Life in B Flat
(Science and Spirituality)

I was deep in meditation. I asked, "Is there a plan for my life? What is the plan!?" I heard a voice say "It's in the key of B", and I saw the symbol for a flat in musical notation. The plan for my life is in the key of B flat! I understood this immediately. I have a record of Pete Fountain playing the clarinet. It's a clarinet tuned to the key of B flat. I like to improvise on my guitar along with the record. The plan for my life is: "We're improvising!".

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle: "A superintellect has monkeyed with physics."

I have updated my web page on eminent researchers who believed in the evidence for some type of paranormal phenomena with the following entry on Fred Hoyle. I also added an entry for Hoyle in a recent post about scientists who believed that the scientific evidence shows that the universe was designed.

Sir Fred Hoyle
The article for Sir Fred Hoyle in Wikipedia describes him as an English astronomer who is most remembered for his work on how chemical elements are synthesized in stars (nucleosynthesis). He received many honors during his life including: Fellow of the Royal Society, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Royal Medal. He was Knighted in 1972. Hoyle did not win the Nobel Prize but many people thought he was unfairly excluded in 1983 when the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded for nucleosynthesis in which he "had been one of the key and original workers". Hoyle resisted the implications of the Big Bang theory, a name which he was first to use. He tried to find a theory that would describe a steady state universe that did not have a beginning.

However, Hoyle believed the evidence that the universe was fine tuned by an intelligence and that life arose and evolved through intelligent design. This is similar to the cosmological argument that the universe must have been designed by an intelligent creator. Hoyle also believed the universe was designed for a purpose.

The following quotes explain Hoyle's views in his own words:

On the fine tuning of the universe:

Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question." (Wikipedia)

Life is the product of intelligent design:

If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter, without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure or order must be the outcome of intelligent design. (Wikipedia)

Higher life forms did not evolve naturally:

The chance that higher life forms might have emerged [naturally] in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.

- Hoyle on evolution, Nature, Vol. 294, No. 5837 (November 12, 1981), p. 105 (Wikiquote)

Life did not arise naturally:

The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.

- The Big Bang in Astronomy, New Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 1280 (November 19, 1981), p. 527 (Wikiquote)

The universe was designed for a purpose:

There is a coherent plan to the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for.

- Attributed in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999) edited by Elizabeth Knowles and Angela Partington (Wikiquote)

The blog "Uncommon Descent", quotes science historian Michael Flannery writing that Hoyle believed that the universe was designed by an intelligent creator.

I think it is a fair assessment to consider Hoyle a creationist in the broadest sense of the term. Yes, he rejected Darwinian evolution, and yes, he held to panspermia, but his book The Intelligent Universe: A New View of Creation and Evolution (1983) and other writings I think substantiate Theodore Walker’s assessment that Hoyle’s views accorded “with the religious idea of a supremely intelligent Creator-Provider-Sustainer of the universe” that was essentially panenthic and at least implicitly pro-theistic

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Consciousness, a subjective phenomena that cannot be measured objectively, cannot be produced by physical processes all of which are in principle measurable.

Consciousness is subjective experience. Subjective experience cannot be measured objectively. I know what blue looks like to me, but I cannot know what blue looks like to another person. We assume blue looks the same to everyone but we cannot know it does. All physical phenomenon are objective and measurable. In principle, physical phenomenon cannot produce something that cannot be measured. Since consciousness is a subjective phenomena that cannot be measured objectively, consciousness cannot be the result of any objective physical process. Consciousness must non-physical and therefore cannot be produced by the brain.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Anomalous Characteristics of Near-death Experiences

Below is a list of anomalies that occur during near-death experiences. None of the materialist attempts to explain these and other NDE anomalies can actually explain them, and ESP or veridical perceptions that occur during an NDE are best explained as out-of-the-body consciousness.

Anomalous Characteristics of Near-death Experiences

Enhanced consciousness such as realer-than-real detail, 360 degree vision, and colors not seen before.
Blind people see during NDEs. (Hogan)
Memories of NDEs are more detailed than normal memories.
Visions of deceased people, sometimes deceased people the experiencer had never met or seen pictures of. (Hogan)
A life review where the experiencer feels how he affected other people from their point of view.
Veridical (verifiable) perceptions where the experiencer perceived something when their brain was not functioning, and or perceived something that they could not have perceived with their normal senses even if they were conscious.
NDEs have been experienced by people not close to death.
"Lucid consciousness, well-structured thought processes, and clear reasoning" (Beauregard), calmness and tranquility (near-death.com), when their medical condition should cause confusion and amnesia, disorientation and fear.
Spiritual transformation.
NDEs involve a subjectively conscious experience while the experiencer is objectively unconscious. Hallucinations almost always occur when the subject is awake and conscious. (near-death.com)
NDEs occur more often during flat EEGs and not during abnormal EEGs. (Hogan)
"NDEs are remarkably consistent across virtually all experiencers regardless of age, nationality, religious background, and all other demographics", including atheists. (Hogan)
"Many parts of the brain must be coherent for lucid experiences to occur yet NDEs occur when there is no EEG activity." (Hogan)
NDErs experience "heightened awareness, attention, and memory at a time when consciousness and memory formation are not expected to be functioning" and "only confusional and paranoid thinking... should occur" (Hogan)
"In some cases, a third party has observed visionary figures seen by the experiencers" (Tymn)
Healthy people attending the dying sometimes share in the NDE. (Facco and Christian)
Because of the way the brain is wired, it cannot produce an NDE. (Alexander)
Many NDEs occur during anesthesia when the patient should be unconscious. (Long)
"The most important objection to the adequacy of all ... reductionistic hypotheses is that mental clarity, vivid sensory imagery, a clear memory of the experience, and a conviction that the experience seemed more real than ordinary consciousness are the norm for NDEs. They occur even in conditions of drastically altered cerebral physiology under which the production theory would deem consciousness impossible. (Greyson)

Sources

Chapter 2 in "Your Eternal Self by R. Craig Hogan, Ph.D.
Debunking the NDE Debunkers by Michael Tymn (Summary of the above chapter.)
Irreducible Mind and the NDE Michael Prescott discusses chapter 6 of the book "Irreducible Mind" by Edward F. Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, et al.
Near-death experiences between science and prejudice by Enrico Facco and Christian. (2012) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 6:209. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00209
Near death, explained Near death, explained By Mario Beauregard at Salon.com, Saturday, Apr 21, 2012
Cosmological Implications of Near-Death Experiences by Bruce Greyson, Journal of Cosmology, 2011, Vol. 14.
Scientific theories of the near-death experience at near-death.com
Dr. Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon, near-death experiencer.
NDE Researcher Dr. Jeffrey Long M.D. Refutes Materialist explanations for Near-death Experiences.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Update: ESP is not Produced by the Brain.

