Happy New to you, Ham, and ALL!
On Dec 31, 2012, at 1:54 PM, Hamilton Priday wrote:
> 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
>
>
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