TIME

 Is it?

 Wow! 

It's been this long!

My dear friends,

The last several years have been quite stressful.  I have been very involved with just keeping up with daily life and ordinary things.  However, since my best friend and soul-mate passed away last year, I am inspired to read and understand the many things he was interested in and hoped that I would follow up on them.

I've pulled up a book he thought was just fabulous, its called the "The Stone Monkey - An Alternative Chinese-Scientific Reality.  Its by my bedside table and hopefully I will find the time. 

I have also been quite interested in Norse Myths, and follow a you tube channel: Lady of the labyrinth/norse myths.  Maria is just fantastic.  She is /was also writing a book on this subject. 

Greetings My Friends

I hope to write something interesting soon. Just been quite ill last summer but getting over it and starting to feel inspired to write again. Blessings.

Near Death Experiencers

 

Researchers are now copyrighting our NDE tunnels!

Summary 

People who have experienced Near-Death events, often share them verbally as well as in writing. And lately, they've been doing so in increasingly large numbers. NDE'rs, of-course, have a natural copyright to their personal experience. Researchers and authors who use these accounts to bolster their own stories or theories, are allowed to do so only under the fair use doctrine. To unilaterally copyright this phenomenon ( by plagarizing the content of NDEs), is to not only impound mankind's sacred esoteric knowledge but to usurp the property rights of the individual who experiences an NDE.

 Discussion 

A page titled, "The Physics of Near-Death-Experiences: A Five-Phase Theory," on a site called Noetic Now (see link below) is bothersome. Its authored by Maureen Venselaar, PhD.

The purpose of this argument is not to debate the scientific or theoretical ground nor the conclusions of Maureen Venselaar's theory (which is a fairly well thought out and plausible idea, but applicable only in a limited sense; as a possible subset, of the infinitely, larger, expanding connectivity of the self with the "internal - external" cosmos), but her copyright of the undeniable and ubiquitous structure of the Near-Death spiritual-scientific phenomenon. In addition, because of her copyrighted "characteristics" and "phases" lists ( which draw directly from the existential states of the individuals who have experienced an NDE, and also from the known essential structure of most NDEs. ), her "theory" becomes an artificial, unlawful mandate. It's an unnecessary, limiting factor in the understanding of the universal, dynamic and unfettered nature of near death experiences. The copyright gives her information/profit-making control over a significant portion of this phenomenon. The descriptions given by NDErs are given freely and magnanimously in order to benefit all of Humankind. They are not narrated for those wish to copyright and profit from this vista of inner knowledge.

Frankly, I don't know whether to laugh or gnash my teeth. This copyright is a monument to a base human nature.  Imagine copyrighting the formation of Nimbus clouds, the hues in the sky from dawn to dawn,  the  'Aurora Borealis' or the process of birth, growth and death!

In addition to the dishonorable copyright, a rudimentary analysis of the Five Phase Theory further establishes its lack of breath and specialized  knowledge of the NDE paradigm.

(a) Over generalizations without regard to the complexity and variability in near death experiences.

(b) Misunderstanding individual consciousness. Asserting that those who are near death lose their individual consciousness and experience another kind of consciousness. A totally different one. But this is incorrect because the consciousness remains the same. However, it is uniquely enhanced; expanded. It is active in a very different environment with unusual geometric properties of time, space and ontology. It is this that evokes the feelings of having another consciousness.

(c) Confirmation bias as evidenced in the return to the body through a still open tunnel. Her references are from the book, "Nader tot het licht" by M. Morse. An English translation of this book called, "Closer to the light, Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children", M. Morse, M.D., with Paul Perry, is extant.  A mere three accounts affirming a return to the body through the "tunnel" are not statistically significant. No serious researcher would leap to agreement with  her "wormhole theory", based on just three NDE accounts.

(d) Lack of knowledge of the "ghostly body of light", "another body" etc. as names for the  psycho- spiritual substances/counterparts of material bodies, as described in esoteric, occult and mystical literature (such as "the most sacred body" (wujud al-aqdas) and "supracelestial body" (jism asli haqiqi) in Sufism, the "diamond body" in Taoism and Vajrayana, the "light body" or "rainbow body" in Tibetan Buddhism, the "body of bliss" in Kriya Yoga, and the "immortal body (soma athanaton)" in Hermeticism, the "koshas" in Vedanta, the "etheric, astral and ego bodies" in Theosophy) indicate an individual who has little interest in the collective wisdom of humanity. There is not even a rudimentary allusion to this very significant and substantial body of knowledge in her work!

(e) A general condescending and superior tone.