Update to the update: Additional updates have been made. Please see ESP is not produced by the brain. for the most up-to-date version.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Near-death Experiences and Afterlife Phenomena

Recently I have learned of some beliefs about near-death experiences and afterlife phenomena which I disagree with. In this post, I provide information to support my own beliefs on these issues.

ESP or veridical perceptions that occur during an NDE are best explained by out-of-the-body consciousness.
ESP is not produced by the brain.
None of the materialist explanations can explain any of the many anomalous characterisitcs of NDEs such as how people are conscious when their brain is not functioning.
There are multiple independent forms of evidence which show that mind does not require matter for its existence.
There is ample evidence that memory can be stored outside the brain.
Consciousness, mind, or spirit is required for matter to exist.
Scientists are fallible. Alternative sources of truth exist.
Experiencers may be harmed by misinformation about afterlife phenomena especially if it comes from medical personnel.
References

ESP or veridical perceptions that occur during an NDE are best explained by out-of-the-body consciousness.

During a near-death experience, sometimes people with no brain activity perceive something happening around them or they may perceive something they could not perceive with their normal senses even if they were conscious such as a vision of the operating room looking down from the ceiling, or a vision of a distant location. When the events in these perceptions can be verified as true, they are called veridical perceptions. These veridical perceptions are best explained by out-of-the-body consciousness. Some people may call these perceptions ESP, but they are still best explained as out-of-the-body consciousness.

Many NDEs occur during cardiac arrest. Residual brain activity is not sufficient to explain memories or conscious experiences that occur during cardiac arrest. And cardiac arrest causes amnesia and confusion shortly before and after the event.

Some people may suggest an abnormal brain state during the onset or recovery from cardiac arrest may produce clairvoyant visions of events that occur during cardiac arrest. If this is true, the clairvoyance must still be due to out-of-the-body consciousness. The same argument by which NDE researchers conclude that the lucid conscious experience of the NDE cannot be explained by it occuring before or after cardiac arrest can be used to conclude that clairvoyance occurring at the onset or recovery from cardiac arrest must be due to out-of-the-body consciousness. That argument is that the brain activity that occurs at the onset to, or recovery from, cardiac arrest is not capable of supporting lucid consciousness or memories. Any lucid conscious memories, such as those characteristic of NDEs, that occur anytime from the onset to cardiac arrest through the recovery from cardiac arrest, whether psychic or mundane, must be due to out-of-the-body consciousness.

In other words, if anyone is going to suggest that an abnormal brain state induced by cardiac arrest is responsible for producing ESP, that ESP must be due to consciousness existing out-of-the-body because the abnormal brain states that occur at the onset, duration, and ending of cardiac arrest are not capable of producing memories or supporting the lucid consciousness that is experienced during an NDE. At other times than the onset, duration, or ending of cardiac arrest, the brain is functioning normally and there is no abnormal brain state that might be attributed to the production of ESP. If ESP can produce conscious experiences that do not require the brain, then ESP must be due to out-of-the-body consciousness. In fact, in a subsequent section it will be shown that the best explanation for all forms of ESP is that ESP is not produced by the brain but is a capability of non-physical consciousness. In consideration of this and of all the evidence (below) that the mind can exist separate from the brain, the best explanation for veridical perceptions during NDEs is the spirit leaving the body and retaining memory of the event.

No physiological explanation can fully explain NDEs. Nothing that produces an abnormal brain state that can produce ESP, such as natural brain chemicals, or states of relaxation can produce experiences like NDEs. So it is not credible that veridical perceptions in NDEs could be caused by abnormal brain states that are known to cause ESP.

In most abnormal states the experiencer knows he is hallucinating or experiencing clairvoyance, but NDErs consistently say their experience is real. Those states in which hallucinations are mistaken for reality do not share significant characteristics with NDEs. Those states in which ESP is mistaken for out-of-body experiences involve hypnosis, self-hypnosis, or some type of induction technique. However NDEs are not induced, they are spontaneous, and they are not caused by anything remotely like hypnotic induction such as religious expectations, or cultural expectations.

Joe McMoneagle is a highly regarded parapsychologist, a remote viewer, and a near-death experiencer, and his statements on the subject indicate he believes that NDEs show that the afterlife is real. NDEs demonstrate, he says, "..that consciousness continues, and you don't really cease to exist as an individual..."

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ESP is not produced by the brain.

There is ample proof that ESP is real. However it is not possible for ESP to be caused by the brain because none of the laws of physics, including quantum entanglement, can explain how the brain might produce ESP. And in the case of telepathy, the unique structures in one brain will be meaningless to another brain. The existence of ESP is consistent with and mutually reinforcing to many other lines of reasoning that lead to the conclusions that consciousness is not produced by the brain and that consciousness can exist separate from the body.

No physical mechanism in the brain has been demonstrated to cause ESP. ESP has been shown not to be limited by time and distance. ESP can reach into the past and future and is just as strong over short distances as it is for long distances. None of the known laws of physics can explain this. It has been hypothesized that quantum entanglement could explain ESP, because when two particles are entangled, determining a property of one particle will also determine a property of the other instantly, independent of distance between the two particles. However, quantum entanglement can not be the mechanism by which ESP occurs because for entanglement to occur, there has to be some mechanism by which entanglement is established. In lab experiments on entanglement, the entangled particles are created deliberately at the same time in the same location and then separated to demonstrate entanglement effects. While entanglement can occur in biological systems, as is seen in photosynthesis, in a biological system like photosynthesis, a mechanism for establishing entanglement is easy to explain because it occurs in a very small region at a specific time. However in the case of ESP, there is no mechanism by which entanglement between objects at separate locations could be established to produce forms of ESP such as telepathy and clairvoyance. Microtubules in brain cells have been proposed, by Stuart Hammeroff, as a mechanism for producing consciousness. It has also been proposed that quantum entanglement in that system could explain ESP, but again there is no way entanglement could be established between separate individuals.

Furthermore, even if there were some way to entangle a physical structure in one brain with, for example in the case of telepathy, a structure in another brain, there would be no correspondence between the meaning of those two structures to the consciousness of the individuals. The patterns in one person's brain will not make sense to any another person's brain. The pattens of neurons in the brain develop differently in each person according to their genetics and environment, and those patterns change over time due to neuroplasticity. The meaning of a physical structure or pattern in the brain of one person will be unintelligible to another person. Entangling two structures in different brains would not be able to convey any meaning to either person. Therefore, telepathy cannot be produced by the brain by means of quantum entanglement or any other physical means. The very existence of telepathy, therefore, is evidence that ESP is not produced by the brain, and also that consciousness is not produced by the brain i.e. that conscious is non-physical.

