Can't share your enthusiasm for 'God Delusion' I'm afraid - I think I found the first chapter online and got bored picking the holes in his arguments there were just so many. The only way it made me think was how ironic it was that a man in many ways so deluded would presume to write to educate people on other people's delusions....
I am not sweating it, because I've been dead before. It was no big deal. I was born in 1947. Forty-four was a pretty good year for me. Or was it 45? My dad got to come home from being in a war. Or so I am told. Having been dead and all, I have no memory of it. I was dead right through the previous Great Depression. The Black Plague? Gave it a miss. Being dead has its advantages. You're only dead twice.
I had one a few months ago, undergoing what is for me, alas, a routine medical procedure. I matter-of-factly informed the technician of my progress down the tunnel with the bright light. "I am getting nauseous. I am going to pass out. I have lost my vision..."
When I came to, I saw a crowd and a crash cart. I was the only one in the room who wasn't freaked out. It wasn't long before I was smiling and comforting my young doctor. She had just that week started her first real doctor-gig after internship, and she was a little shook up.
I rather enjoyed the whole thing. Except for the nausea.
When I had my NDE, I saw the tunnel and the bright light. I could hear the voices of my departed friends and relatives. They were saying, "Quick! Cover that light up before he sees it and finds us!"
In all seriousness, do read Susan Blackmore's excellent analysis of NDEs in Dying to Live.
You lucky stiff.
My NDA was a total blank : http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/lounge/178225-you-really-going-dead-2.html#post2382702
Could it be because i came prepped by intense flight training, with loads of booze since carnival youth years, plus the complementary 12hr time travel jumps ?
No profound experiences here, not counting the Willie Nelson-induced experiences.
Closest i got was temporarily loosing eyesight and 'seeing stars'.
Caused by oxygen-deprivation, 2.5 litres of blood occupied the space in my chest where
normally my right lung would be.
Gave the old ticker a hard time contracting and expanding,
all i thought was ****, i need to get to hospital.
Not something i wish to relive.
Closest i got was temporarily loosing eyesight and 'seeing stars'.
Caused by oxygen-deprivation, 2.5 litres of blood occupied the space in my chest where
normally my right lung would be.
Gave the old ticker a hard time contracting and expanding,
all i thought was ****, i need to get to hospital.
Not something i wish to relive.
Anything you can do, i can do better.
I can do anything, better than you.
Ta da da.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7Hh5PzELo
Attachments
To tell the truth I had three altogether but I was too young to begin to understand the first one as I was only about 4 years old then.
All through my childhood I had this memory of seeing myself floating face down in a river. I only found out what happened when I was going through some old photos with my mother at the age of 16 or so.
At some point she said 'Here that is our old neighbours son who saved you from drowning when you fell in a river'. I had no memory of falling in, just seeing myself floating from way above!
The other two happened when I was in hospital with severe meningitis.
Those two were of the 'bright light' variety: At that time I was completely aware of anything that ever happened in my life, behind me was total darkness (very unpleasant and frightening) before me very bright yet very pleasant bright light. I knew that if I stepped forward into it all pain and suffering would end, stepping back would mean more pain.
Luckily my mother was in the room and I stepped back for her sake and thus I am still around!
The light was nothing like 'heaven' in the usual sense, it was much more like the buddhist idea of nirvana ie nothingness. At that point nothing was hugely more pleasant than the excruciating pain and fear meningitis inflicts on its sufferers.
After I eventually recovered (I was in hospital for 3 months, including my 30th birthday) I had the feeling that my brain was a quite sluggish compared to before which lead me to attempt the Mensa entry test which I passed surprisingly easily with an score of 156. Wonder what it would have been before the meningitis though…
Guess I was lucky but I still can't open my mouth on one side and one eye as far as on the other.
It's always a sad feeling when truly (stupid word, truely is much prettier) gifted personas, who succeeded to convert their talent into creating wonderfull things, don't make it to the finish line gracefully.
Like Steve McQueen, someone i've identified with on/off screen since my early years, almost as sharing the same mold, even after his death.
Earlier this week i realised i've currently outlived him by 3/4 of a year, which is a positive feeling.
A friend in high school +30y ago told me he admired me for my individuality, for making the choice to be an einzelgänger, ironic thing was that i envied him for being a crowd pleaser.
Listening to JC (Jean-Christophe) Morrison's speech and talking to the guy last weekend was fun, among others.
Made me realise even more that it's OK to be an avid contradiction in terms, and that when you live long enough you'll bump into guys as JC, equally loudmouthed and non-compliant.
Screw the twilight zone, i'll settle with living right here and now, as moi !
re: 'Can't share your enthusiasm for 'God Delusion'' - me too, his arguments are simplistic and selective. I'm not saying that I disagree totally with his conclusions, just that he makes the same mistakes as his opponents - forgets about the psychological dimension... hard science doesn't have all the answers... and not all texts are to be taken literally ...