This so called theory is not a scientific theory. Its her idea gleaned from reading  personal accounts of people who were near death. The cases she relies on are statistically insignificant. Most NDE accounts have intrinsic to them, five (or more) aspects which she calls the "five phases". These aspects of an NDE predate her copyrighted "five phases theory".  Even the language she uses to describe each phase, has already been used before by hundreds of accounts of people who have been near death. In other words, she is guilty of plagiarism. Her "copyright" is a totally bogus one and should never have been awarded to her.

"The Physics of Near Death Experiences" in the title is a hyperbole which attempts to pigeon-hole the spectrum of near-death experiences into a geometric formula. This absurd copyright is unenforceable sham.

And with the free spirit that is the possession of all, I challenge Ms. Venselaar's copyrighted enumeration of her Five phase theory based on my own documented near-death-experiences, several of them occurring long before she even began indulging in NDE research and long before the advent of the internet or the publishing of NDE books.


My Five Phase/Point Theory (Oops! Six-Point) of the Near-Death-Experience
 

  THE EXPERIENCE 

• Under anesthesia, I fell deeper, deeper into my own body until I became a small point of consiousness. This I called:

Becoming a small point

•  This point at some point of my "journey" separated from my physical body, in that I was not at all conscious of my physical body. This I called a separation from my physical body. 

Separation from Physical Body.

• At some point within the darkness I found myself journeying through a tunnel at the end of which was the presence of a beautiful loving, heavenly light.  

There was a heavenly light.

• I attempted to go into this light, however I couldn't since there was a boundary as this was happening. This boundary was near where the light is, in the same general area. A tangible boundary through which no one can go.  

There was a boundary.

• I returned to my physical body, as if waking from a coma. Unfortunately or fortunately, I don't recall a tunnel on my return journey, or stars and planets but there was a tunnel.  

 There was a tunnel.

• After a few moments I reoriented myself to my body and united with it.  I was in union with my body therefore I had a:
  

Unification with my body.

So you see the point? Most every NDE Experiencer has a natural copyright on the Five, the Six, the Seven and The Multiple Phase Theories.

References

The Physics of Near-Death Experiences: A Five-Phase Theory

The Subtle Body

 

 

Wikipedia Commons

Sapta Chakra, from a Yoga manuscipt in Braj Bhasa lanaguage with 118 pages. 1899.

British Museum

Further more. . .

The author proudly proclaims that after reading hundreds of NDEs, she has further pulled out features from other people's experiences; but remember, according to natural law, the owners of these experiences are the authentic copyright holders of these features, phrases and expressions and not Maureen Venselaar, no matter how she summarizes the content of already copyrighted content to create her bogus copyright. Her reasoning is entirely self-serving. Note what she says in the following paragaraph, "I am convinced of a third possible explanation, which connects severe trauma or sickness to the appearance of an NDE." By this she means the physics of the event - a physics, that is the spatial experience that every NDE experiencer as well as yogi's and others already knows, first hand. 

This copyright  serves no real purpose for humanity. It only testifies to self-aggrandizement and profit. Even a third grader could read through NDE accounts, make a list of features and sell them at a lemonade stand.  Thousands of accounts have already been given by NDEs as a service to humanity with the belief that they will be utilized exclusively for this purpose and not for a researcher's copyright. All NDEers, concerned individuals and organizations worldwide must come together to challenge any exclusive copyright on any sequence or list of features/characteristics and other items gleaned from the account of Near-Death-Experiences.

"For these reasons, I felt challenged to discover and to develop a new coherent and all-inclusive theory. I analyzed hundreds of NDEs, and after more than ten years of study. . . It also adds another ten features to the list of NDE characteristics (all of which are under copyright" she says. Features such as vibrations, the subtle body of ight, moon, stars, milky way, other heavenly bodies, becoming small like a grain, expansion, travelling faster than the speed of light, a magnet-like force, the light, two tornado-shapes that appear like an hour glass, blue and green lights, the importance of a person's thoughts and the forgetting of the higher wisdom received. These additional features that she is copyrighting are glaringly common to NDEs, to copyright them is an absurdity. Yet it appears that the NDE world and its significant others have allowed her to get away with this affront.

A 10 Point Plus Theory of the Near-Death-Experience 

 An illustration to make a point.

Specific characteristics in this account are authentically under my copyright, so if anyone wants to lift an NDE characteristic from this account to add to a copyrighted lemonade list, beware of my wrath.

During part hypthetical, part true NDE, part true OBE, part true Lucid Dreaming collage event I had the following sensations, which can be called features, or attributes, or characteristics or. . . Since they happened to me I feel I have a perfect right to enumerate and express them in my own words and in Phase-Sequence.
 