There are also several other independent lines of reasoning that lead to the conclusion that consciousness is non-physical and not-produced by the brain. One of these lines of reasoning, for example, is based on the fact that that consciousness is a subjective phenomena that cannot be measured objectively and therefore cannot be produced by physical processes since all physical processes are, in principle, measurable. The only way to know what is in the mind of another person is through ESP, such as telepathy, or telempathy, both of which are themselves subjective and unmeasurable by any objective physical means. Since consciousness is subjective and non-physical and cannot be measured by any physical process, ESP which can perceive aspects of another consciousness, must also be non-physical, and cannot be the result of any physical process in the brain.

People who believe that ESP is produced by the brain believe that some quantum effect must cause ESP because ESP is independent of time and distance. But there is a much better explanation for ESP that also explains why ESP is independent of time and distance. That explanation is the filter model of the brain. According to the filter model, consciousness is not physical and the brain does not produce consciousness but only filters it. The filter model explains all the facts that are explained by the production model such as the correlation between mental states and brain states, and the loss of functions due to brain injury. But the filter model also explains ESP and why it is not dependent on time and distance. According to the filter model, ESP is the means by which non-physical consciousness naturally interacts with its environment and because consciousness is non-physical it is not subject to the laws of physics or limited by physical parameters such as time and distance. The filter model also explains acquired savant syndrome where brain injury causes new talents to be uncovered and why brain injury sometimes result in development of ESP. These two effects are caused by brain injury that is like a hole in the filter that allows new aspects of consciousness to pass through it. The filter model explains loss of function injuries, such as amnesia, as being like a clog in the filter. The filter model also explains the unfiltered consciousness experienced by NDErs that includes veridical perceptions, 360 degree vision and colors not seen while in the body.

Philosopher Chris Carter believes consciousness is not produced by the brain and that the brain transmits consciousness. Parapsychologists who do not believe in survival have to explain afterlife phenomena as the result of ESP produced in the brain of a living person. Chris Carter's work demonstrates that those theories are pseudo-science.

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None of the materialist explanations can explain any of the many anomalous characterisitcs of NDEs such as how people are conscious when their brain is not functioning.

All of the materialist attempts to explain NDEs fail to explain any of the many anomalous characteristics of NDEs. NDEs cannot be explained by a lack of oxygen, a dying brain, hallucinations, religious expectations, cultural expectations, hearing about medical procedures after the fact, brain dysfunction, retinal dysfunction causing an image of a tunnel, brain chemicals such as ketamine, endogenous opioids, neurotransmitter imbalances, or hallucinogens including DMT, REM intrusions, epilepsy or seizures, psychopathology, unique personality traits, residual brain activity during unconsciousness, the experience occurring before or after brain activity stopped, evolutionary adaptation, depersonalization, memory of birth, medication, defense against dying, or partial anesthesia.

Dr. Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who experienced an NDE and he believes NDEs are are genuine afterlife experiences and that because of the way the brain is wired NDEs cannot be produced by the brain. He said, "...consciousness outside of the brain is a fact. It’s an established fact."

NDErs report their experiences seem more real than real, and memories of near-death experiences are more detailed than normal memories. This is the complete opposite of what you would expect from the fact of severely reduced or zero brain function during the NDE. NDEs due to cardiac arrest cannot be explained by residual brain activity during cardiac arrest or by having occurred before or after cardiac arrest. This demonstrates that NDEs involve a state of consciousness that is independent of the brain.

"The most important objection to the adequacy of all ... reductionistic hypotheses is that mental clarity, vivid sensory imagery, a clear memory of the experience, and a conviction that the experience seemed more real than ordinary consciousness are the norm for NDEs. They occur even in conditions of drastically altered cerebral physiology under which the production theory would deem consciousness impossible.
- Bruce Greyson

A listener to a radio interview with NDE researcher Dr. Sam Parnia paraphrased his statements, "We now routinely overcome death, and the people he’s studying are 'like astronauts – we send them out to explore this other dimension' – they are going to the other side, and they’re able to tell us what they’ve experienced on the other side of death"

Interview of NDE Researcher Dr. Pim van Lommel

Interview with NDE researcher Dr. Melvin Morse.

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There are multiple independent forms of evidence which show that mind does not require matter for its existence.

Evidence for the Afterlife.

Mediumship
Near-death experiences, veridical near-death experiences, and shared near-death experiences.
Death-bed visions and shared death-bed visions.
Apparitions and multiple witness apparitions.
Children who remember past lives including those with an unusual type of birth mark on their body where an injury was sustained in the previous live.

Neither ESP nor Super-psi can explain the evidence for the afterlife.

The evidence for the afterlife cannot be explained as super-psi.
- Guy Lyon Playfair, William Roll, and Ian Stevenson all thought some poltergeist phenomenon were caused by spirits. They knew about unconscious PK but thougth survival was a better explanation when the phenomenon did not depend on the presence of a single individual.
- Drop-in communicators demonstrate spirits have initiative and problem solving ability.
- Cross-correspondences demonstrate spirits have initiative and are able to plan complex projects.
- Others (see above link).
The Mediumship of Mrs. Piper
- Certain characteristics of spirit communication vary with the spirit independently of the medium or the sitter. This is evidence that mediumship is due to communication with spirits and not a form of unconscious ESP. Some of these characteristics were: the speed at which the spirit learned to communicate, the spirit's skill at communicating once they learned to communicate, ability to communicate names. Many more of these characteristics are explained at the link.
Philosopher Chris Carter's work demonstrates that super-psi is pseudo-science. In an interview on SubversiveThinking.blogspot.com he says:

In my work I present the evidence that provides a prima facie case for survival; demonstrate that alternative explanations, to the extent that they are testable, have been proven false; and then argue that to the extent these alternative explanations are not testable (such as elaborate fraud scenarios, or super-ESP) they are pseudo-scientific excuses for refusing to accept an otherwise straightforward inference from the evidence.
Mediums live with afterlife phenomena every day. They know all the fine details that do not get published in books and parapsychological studies. Many also experience other forms of ESP and they can tell the difference between spirit communication and ESP. Mediums say they perceive and communicate with spirits. They are the foremost experts in spirit communication and there are no better qualified experts on ESP and survival.

The Cosmological Argument for a transcendent designer of the universe or multiverse shows that the universe or multiverse was designed by a mind that existed before there was any matter or even space itself. Our universe is so finely tuned to support life that it seems to have been designed. This was accepted by astronomers and cosmologists and caused them to invent multiverse theories. However in those theories the multiverse would have to be fine tuned so it doesn't really solve the problem. The conclusion is that a mind capable of design existed before any matter existed. This argument is so convincing to astronomers it converted many materialists to believers including astronomer Fred Hoyle. Albert Einstein also believed the universe was designed, as did Charles Darwin.

