that being that we are all connected. It's fragmented chronology bears similarities to Jacobs Ladder, which shares similar themes to this film.

Throughout the film i was reminded of another film i saw probably over ten years ago now. You know these films you catch late one night (or i should say morning) at like 2-3am and then you never find out what they were called and forget about them? This happened to me and then about 6 years later i was at a friend's house in Manchester flicking through the channels and after about 1 second i recognised the film straight away!! The film is called Being Human and Stars Robin Williams. He plays several everyman characters throughout history and the film shares the same fragmented chaos which manages to show how we are all connected. I remember very little about the film so this will probably be next on my list *rushes off to ebay!*

Definately many ITLADian themes to explore throughout the film and good performances from both Jackman and Weisz. I'll probably give it another watch again soon as i think it deserves multiple viewings aswell. Below is a link for the film Everyman.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106379/

Stephen Hawkings - Part Deux (the remix)

So i watched the second part to "Master of the universe" last night and loved it. I found the explanation of string theory, 11 dimensions and membranes absolutely fascinating. The thought that there are these big sheets of time and space and our universe is one of many that form out of 3d is amazing. I would be very grateful if the plethora of brilliant minds on this blog could share their knowledge and opinions on this amazing M theory. Any books recommended? Any problems you're particularly fascinated by? I now feel slightly more equiped to understand Karl's vast amount of posts on Gravity! From the little extra i've learned in the past 24 hours i understand this helps to shed light on why gravity was thought of to be the weakest of the forces but now may simply be filtered out by other dimensions. Visual aids are so, so helpful aren't they? Anyway, oh the point? I liked part 2.

Philip K Dick's precognition in Dean Radin's 'Entangled Minds'

A very curious case of coincidence/synchrondipity has just taken place.

I have recently been in contact with American science writer and researcher Dean Radin. I placeca comment on his blogger site (http://deanradin.blogspot.com/) and he responded with interest in both my theories and my website. I am hopeful that at some stage Dean will also take a look at this excellent (thanks to you guys) blog. As I have recently joined the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in which Dean is a senior scientist I am keen to have his involvement.

If you look on Amazon USA you will find that a high percentage of people who buy ITLAD also buy Dean's book Entangled Minds. I now have my own copy and I settled down to read it this morning. I am very much enjoying it and I can highly recommend it to anybody wishing to look into greater detail the implications of quantum physics. However I was stunned to discover that on page 25 Dean discusses our very own Philip K Dick. As I have a whole chapter of my book dedicated to PKD I was keen to read Dean's 'take' on this great man. Dean takes a quote from Dick's autobiographical work "How To Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later". I have not read this because if I had the following quote by Dick would have had pride of place in "The Daemon":

'In 1970 I wrote a novel called Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. One of the characters is a nineteen-year-old girl named Kathy. Her husband's name is Jack. Kathy appears to work for the criminal underground, but later, as we read deeper into the novel, we discover that actually she is working for the police. She has a relationship going on with a police inspector. The character is pure fiction. Or at least I thought it was.

Anyhow, on Christmas Day of 1970, I met a girl named Kathy - this was after I had finished the novel, you understand. She was nineteen years old. Her boyfriend was named Jack. I soon learned that Kathy was a drug dealer. I spent months trying to make her give dealing drugs; I kept warning her again and again that she would get caught. Then, one evening as we were entering a restaurant together, Kathy stopped short and said "I can't go in." Seated in the restaurant was a police inspector whom I knew. "I have to tell you the truth," Kathy said. "I have a relationship with him."

Certainly, these are odd coincidences. Perhaps I have precognition.'

Now what is really interesting about this is that in my chapter on PKD in The Daemon I cite many examples of his precognitive abilities (including having a vision about his own death which, as far as I am aware has not been published anywhere else) but none about him using events yet to happen as plot devices. However the book has many examples of other writers who have done this. I argue that there is strong evidence to presume that PKD had TLE and that he had a particularly active Daemon - a Daemon that was to become even more active in March 1974 (three years or so later than these events) when PKD experienced what he called his 'theophany'. Now if CTF is correct then PKD was subliminally aware that the future was, in fact, the past, a past that he had experienced in his previous loop round the Bohmian IMAX. As such he subconsciously (or via direct Daemonic inspiration) wove the 'real' events that he was about to experience into a story.