  I suddently began to feel vibrations (which are a well documented phenomenon in OBEs) as I separated from my body. I felt the cells in my body pop, in a generalized apoptotic event. Suddenly, I was caught up in a cloud and in this cloud I noted that I had the typical linga sharira, a long, rubberband-like, diamond, shining ghostly body. As I expanded into the universe, I zoomed through stars and planets. I saw multiple universes with their own suns and also the milky way. I also saw exactly which spiral I was on. I was in the body of a gigantic, invisible time spirit, the spirit of our galaxy. Our Earth in actuality is in the far lower left leg of this great and sacred being. I became a grain of consciousness, I suppose for the sake of ordinary language description, it could be compared to an ordinary physical grain of sand or better analogy is grain of diamond dust in o during this "journey". Then when I returned, I expanded into my body. I was traveling even faster than even the speed of light. I felt that while I was on the escalator, I was going toward something that was magnetically pulling me towards it. I saw energy vortex/ spirals that looked like an hourglass. Then I was given a choice. Either choose the blue streak of light or the red. I chose the red, as I thought I might be happier after real death within that loving white light, which I had seen earlier. I believed this is what choosing the red meant, my death, code red, however, I was thwarted in my attempt to merge with the light, being shown that my loved ones would be very sad if I died, so I was led to choose the alternative. My thoughts gained pre-emminent supremacy and meaning and became a critical decision making tools. Much was explained to me by unseen spiritual beings, however, I have since forgotten some helpful information although I remember the bulk of my NDE. I had returned to my body through a hole like space inside my head. Then I experienced my expansion into my body.  There might have been a  tunnel on my return but I don't recall it..

And Finally

  

"Ken Ring, Raymond Moody, Bruce Greyson, Jeff Long, Pim von Lommel – have defined the NDE phenomenon to the satisfaction of the NDE community.  If Maureen’s definition is different then she is outside the standard bell curve and is less credible because of it."- A veteran of the NDE community

The Copyright Grinches are coming!

 

 

Great Claims and Great Evidence

The setting: The Ruth, Alabama  EF-4 tornado.

The date: April 27, 2011
The actors: Ari (6 years old), Shane and Jennifer (Ari's parents), Maw Maw and Paw Paw (Ari's  grandparents, Philip and Ann) and her two young cousins.
The event: Tornado strikes. Cows flying through the air, trucks hitting the house, glass breaking all around her. Then she is knocked out and follows her family up a staircase with "her angel".

Rescuers found her unconscious with severe injuries in a field. 
Ari's Near-Death-Experience can be read here: To Heaven after the Storm

The honest and crystal clear accounts of those who have experienced authentic near-death-experiences are personal evidence of the highest integrity and goodwill.  A near-death-experience (NDE) is an experience reported by individuals who have come very close to dying or have died but have revived. In the US alone, documented cases number in the millions says the Gallup Poll. The majority of these experiences point to the existence of an extrasensory world and active supersensible beings both benevolent and malevolent.  From the “etched in my memory” meaningful narratives of such events, it is clear that the NDE accounts are referencing and bringing forth nuggets of knowing, pedagogical guidance and corrections applicable to not just the one undergoing it  but to all humanity, from a source which is the foundation of our individual and collective, all encompassing reality. It is said that great claims require great evidence . . . and this evidence exists. It comes from  the millions of veracious heads, hearts and hands of those who have rendezvoused with death.

Can millions of people be wrong in asserting that their NDE experiences are real? Or is their experience merely the result of a hyperactive imagination, a result of the brain’s chemistry going awry and squeezing out colorful phantasmagoria for the dying person’s entertainment? Can the mineral, physical brain by itself create consciousness? Can matter that is purely mineral, say a stone, make up a near-death-experience? Can minerals think? The affirmative is an obvious absurdity, yet this is what the skeptics want believed and they want it believed at any cost, even if this means misrepresentation, omissions, overlooking important facts, ignoring truth and deliberate falsification.

A paper titled “There is Nothing Paranormal About Near-Death Experiences” illustrates the lengths that skeptics, even if they are from prestigious universities, will go to in order to discredit the phenomenon of Near-Death-Experiences. In this paper, Dr. Watts and Mobbs completely ignored the well documented and substantial body of empirical research on NDEs, including the  facts of lucid consciousness and veridical perceptions during Near-Death-Experiences, especially those occurring with cardiac arrest and deep anesthesia (See: Kelly et al., 2007, Greyson et al., 2009; Greyson, 2000; Fenwick, 2012, Holden, 2009) in order to flagrantly dismiss the events as nothing but messed up functions of a brain gone wrong.  Dr. Bruce Greyson, professor of Psychiatry and an extremely well respected and veteran NDE researcher explains a critical error in this spurious paper, “If you ignore everything paranormal about NDEs then it’s easy to conclude that there is nothing paranormal about them.”