Materialism Cannot Explain Consciousness

Max Planck (Nobel Prize for Physics)

Erwin Schrödinger (Nobel Prize for Physics)

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There is ample evidence that memory can be stored outside the brain.

The facts of this have been covered above. Veridical perceptions that occur during NDEs, the evidence that NDErs are conscious when their brain is not functioning, all the evidence that mind does not require matter for its existence, and all the evidence for the afterlife all demonstrate that memory can be stored outside brain.

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Consciousness, mind, or spirit is required for matter to exist.

Those who believe that mind requires a brain to exist, such as parapsychologists who mistakenly believe that ESP is produced by the brain are confounded by the results of quantum mechanics that show consciousness is required for matter to exist. You can't have any matter or any brain without consciousness first. In order to avoid this problem they may postulate an undeveloped awareness existed to bring matter into being. However if the facts are understood correctly, that, as shown above, that mind does not require matter for its existence, then there is no reason to postulate anything as unparsimonious as undeveloped awareness. In fact the founders of quantum mechanics , Max Planck (Nobel Prize for Physics) and Erwin Schrödinger (Nobel Prize for Physics), did not believe in undeveloped awareness, they understood that consciousness, mind, spirit was what caused matter to come into being.

Another reason that undeveloped awareness is an unnecessary complication is that the cosmological argument demonstrates that the universe was designed by a mind. So there already exists a mind that could cause the matter of the universe to come into existence.

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Scientists are fallible. Alternative sources of truth exist.

Scientists are fallible.

Science is not a licensed profession. And scientist are not the only people who have the ability to discern truth. In fact, perceptual bias is a chronic problem that may cause Dr. Scientist to misjudge things that Joe Sixpack can assess objectively.

I have long suspected that within the parapsychological community there is some prejudice against afterlife phenomena. Parapsycholoigst Dr. Carlos Alvarado confirmed my suspicion in an interview published at aspsi.org. The interview does not seem to be on the internet currently, but the link was: http://www.aspsi.org/feat/life_after/tymn/a076mt-a-Dr_Carlos_S_Alvarado_interview.php

Dr. Alvarado said:

For many workers in the field, survival research is not a main interest. To some extent this is academics as usual. People specialize in some areas and develop interests due to personality traits, life experiences, training, and employment opportunities, and parapsychology is no exception. Then there are concerns such as getting tenure and the belief that the area has many methodological difficulties. However, I believe that in some cases there is more than this. In some circles it is more “respectable” to conduct ESP experiments than working with survival-related phenomena such as apparitions or mediumship. I still remember how the director of a parapsychology unit within an university, wanting to keep a conservative image, discouraged students from pursuing topics such as apparitions for dissertation research.

Because of this prejudice, one may be justifiably suspicious of the views of those parapsychologists who may deny the genuineness of afterlife phenomena and claim they may be caused by ESP.

Some people may try to excuse this prejudice as being due to ignorance. However ignorance is not an excuse for prejudice, it is a cause of prejudice. And I am less concerned with the feelings of parapsychologists and other pseudo-skeptics than I am concerned for the well being of experiencers that may be harmed by this prejudice. No persecuted minority ever won the rights and respect they deserve without fighting for them. And in our society, experiencers of afterlife phenomena are a persecuted minority. And this is one reason I am writing this post. To explain the seriousness of misinformation about afterlife phenomena, and the harm caused by claims that afterlife phenomena are due to ESP.

It is unfortunate that in addition to the pseudo-skeptics who refuse to recognize the validity of any paranormal phenomena and who are preventing some sectors of society from accepting the evidence for the afterlife, there are also some parapsychologists who are muddying the waters with claims that ESP is the cause of afterlife phenomena. These parapsychologists ought to know from their own experience when someone from outside their field who is dreadfully ignorant about ESP publishes some pseudo-skeptical nonsense, how it creates unnecessary distractions for them because they have to constantly refute the same old canards. Yet the same parapsychologists are creating confusion and spreading misinformation and causing distractions for genuine afterlife researchers, such as those studying NDEs, and they are hindering the progress of the spread of the truth of the afterlife throughout society. Whether some parapsychologists do this intentionally to create greater appreciation for the capabilities of ESP and magnify the importance of their chosen field of study at the price of discrediting survival research, or because they are blinded by perceptual bias, it is harmful to individuals and society as will explained in a subsequent section.

Alternative sources of truth exist.

When deciding the best explanation for a phenomenon, the beliefs of experiencers must be considered. They are there on the spot. There is no one more qualified to asses their experiences than they are. NDErs consistently say their experiences are real and that is a strong argument in favor of the reality of their experiences. As shown above, none of the known causes of hallucinations or ESP can explain NDEs.

The opinions of non-scientist experts should also be given due weight. The expertise of mediums is shown above in the links to different forms of mediumship. Mediums live with afterlife phenomena every day. They know all the fine details that do not get published in books and parapsychological studies. Many mediums also experience other forms of ESP and they can tell the difference between spirit communication and ESP. Mediums say they perceive and communicate with spirits. They are the foremost experts in spirit communication and there are no better qualified experts on ESP and survival of consciousness.

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Experiencers may be harmed by misinformation about afterlife phenomena especially if it comes from medical personnel.

Misinformation about afterlife phenomena is harmful to experiencers like NDErs, people who experience spirit contact, and those suffering from grief. Misinformation published in medical journals can be particularly harmful. An NDEr who wakes up and starts to tell about her experience and is told, "it wasn't real it was just clairvoyance" will be harmed by that misinformation. Research shows that if the first person a near-death experiencer tells about her experience does not accept it as real, then it affects how she copes with it. She may keep it inside and not share it with other people. Feeling the need to keep secret something as awesome and life changing as a visit to heaven and meeting God can be painful. Sharing her experience with others is healthy for her and it also helps other people to learn about the afterlife.

Mediums, like George Anderson, who during childhood are taken for psychiatric evaluation because they see spirits, are harmed if they are told their veridical perceptions are just ESP.

It is very important for medical personnel to understand these experiences are real.

I've seen many times the good mediumship can do. Even some parapsychologists acknowledge it may be therapeutic for those suffering from grief. I have been there at many Spiritualist church services where a grieving mother is given relief from the unimaginable distress caused by the loss of her child, when a medium brings through a communication from her child that shows her the child has not really died but is with Grandma in another realm.

I've been involved in helping people experiencing spirit contact, children and adults, understand and cope with their experiences. I know the harm and confusion that misinformation about life after death causes. It is psychologically damaging for a person who is having these experiences, who may be ostracized at school, or who may have family members who thinks she is either crazy or satanic to be told her experiences are not real. When a person is having contact with spirits and she is getting veridical information and she exhibits no dysfunctions associated with mental illness, she needs accurate information about afterlife phenomena. Parapsychologists who should know better but won't admit the reality of spirits are part of the problem not part of the solution.