With TLE being a major topic after Daza Vu's contribution this 'discovery' is particularly significant.

So Far, So Good

I just came across this very ITLADian quote in an American magazine called The Sun:

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." -- Steven Wright

[Coincidentally, Wright appears in the film Coffee and Cigarettes, highlighted by HurlyBurly below.]

KERRANG Interview

The interview this evening went very well. my congratulations to the interviewer Nick Margerrison who very quickly took on board some of the more intellectually challenging concepts of ITLAD and CTF and asked some very perceptive questions. What should have been ten minutes ended up as half an hour. This will now be edited and will be broadcast at some time in the future. It is also possible that it may be turned into a downloadable podcast. Please be aware that contrary to what I was told it will not be broadcast tonight (11th March). I will, of course, announce the actual broadcast date and time as soon as I am informed by Kerrang.

Proof of CTF?

I never thought that I would have a meeting so profoundly influential on my thinking as the one I had with 'Margaret', a temporal lobe epileptic, back in 2000. However my meeting with Daza Vu on Friday afternoon (7th March 2008) was simpy amazing (see posting below). If I ever had any doubts about the power of CTF this meeting would simply blew them away. Our chat in his living room was a simply amazing experience. To have somebody describe in great detail exactly every section of one's theory is humbling, exciting and not a little scary. I really feel that I am onto something so important it takes my breath away. His mother was with him and corroborated all of the events that she was witness to including the hyper-hearing which amazes her.

The synchronicities of the meeting and the significance of what Daza Vu told me and writes about above (and that is only part of it, believe me)are stunning.

For example: I, for some weird reason, asked him about his favourite band. It was to lighten slightly the intensity of the discussions. He said it was the band Chicane, and then he said that one of their videos so much described how he perceived the world. As he described the storyline of the video I realised that it is based upon the movie Paycheck. Now Paycheck is an interesting film but what makes my blood run cold is that it is based upon a novel by - guess who - Philip K Dick. I am sure that all Dick's stories are attempts to present they way he saw the world - through his illness which was believed to be, wait for it - Temporal Lobe Epilepsy!

Daza had not heard of Philip K Dick and therefore had no idea of their mutual TLE. Daz related to the video simply because its contents suggest a world as perceived by somebody with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9iY8L6J51Q&feature=related

By the way, listen to the start of the video. A voice is heard to say to the main character :

"Get yourself out of here, try and remember what's going on"

Is that the voice of his Daemon? Also interesting that the word 'remember ' is used.

I am hoping to see Daza again soon. He is a very down to earth and sensible young man, a young man who may be living proof that ITLAD is far more than mere conjecture.

Oh finally, if you watch the video through to the end it adds something that is not in the Paycheck movie. The character in the video takes out a red pill, takes it and finds himself back at the start of the video. Classic Eternal Return. But there is more. He takes a red pill. Not just a clear reference to The Matrix movie but as all of you who have seen my lecture will confirm - I term my book 'the red pill'!!

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy , Deja Vu & The Daemon (Personal Experience)

Posting by Daza Vu using the Doppelganger Facility.

I have had Temporal Lobe Epilepsy since the age of 16 (I'm now 30). I underwent an operation back in November 2006 to have part of my left temporal lobe removed. I have been use in the past to a lot of things that where mentioned on your youtube video. For example when I have an petit-mal absence (which can last hours) I am literally taken over by some other part of me that has, in the past, shown knowledge and performed actions without my involvement. I also experienced exactly the same kind of time slowing down as you describe in your lecture happened to 'Margaret'.

When I go into an absence I seem to not feel pain. I once had a seizure whilst making a cup of tea. I continued pouring the boiling water over my fingers whist I was in the 'absence'. This badly scalded my fingers. Normally that would bring about an instinctive reaction to pull my hand away from the scalding water. This did not happen. I poured the whole boiling contents of the kettle onto my hand and felt nothing. It was only later, and after the petit mal had come to an end, when my hand swelled up like a balloon that my mother realised what I had done and rushed me to hospital.