THere is such a rich irony in this statment I can barely bring myself to point it out...
But I have.
It's possible that what people 'see' immediately after death will be tailored to what they preceive life as. Like belief in different God's, Heaven , Hell, punishment etc. They probably 'see' their ultimate destiny depending on their own 'algorithm' that they developed living this physical life.
However I think it passes that stage on to what isn't yet fully understood and is possibly a completely different 'good' scenario. You may ask why it's 'good'. Well that is just based on the assumption ( and what many scriptures and most research appears to say ) that Everything eventually ends up being ' the ultimate good '.
I would also assume that those that have had a terrible time after death would be because they have done so many intentionally negative things on Earth that they are traumatised by it's after effects on those around and so would automatically be reborn under 'suitable' conditions to rectify (or pay ?) for their terrible past deeds and eventually (?) die being better people ! I guess how many times this happens depends on how we 'reform' ourselves in the new life. I keep seeing the number seven in many discussions and also in the scriptures in some places where they talk about seven rebirth cycles.
I guess we will ALL know this for sure some day. For many of us that day isn't too far away as we are past mid life already. For the younger guys it's time to reflect on their own lives and see if they need to sort out negative sections of their own "algorithm".
Cheers.
PS: Some researchers keep saying that one can do what one wanted in the after life. So maybe there is a hww.diyaudio.heaven site on the other side.
However I think it passes that stage on to what isn't yet fully understood and is possibly a completely different 'good' scenario. You may ask why it's 'good'. Well that is just based on the assumption ( and what many scriptures and most research appears to say ) that Everything eventually ends up being ' the ultimate good '.
I would also assume that those that have had a terrible time after death would be because they have done so many intentionally negative things on Earth that they are traumatised by it's after effects on those around and so would automatically be reborn under 'suitable' conditions to rectify (or pay ?) for their terrible past deeds and eventually (?) die being better people ! I guess how many times this happens depends on how we 'reform' ourselves in the new life. I keep seeing the number seven in many discussions and also in the scriptures in some places where they talk about seven rebirth cycles.
I guess we will ALL know this for sure some day. For many of us that day isn't too far away as we are past mid life already. For the younger guys it's time to reflect on their own lives and see if they need to sort out negative sections of their own "algorithm".
Cheers.
PS: Some researchers keep saying that one can do what one wanted in the after life. So maybe there is a hww.diyaudio.heaven site on the other side.
I was a mathematics major as an undergraduate.
Then I got my PhD in philosophy.
As my thesis, my paper was entitled "The Indestructibility of Information"
Long story short...
Whenever the universe creates something that differentiates itself from random noise (in other words, a pattern of some kind) then the universe preserves it.
It doesn't die.
Even if its form changes form.
I illustrate it thusly:
Many times the brain has been compared to a hologram. Holograms and brains have the following properties in common:
- They contain information
- Division of the whole creates parts which sum to provide information contained in the whole
- Assays (analysis of the information) of the parts reveal "ghosts" of the whole
- No part can be "completely" destroyed
- If the whole hologram is "destroyed" (unreadable) then the universe "assimilates" the information in the fields surrounding the holographic medium
So what it all means is that though you might be killed, burned, exploded, or whatever else.... there is an indestructable part of you that remains imprinted and (there is evidence to suggest) continues to be active in the remainder of the universe around your now-defunct physical body.
Yes, we are eternal.
We are spirit living a physical existence.
Then I got my PhD in philosophy.
As my thesis, my paper was entitled "The Indestructibility of Information"
Long story short...
Whenever the universe creates something that differentiates itself from random noise (in other words, a pattern of some kind) then the universe preserves it.
It doesn't die.
Even if its form changes form.
I illustrate it thusly:
Many times the brain has been compared to a hologram. Holograms and brains have the following properties in common:
- They contain information
- Division of the whole creates parts which sum to provide information contained in the whole
- Assays (analysis of the information) of the parts reveal "ghosts" of the whole
- No part can be "completely" destroyed
- If the whole hologram is "destroyed" (unreadable) then the universe "assimilates" the information in the fields surrounding the holographic medium
So what it all means is that though you might be killed, burned, exploded, or whatever else.... there is an indestructable part of you that remains imprinted and (there is evidence to suggest) continues to be active in the remainder of the universe around your now-defunct physical body.
Yes, we are eternal.
We are spirit living a physical existence.
No Need
After death there will be no need for DIY Audio Gear, as all music is spiritual, anyway, and we only use musical instruments and electronics to present music as sound in physical space. All music begins in the soul.
OK - so how in the blazes am I gonna be able to DIY some audio gear????
After death there will be no need for DIY Audio Gear, as all music is spiritual, anyway, and we only use musical instruments and electronics to present music as sound in physical space. All music begins in the soul.
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