Lastly, what could be more important to humanity than to know the universe was created and designed by an intelligence and that each human consciousness survives death?

The Harm Caused by Pseudoskepticism

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References:

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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Update to "Evidence That God Exists: People Who Have Near Death Experiences Meet God."

I have updated an earlier post, Evidence That God Exists: People Who Have Near Death Experiences Meet God., with the following:

In this video from an IANDS conference, Jessica Haynes discusses her near-death experience. She says that she had died and after reviewing her life she wanted to come back and live her life better. Unfortunately, she was dead and she was told, "You can't get back you don't have a body to get back to". But she insisted, repeatedly. So they took her to talk to God who enabled her to come back. She describes her experience of God as, "Pure love.", and "The most loving light you could imagine." He tells her "I am all, I created everything." The part where she describes this is from 10:30 to 15:00.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Philosopher Chris Carter: Super-psi is Pseudo-science.

I have updated my web page on Eminent Researchers to include the following entry on philosopher Chris Carter:

Oxford educated philosopher Chris Carter is author of several books on the afterlife, including Science and the Near-Death Experience, and Science and the Afterlife Experience. Carter believes that consciousness is not produced by the brain. In his essay, Does Consciousness depend on the Brain?, he justifies this belief by stating that the brain is more likely to transmit consciousness than it is to produce consciousness because the transmission hypothesis explains more facts than the production hypothesis. The transmission hypothesis explains how the brain can influence consciousness without causing consciousness by comparing the brain to a radio. When you listen to music on a radio, the radio seems to produce music, and if you damage the radio it will affect the music, but the music is actually originating from a radio station transmitting the broadcast. This analogy is similar to the filter model of the brain.

In an interview on Subversivethinking.blogspot.com Carter sums up his work on the afterlife:

In my work I present the evidence that provides a prima facie case for survival; demonstrate that alternative explanations, to the extent that they are testable, have been proven false; and then argue that to the extent these alternative explanations are not testable (such as elaborate fraud scenarios, or super-ESP) they are pseudo-scientific excuses for refusing to accept an otherwise straightforward inference from the evidence.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Perceptual Bias in Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists suffer from the mistaken belief that ESP from a living person can explain the evidence for the afterlife. However, afterlife phenomena cannot be explained by ESP. One may wonder why some parapsychologists hold that mistaken belief, despite the strong evidence that ESP is produced by non-physical consciousness and that veridical perceptions during near-death experiences are best explained by out-of-the-body consciousness. The answer may be found in The Conscious Universe, a book by parapsychologist Dean Radin, which has a chapter Seeing Psi which discusses why some mainstream materialist scientists do not believe the evidence for psi (ESP). The chapter explains how a scientist's commitment to the mainstream scientific world view can cause a him to ignore the evidence for psi because it is not consistent with that worldview. This is a scientific way of saying that to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But this same phenomenon might apply to parapsychologists who have spent a lifetime studying psi. They might be so committed to psi that they are unable to accept the evidence for the afterlife because they can only see it as psi. The title of the chapter Seeing Psi is about why some scientists can't see evidence for psi. But it might just as well be about why some parapsychologists are always seeing psi and are blind to the evidence for the afterlife.

In this excerpt from The Conscious Universe, Dean Radin discusses this phenomenon:

All this leads us to predict that a person's level of commitment to the current scientific worldview will determine his or her beliefs about psi. Because perception is linked so closely to one's adopted view of reality, people who do not wish to "see" psi will in fact not see it. Nor will they view any evidence for psi, scientific or otherwise, as valid. This effect should be strongest in people who are committed to a particular view, motivated to maintain it, and clever enough to create good rationalizations for ignoring conflicting evidence.

...

[T]he expectations of the scientific elite actually put them more at risk for being swayed by perceptual biases than the general public. After all, the scientific elite have lifelong careers and their credibility is on the line. They are strongly motivated to maintain certain belief systems. By contrast, most members of the general public do not know or care about the expectations of science. So if Joe Sixpack and Dr. Scientist both witness a remarkable feat of clairvoyance, we can predict that later, when we ask Joe what he saw, he will describe the incident in matter-of-fact terms. In contrast when we ask Dr. Scientist what he saw he may become angry or confused, or deny having seen anything unusual at all.

I have written elsewhere about the harm that denial of the afterlife can cause to individuals and society. Part of the problem is that individuals who are grieving or having difficulties with their own psychic experiences may turn to the parapsychological literature for information about the afterlife. It would be tragic if someone who turned to parapsychology for help was misinformed about the afterlife or the genuineness of mediumship. Health care providers also need accurate information on this subject. The way near-death experiencers are treated by medical staff can affect how they cope with their experiences, and sometimes people experiencing spirit contact seek help from psychiatrists because they may wonder if they are hallucinating.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Notable Near-death Experiencers Believe In Life After Death.

I have updated my web page Eminent Researchers to contain entries on the notable researchers listed below. These individuals are the best qualified experts to determine if near-death experiences represent out-of-the-body consciousness because they have all had an NDE and they also have some other qualification or area of expertise that gives authority to their opinion on the subject. All of them believe that near-death experiences represent out-of-the-body consciousness.

Joe McMoneagle was a military remote viewer and is a very talented psychic who is highly regarded by parapsychologists for his psychic abilities and who has also had a near-death experience. Because of his experience as a military remote viewer and talented psychic, he is highly qualified to determine whether veridical NDEs are due to out-of-the body consciousness or ESP. McMoneagle believes near-death experiences represent out-of-the-body consciousness and that consciousness and our existence as an individual continues after the body dies.

Dr Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who had an NDE. He believes, based on his knowledge of neuroscience, that his NDE could not be explained by any physiological means and his experience is proof of life after death.

Carl Jung was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. He had a near-death experience and believed it was a real phenomenon and that consciousness continues to have an existence beyond space and time.

The updates to Eminent Researchers include the following text:

Joe McMoneagle
Joe McMoneagle worked for the US military as a remote viewer and he was involved in the research and development that led to the US military's remote viewing program. Joe also had a near-death experience which convinced him that death does not end consciousness and we continue to exist as an individual after death. The following excerpt from an interview with Jeff Rense shows his views on NDEs:

JOE: One of the things that does occur somewhere in that six month period [after an NDE], you reach a bottom point in that depression where you suddenly realize that, well since you know that consciousness continues, and you don't really cease to exist as an individual, there's no real reason to be depressed about where you are.