My absences and seizures became so regular that I simply couldn't go on. I didn't want to continue with my medications and agreed to have an operation to cut out the parts of my temporal lobes that the epilepsy started from.

When I awoke from the operation my first words were not my own, something in me said to the doctor "What am I doing alive?". I have subsequently felt that something strange happened on that operating table. In one universe I died but in this one, and for some strange reason, I survived.

Since my operation I have been attack free for just over 1 year but my deja vu's have increased a lot, I have met people I've never met before and when they've started a conversation I can finish the story and tell them what they are about to tell me. Just last week I went out with a friend and a few more people and whilst everyone was in conversation I was just sat there blown away because I just felt I'd been there before in the past. I feel as though I'm re-living life again but this time making the opposite decision to what I would of made in the previous life to see the outcome. This is exactly how you describe it in your lecture. All the time I keep changing the future for myself but another me follows the other path. The weird thing is I know that even if I committed suicide I would wake up again as if nothing had happened.

I also have heightened senses. I can have my music on really loudly in my bedroom but if my mother is talking about me in the kitchen something in me hears this and I am aware of every word. It is as if somebody has moved a hifi speaker much closer to me. I can also sometimes focus my vision onto distant objects and 'zoom in'.

I feel that the reality I see around me is an illusion - just like the Jim Carrey character discovers in the movie "The Truman Show". I had always felt this but it is even stronger since my operation. My deja vu sensations prove this to me. Last week I was watching the Everton game on TV with a group of friends. I had a weird deja vu like feeling and I told them that Everton would be beaten 2-0. It may have been coincidence (which I know it was not) but that was the correct score.

There is a video by one of my favourite bands (Chicane). It really defines exactly how I feel about the world. It is as if there is a hidden pattern to everything and my epilepsy helps me see it - but just as in the video, I am mostly in a state of confusion, the meaning becomes clear when something else happens. I know that I have experienced these things before. My deja vus are memories of the last time I lived this life. I am going round and round as the guy is in the video.

(link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7jZ1zaH6IA)

I met Anthony on Friday and after discussing my experiences and his theory I know that he is suggesting something of profound importance - I know because I am living his theory every day. For me his 'Cheating The Ferryman' explains everything that is happening to me.

Hugh Jackman and "The Fountain"

Several posters to this blog have mentioned the film "The Fountain," which is definitely a must-see for anyone interested in ITLADian concepts.

It's difficult to describe exactly what this film is "about," but it's been described as "a love affair that transcends time." I'd prefer to leave the more detailed analysis of the film and its ITLADian implications to our resident film guru, HurlyBurly, once he's had a chance to watch and digest it -- for one thing, I think I'd need to watch the film several more times before I could do it justice. However, I just wanted to highlight an interview with Hugh Jackman which appears as a Special Feature on the DVD and which fits in with Tony's idea that ITLAD is part of a broader cultural phenomenon engineered for some ulterior purpose, with the participants (screenwriters, actors, etc.) not always necessarily fully aware of how their work fits in with the theory.

In the interview (which originally aired on MTV, I think), Jackman describes how he felt on first reading the script for "The Fountain":

"I had this feeling of hope; I just felt very light. . . . I thought, there's some message here that really connects to me. . . . I felt like it was a myth, a modern-day myth. I couldn't necessarily [explain] all the themes, etc., of the piece, but it really connected with me, and I thought, 'Yeah, this is what life's about.'"

He said that if he had to sum the film up in a few words, he'd say it was about the importance of dealing with death before you can fully live.
Jackman said his feelings on reading the script were so strong that he committed to the project immediately, even before he's spoken with his agent. And once the film had been made, he felt "exhausted yet satisfied." He described the experience as "an opportunity I've never had before."

I found this interview inspiring and encouraging. It reminded me that the ideas raised in "Is There Life After Death?" ring true for many people. And it confirmed that "The Fountain" -- like many of the films with ITLADian references -- requires and deserves multiple viewings.