Pim Van Lommel, a cardiologist, a scientist and a veteran of studies in cardiac arrest specific Near-Death-Experiences, in a prospective study with fellow researchers published a paper in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. He says that "the NDE is an authentic experience which cannot be attributed to imagination, psychosis or oxygen deprivation".  He further states that the ideas held by most physicians, psychologists and philosophers are too narrow and not sufficient for a proper understanding of the NDE phenomenon. He evidences through real examples that the consciousness is not always synonymous with brain functions and that consciousness can exist separate from the body, that the brain serves as a facilitator of consciousness and not its producer. He posits scientifically that consciousness is not confined to our brains but is pervasive. He too, like many of us questions a purely materialist paradigm in science.
 
There is much more to the human being than people like Mobbs and Watts are willing to acknowledge.  But like it or not, dying experiences happen at death and sooner or later will apply to everyone, therefore is it not wiser to explore this amazing, profoundly meaningful mystery with a science that is comprehensive, pure and unbiased rather than with  its brain-bound, contorted and stratified caricature?

References:
http://www.systemsphilosophy.org/publications/Rousseau_Journal_of_the_Society_for_Psychical_Research_76.3_908_190-191.pdf
http://www.pimvanlommel.nl/?home_eng
http://www.pimvanlommel.nl/?Endless_consciousness

The Enigma that is not Anu Agarwal but Thomas Hardy's, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"

In the year 1990 a film from the Indian Film Industry created in the 90's, a widespread 1970's style mood of innocent romantic euphoria. From this movie emerged the image of a woman possessing an indisputable aura of mystique and tantric spirituality.  Recently I came across a photograph of Anu, probably taken when she was 21 year old or so which poignantly brought back lucid memories of my own; how I looked and felt at that age when I was a student at the Poona Film and TV Institute of India. Even the movie that won Anu fame and recognition, "Aashiqui" is a nearly accurate account of my own story, complete with the heroine in the movie living at a women's hostel, just like I did.  Life is strange indeed and my subliminal connection with Anu gets uncannier the more I learn about her.

 This evocative photograph of Anu has a certain impressionistic and existential quality, reminiscent of Nastassja Kinski in "Tess", a Polanski movie, don't you agree?

 

While I was a student at the Film Institute, I had a profound Near Death Experience that totally changed my life; from desiring to be a movie star I became a seeker of the true meaning of life and of the spirit instead (See my "LOGOS" post, Oct. 2012).  Anu has expressed  that she is in the process of writing about her near-death-experience and her subsequent metamorphosis. I kept my near-death-experience close to my chest for nearly 30 years and only recently have I posted it on the internet because I felt that there was a need for it in the world.  I think Anu's account will be extremely interesting as well. Inexplicably she also reminds me of the Indian film actress, Parveen Babi.  Parveen had a relationship with the movie producer Mahesh Bhatt, who coincidentally directed Anu's movie mentioned above.  Parveen Babi was also good friends with the philosopher and spiritual searcher, and researcher, U.G.Krishnamurthy.  U.G. was an amazing man who had a mysterious experience which he called "The Calamity"; an event that completely and irrevocably  changed him, not just mentally and psychologically, but spiritually as well, to his very physiology itself.  From the descriptions gathered from Anu's interview, it is likely that her dissociation, might have some features in common with that of U.G.'s alienation, or sublimation, if you will. On the other hand, perhaps its time for a tentative observation; could it be that the post 1999/post accident Anu is a "walk-in?", not the original Anu? Such events, where the original individuality leaves when confronted with great trauma and another being/soul/individuality takes its place, have been described in esoteric literature and in anecdotal accounts. And yet again, it could simply be a part of the process of recovery.

But before jumping to conclusions, let's wait and see what she has to say about her life before and after the accident in her forthcoming and much anticipated book.

I would also appreciate hearing from anyone who may have any additional knowledge about Anu Agarwal's life, her spiritual calling and healing works.  

Quotes  from Anu's interview

                              

'My life started the day I woke up from the coma'
I was comatose for 29 days. My life started from the day I woke up half paralysed, which is when I didn't even know what the meaning of paralysis was. I existed outside my body. I had many, so called, spiritually amazing experiences throughout that time. And I saw the other side, where death is finality and mortality, normal... where the death angel rules.

'So life just happened to me, I didn't make it happen'
I was here on a holiday and suddenly the talent scout guy saw me at Churchgate station. That's how my first modelling job happened. Then acting happened. So life just happened to me, I didn't make it happen.I have learned that you have to let life happen to you and never oppose it. That's the greatest, most peace-giving realisation. People think they make their lives…. They don't do anything.

India forums

~ ~ ~

Anu is the owner and director of an organization called, Come Face-to-Face with You, in the Mumbai area. She is a certified Yogi from the Bihar School of Yoga.- this system of yoga addresses the qualities of head, heart and hands – intellect, emotion and action – and attempts to integrate the physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions of yoga into each practice. She favors an informal education in monkhood and has a background in and involvement with Zen, Buddhist centers and an "Inner School of the Mind" and also works on issues of social assistance.