Dr. Eben Alexander
Dr. Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who had a near-death experience during which he visited the afterlife. After his experience, he investigated how the brain is wired to see if he could find a physiological explanation for his NDE. Alexander concluded that his experience could only be explained if consciousness does not require the brain for its existence. He also concluded that biological explanations such as abnormal CO₂ and oxygen levels or abnormal brain chemicals like DMT or ketamine could not explain his experience. He said that before his NDE he believed Neuroscience could explain how the brain produced consciousness, but after the NDE he understood that "mind and consciousness are independent of the brain". This is extremely significant coming from a neurosurgeon who combines what he knows about Neuroscience and what he learned from his own near-death experience. Dr. Alexander states, "consciousness outside of the brain is a fact. It's an established fact."

Carl Jung
From Wikipedia

Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 - 6 June 1961), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extroversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields.

Carl Junk believed in ESP, synchronicities, ... that his near-death experience, when his consciousness left his body, was a real objective phenomenon, and that consciousness continues to have an existence beyond space and time.

This excerpt from near-death.com quotes Jung writing that his NDE, when his consciousness left his body, was real. The source of the excerpt has a full description of Jung's
experience in his own words.

I would never have imagined that any such experience was possible. It was not a product of imagination. The visions and experiences were utterly real; there was nothing subjective about them; they all had a quality of absolute objectivity.

This excerpt from thesethingsinside.wordpress.com quotes Jung writing that some forms of ESP are real and that consciousness is not dependent on space and time which he says means life continues to exist beyond space and time.

... we know that there are these peculiar faculties of the psyche - that it isn't entirely confined to space and time. You can have dreams or visions of the future. You can see around corners and such things. Only ignorants deny these facts. It's quite evident that they do exist and have existed always. Now these facts show that the psyche - in part, at least - is not dependent on these confinements. And then what? When the psyche is not under that obligation to live in time and space alone - and obviously, it doesn't - then to that extent, the psyche is not submitted to those laws and that means a practical continuation of life of a sort of psychical existence beyond time and space.

Friday, April 18, 2014

The Cosmological Argument for a Transcendent Designer of the Universe.

Stephen Meyer is a philosopher of science who earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He is one of the founders of the intelligent design movement which takes a scientific approach to looking for artifacts of intelligent design in nature.

Stephen Meyer appeared in a series of four interviews on the John Ankerberg Show discussing the cosmological argument for the existence of God. In the interviews, Meyer starts with an historical background of the origin of materialism. He goes on to explain how the discovery that the universe is expanding, and the discovery that the universe came from nothing, and the discovery that natural laws are finely tuned to make life possible, all demonstrate that the universe was created and designed by a transcendent intelligence (an intelligence outside the universe). In addition, Meyer explains that the evidence for intelligent design in the origin and evolution of life shows that the designer continued to play a role in the universe long after its creation. Meyer considers four philosophical traditions, Materialism, Pantheism, Deism, and Theism, and he concludes that Theism is the best explanation for the scientific evidence. Meyer also discusses some of the intellectuals who came to believe the universe was designed because of this evidence. These individuals included Allan Sandage, John Polkinghorne, Fred Hoyle, Antony Flew and Fred Burnham.

There are several Nobel Prize winning and other great scientists who were not mentioned in the programs who either believed in the cosmological argument or had similar beliefs. These scientists include Nobel Prize winning physicists Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Eugene Wigner, Arno Penzias, Charles Townes, and non-Nobelists Charles Darwin, and Wernher von Braun. I have explained their beliefs on my web page on Eminent Researchers.

In this post, I have tried to explain the content of the programs as I understand it. However, my own perspective and vocabulary may be different from Stephen Meyer's so do not assume that Meyer has said exactly what I am writing. Additionally, these programs were intended for a general television audience so I think it is safe to assume there is more to be said on both sides of the issue. I am not an expert on philosophy or cosmology but I would suggest these programs be considered a starting point in understanding the cosmological argument. If you find the subject interesting, you may want to look for other, more detailed, sources of information on the subject.

Below, I've also provided links to transcripts of the programs, and embedded the videos if you would prefer to get the information straight from Dr. Meyer.

Program 1: The Rise and Fall of Materialism
Program 2: Something From Nothing Requires a Transcendent Creator
Program 3: The Fine Tuning of the Designed Universe
Program 4: The Designer's Continued Involvement: Life and Evolution
Transcripts
Videos

Program 1

The Rise and Fall of Materialism

The scientists who founded the scientific revolution, such as Newton, Kepler, Boyle, Galileo and Copernicus, thought that the discovery that nature operated according to natural laws was evidence of a designer. They thought that scientists could come to understand nature because nature was designed by a rational intelligence: God.

Kepler said "We, as scientists, have the high calling of thinking God's thoughts after him."

Newton believed that the arrangement of planets in the solar system could not have arisen through natural causes and the best explanation for the arrangement of the planets was the workings of an intelligent being. He wrote:

Though these bodies may indeed continue in their orbits by the mere laws of gravity, yet they could by no means have first derived the regular position of the orbits themselves from those laws. Thus this most beautiful system of the sun, comets, and planets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.

However, in the 19th century, scientists began to try to explain natural phenomena without God. Laplace wrote a book attempting to explain the arrangement of planets by natural means. Lyell tried to explain geological features as a result of gradual natural processes. Darwin tried to explain how new species arise from preexisting species. Other scientists tried to explain the origin of life. By the end of the 19th century there existed a materialist world view that could explain everything from the origin of the solar system to the evolution of humankind as a result of natural processes. Materialists had no need to explain the origin of the universe because they believed it was infinite in size and infinite in age. But this belief was not based on any scientific evidence, it was a metaphysical belief.

The Discovery that the Universe is Expanding shows the Universe had a Beginning. This Shakes the Foundations of Materialism

The foundations of materialism began to crumble when astronomers determined that the universe had a beginning. Edwin Hubble observed that all the galaxies in the universe were traveling away from each other. This means that they were closer together in the past than they are today. The farther back time, the closer together they were, and if you go back far enough you can find where the expansion began. This implies that the universe had a beginning.

Einstein's theory of general relativity gave theoretical corroboration to Hubble's empirical observations. General relativity explained gravity by theorizing that objects with mass could bend space. One consequence of this theory was that the size of the universe changed over time. However, Einstein was so convinced of the materialist world view that he added a constant to his equation so it would describe a static universe. When he learned of Hubble's observations he revised his theory.

