Happy New Year to All!
Yes, 'the Ham' is still alive and monitoring the wisdom of moqtalk.
As an octogenarian, I am naturally interested in learning what may be the
next phase of my "awareness" -- if any. This has led me to read two books
during the past year: Dinesh D'Souza's 'Life After Death" (c 2009) and Eben
Alexander's 'Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife'
(c 2012).
While both opuses are fascinating treatments of near-death experiences from
an objective (SOM) perspective, and D'Souza does an admirable job of
demonstrating the moral benefits of belief in an "afterlife" as opposed to
atheism, Dr. Alexander provides us with first-hand experience (his own)
which from any perspective is more credible evidence in support of
transcendent consciousness. Considering that the author is a practicing
neurosurgeon with no prior religious indoctrination, what he has to say
would appear to add even more to his credibility.
Thousands of people have reported near-death experiences (NDE) which
scientists typically explain as "empty fantasies produced by brains under
extreme stress." What makes Dr. Alexander's experience exceptional is that
his brain was shot down completely ("flatlined") for seven days as he lay in
a coma. He was diagnosed with a rare form of spinal meningitis from which
the recovery rate is less than 30%. Yet, he defied the odds and managed to
make a complete recovery within a few weeks' time.
I'll get to the subject heading in a moment, but those of you who share my
interest may find the author's conclusions enlightening. Here are some
notable excerpts:
"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true;
the other is to refuse to believe what is true."
-- Soren
Kierkegaard
"To understand how the brain might actually block out access to
knowledge of the higher worlds,
we need to accept--at least hypothetically and for the moment--that the
brain itself doesn't produce
consciousness. That it is, instead, a kind of reducing valve or
filter, shifting the larger, nonphysical
consciousness that we possess in the nonphysical world down into a more
limited capacity for the
duration of our mortal lives.
"In all this writing, one word seemed to come up again and again. REAL.
What I'd experienced was more real than the house I was writing in,
more real than the logs
burning in the fireplace. Yet there was no room for that reality in
the medically trained
scientific worldview that I'd spent years acquiring.
"The unconditional love and acceptance that I experienced on my journey
is the single most
important discovery I have ever made, or will ever make, and as hard as
I know it's going to be
to unpack the other lessons I learned while there, I also know in my
heart that sharing this
very basic message--one so simple that most children readily accept
it--is the most important
task I have.
"Love is, without doubt, the basis of everything. Not some abstract,
hard-to-fathom kind of love,
but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows--the kind of love we feel
when we look at our spouse
and our children, or even our animals. In its purest and most powerful
form, this love is not
jealous or selfish, but UNCONDITIONAL. This is the reality of
realities, the incomprehensibly
glorious truth of truths that exists or ever will exist, and no
remotely accurate understanding of
who and what we are can be achieved by anybody who does not know it,
and embody it in all
their actions."
--Eben
Alexander, MD: Proof of Heaven
Could this Love be the Quality (DQ) of which Mr. Pirsig speaks?
It most certainly gives meaning to the Value of my Essentialism.
Just another thought offered for contemplation in the new year.
Wishing you a safe and fulfilling 2013,
--Ham
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