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Program 2

Something from Nothing Requires a Transcendent Creator

The two lines of evidence, Hubble's empirical evidence, and Einstein's theoretical evidence, that the universe had a beginning, upset many scientists who held to the materialist world view. If the universe had a beginning, then the origin of the universe must be explained and materialism could not provide that explanation. A beginning to the universe eliminated the grounds by which God had been excluded from the materialist world view. It required a transcendent cause, something outside the universe, something beyond space and time and matter and energy, to explain the origin of the universe. Allen Sandage who had been a student of Hubble and continued to study the expansion of the universe, described the origin of the universe as supernatural because it could not be explained by any known natural phenomenon. The scientific evidence led Sandage to convert from agnosticism to belief in God. Astronomer Robert Jastrow thought it ironic that this evidence proved theologians were right and the materialists were wrong, the universe did have a beginning, it was not infinitely old.

In the Beginning, the Universe Arose from Nothing. Materialism Cannot Explain This.

Another scientific break through that shook the foundations of materialism came when Stephen Hawking solved Einstein's field equations for general relativity. When Hawking calculated the curvature of space-time at the beginning of the universe, he found that space-time had zero volume and so it could not contain any matter. The problem this created for materialists was that it required that all the matter in the universe arise from nothing. Nineteenth century materialism answered the question of origins by asserting that everything comes from matter which had always existed into the infinite past, but that explanation became unsatisfactory when Hawking showed the need for an explanation of where matter came from.

Some materialists tried to find a natural explanation for the beginning of the universe in quantum mechanics. However, they were unable to do this. According to the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, you need a conscious observer to go from a probability wave to an actual universe. You would need a mind that is separate from the universe to create it. Other interpretations of quantum mechanics lack an explanation of how an actual universe would arise from an atemporal, immaterial state.

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Program 3

The Fine Tuning of the Designed Universe

The physical laws of the universe are finely tuned in ways that make life possible. One example of this is the rate of expansion of the universe. The expansion of the universe is fine tuned to one part in 10⁶⁰. If the expansion of the universe did not meet this fine tolerance, life could not exist. If the rate of expansion was slightly faster than it is, galaxies would not form and heavy elements generated by stars would not accumulate in sufficient density to form planets that could support life. If the rate of expansion of the universe was slightly slower, the universe would have collapsed too quickly for planets that could support life to form.

The force of gravity is fine tuned to one part in 10⁴⁰. If the force of gravity was slightly weaker, stars would be too cool to ignite and would not produce the heavy elements needed to support life. If gravity was slightly stronger, the stars would be too hot and burn too quickly to support life on planets.

In the interview Meyer says, "...there are about 25 to 30 of these separate parameters that are each exquisitely finely tuned to allow for the possibility of life in the universe"

This fine tuning is too improbable to have occurred by chance so it is evidence that a transcendent intelligence is responsible for creating the natural laws of the universe. The universe was not just created, it was designed.

John Polkinghorne a physicist at Cambridge University thought the design hypothesis was a better explanation of the fine tuning than materialism. The astronomer Fred Hoyle tried to find alternatives to the Big Bang theory but eventually he came to the conclusion that fine tuning of the universe is compelling evidence that the universe was designed. He said, “A common-sense interpretation of the data suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with Physics and Chemistry, as well as Biology, to make life possible.”

One way materialists try to avoid the implications of the fine tuning of the universe is to suppose that there are a huge number of universes all with different tuning so that there can be some that will be able to support life. However, the theories of how multiple universes might be created do not fully explain the fine tuning of our universe. Such theories result in a highly improbable system which is itself finely tuned so you haven't really explained how the fine tuning arose, you have only pushed it back to a previous step and the need for a designer remains.

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Program 4

The Designer's Continued Involvement: Life and Evolution.

At the beginning of the fourth program, Meyer reviews the previous shows. He reminds the viewer that the universe had a beginning and it was designed. The expanding universe shows that the universe had a starting point in time. The universe is not infinitely old. The solution to the field equations of general relativity show that the universe also started from zero volume so we know space and all matter was created at the instant of the big Bang. The fine tuning of the physical laws of the universe show that the universe was designed by a transcendent intelligence.

The remainder of the program addresses the question of whether this intelligence continued to be involved with the universe after it was created. The evidence that life arose through design and species arose through design suggests that the intelligence does influence events within the universe. This evidence was discussed by Meyer in a previous series of programs on the same television show, so it was only covered superficially in this program. The evidence that life was designed is based on the conclusion that the genetic code could not have arisen naturally. Transcripts of those shows are available. I have explained elsewhere in this blog that materialism cannot explain the origin of the genetic code. There are also various articles on evolution elsewhere in this blog.

Meyer explained that Darwin believed that to understand an event that happened in the remote past you should identify a cause that is known in the present time to be capable of causing the same type of event. By this reasoning, one arrives at the conclusion that the genetic code, genetic information, the control systems that regulate processes in the cell, and cellular machinery are best explained by intelligent design. This is because the only known process by which codes, information, control systems, and machines arise in the present time are through the action of intelligent human beings. Genetic information, in particular, arose when life on earth began about 3.85 billion years ago (long after the big bang which occurred about 14 billion years ago), and during the Cambrian explosion 530 million years ago when many new forms of animal life arose in a brief time and without precursors. This is at variance with Darwinian evolution which predicts slow gradual changes from one species to another. Similarly there were rapid increases in genetic information during the mammalian radiation 50-55 million years ago, the origin of flowering plants in the Cretaceous era, and the origin of marine reptiles. All these increases in genetic information show that the designer is still involved in the universe.

Meyer concludes the program and the series with a discussion of some of the scientists who were convinced by the cosmological argument:

For example, Antony Flew, who was a long-time atheist who came to realize that there was compelling evidence of a creator in the physical world, both in cosmology and biology. The historian Fred Burnham has said that the God hypothesis is now a more persuasive and respectable hypothesis than at any time in the last hundred years. I agree. I think it's not only more respectable, I think it's the best explanation of this ensemble of critical evidence from cosmology, physics, and biology that we've been able to discuss on your program.

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Transcripts

Transcripts are available from jashow.org:

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Videos

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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

What happens when we die? A conversation about fear of death.

I recently had a conversation with a friend on the subject of fear of death and what happens when we die. I think readers here may find the discussion interesting so I am posting it below. I've edited it to remove personal information and to make it easier to read. I've inserted some text that I only referred to in the conversation and I added a few things I wish I had said during the conversation. I also reordered some of it to put similar subjects together. So, it is not a verbatim transcript, but it is representative of what we discussed and it conveys much of the same information.

I would like to thank my friend for asking these questions and permitting me to post our conversation here. I think there will be other people who have the same questions and reading this may be of some help to them. I could not have produced this post on my own because I don't know what questions other people have, so I am grateful for my friend's participation.

What happens when we die? A conversation about fear of death.

An Overview of the Afterlife
How Do We Know About the Afterlife?
What Should You Do In This Life To Make Sure You Will Be Okay in the Afterlife?
Preparation for Death
Who Will We be with in the Afterlife?
Connecting with Loved Ones Who Are in the Afterlife.
Fear of Death.

An Overview of the Afterlife

Q. Hi, how are you? I need a little help please.

A. What's up?

Q. I'm scared of dying. Can you tell me about the afterlife and is there a hell?

A. There is a lot of information about the afterlife that comes to us from people who have had near-death experiences who have visited the afterlife and returned to tell us about it, and there is also a lot of information from spirits who have communicated through mediums.

There is no eternal damnation and there is no free ticket into the highest levels of the afterlife (i.e. heaven) because of faith. Your religion, your beliefs or lack of them doesn't matter. What determines where you go after death is your level of spiritual development.

There are various "levels" in the afterlife and spirits at a similar stage of spiritual development are together in the same level. Each level has different areas within it. Assuming you are an average person at an average state of development, after death you will go to a place in the afterlife that is similar to the environment you lived in during your earth life. An American will go to a place that looks familiar to Americans. A person from a primitive, non-technological society will go to a place that looks familiar to them. This is to help you feel comfortable as you adjust to being a spirit. You will have a body, there will be natural areas and also buildings. You will also find yourself among people who are similar to you. This is to prevent conflicts. As spirits develop they become more tolerant and associate with more and more different types of people. But spirits are telepathic. You can take average incarnated people and mix them up in nonhomogeneous groups and they can get along. But if they were telepathic and everyone knew the cynical stereotyped thoughts of everyone else, they might not get along so well. This segregation into levels of the afterlife and regions within each level occurs more through natural laws than judgment. You "gravitate" to the place where you belong. The higher levels are nicer, they are more brightly lit, the flowers are prettier. A person who is nasty and likes being nasty and wants to do more nasty things, will go to a lower level in the spirit world where he will be among other nasty people and they will have the opportunity to be nasty to each other. It is not a very nice place but it is not punishment. He stays there only until he figures out that being nasty is not really such a nice way of being and then guides will help him to develop so he can rise to a higher level.

You can find out more about afterlife from these links:

Near-death.com has information about the afterlife brought back by people who have had near-death experiences. See the section on Notable NDEs.
Spiritwritings.com has free e-books about the afterlife as told by spirits communicating through mediums. Scroll down to the section: Future Life in the Spirit World.

I also have some articles on my blog and web site that provide more information:

Q. And what about people who say there is a hell?

A. Well, it depends on what you mean by hell. Eternal damnation is not true, you can change your ways anytime you choose to, here or hereafter, and start working your way up to the higher levels in the spirit world. As I said above, in the afterlife, people find themselves among people who are like themselves. A nasty person will find himself among nasty people and it will not be a very nice place because it is full of nasty people. But it is only until he figures out that being nasty is not a very nice way to be. And when he wants to change, guides will come to him to help him advance. But there is no punishment in the afterlife. For example, you won't go to hell just because you did or didn't practice a certain religion, or because you did or didn't believe a certain doctrine. For example, when I was taking classes in mediumship, I communicated with a spirit who had committed suicide and he was not in any type of hell in the afterlife. Suicide doesn't solve any problems, you cannot escape your karma, but they don't send you to hell for it.

Q. What about reincarnation? I don't believe in it.

A. There is a lot of evidence that reincarnation occurs, but some people believe that it is actually different members of a soul group having different lives not the same individual reincarnating. Personally, I do think we reincarnate, but I suggest that you do not change your beliefs because of what I think, there are good arguments either way. The links below discuss some of the evidence for reincarnation and the reason for uncertainty about it. I recomend that you learn about the subject and make up your own mind.

Q. Is there anything to be afraid of?

A. No.

Q. Am I still going to be myself?

A. Yes you are going to be yourself. I and many other people have communicated with spirits through a form of mediumship called mental mediumship. When we do this we have mental contact with the spirits and their personality comes through. Spirits are people. When someone gets a reading from a medium they often find the spirit use words and phrases that were characteristic of them in life. When I was taking classes in mediumship, during a reading, I would sometimes use gestures that the spirit used in life. Your personality survives death. Spirits are people with normal human personalities.

Q. And from what you know? You know ... is it better there?

Yes, it is better in the afterlife. You don't have to slave to make a living to get the necessities to life. You take classes, help other people, if you like music or art or gardening or whatever, you can do that also. The atmosphere is permeated with love. When you are near God, you feel love. That is what they mean when they say "God is love", when you perceive God, it feels like love.

Q. If you die and then go on to the spirit world, doesn't that mean that everything that happens during your life is meaningless?

A. No, because you learn things from life that help you to advance in the afterlife. The earth is a school which prepares us for things we will do later in the afterlife. There are many levels there and things to do. When we finish with the earth school, there is a whole universe out there to explore.

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How Do We Know About the Afterlife?

Q. How do you know this is all true?

A. Many people who have near-death experiences visit the afterlife temporarily and then return to their bodies. When they regain consciousness, they can tell us what they learned about the afterlife. Also, spirits communicating through mediums have told us about the afterlife. These communications corroborate each other. I posted the web sites where this information can be found above.

I have also taken classes in mediumship and I have experienced communicating with spirits. I have written about this on my web site and blog:

Q. But how do you know you are not wrong?

A. I explained, the source of the information comes from many people who have had near death experiences and spirits who have communicated through mediums. Near death experiences are real experiences (more here) that people have when their body is dead (more here, and here, and here ). None of the attempts by materialists to explain near-death experiences actually explain the phenomenon. I've done a bit of mediumship myself so I trust what other mediums have done. If a medium can tell a person things about their deceased relatives that they would have no ordinary way of knowing, that indicates they may be somewhat reliable and there is reason to take seriously what they say about the afterlife.

Read some biographical books by mediums, such as John Edward or George Anderson. When you understand what they experience, it will make things clearer.

Q. Were you ever scared of dying?

A. When I was in my 20's and just out of school and started working I was a afraid. But somehow I got involved with work and life and I don't remember exactly why or how or when but I stopped worrying about it. At that time I was a skeptical atheist.

Q. What made you believe?

A. I didn't have any philosophical objections to belief. I was just ignorant of the evidence. When I read a book about a medium, it seemed genuine so I started to read more and what I read made sense to me and the authors seemed sincere and credible. Then, when I took classes in mediumship, it became real to me at a much higher level

Q. Did you ever have an experience that removed all doubt?

A. Communicating with spirits in class and having my classmates confirm what I was perceiving about their dead relatives was pretty amazing. And to do it once a week month after month puts you in a frame of mind where you have no doubt. And getting readings in class from the other students and during Spiritualist church services is also very convincing.

After my father died he came to me. I was lying in bed one night when I felt his presence in the room, and I felt him touch me on the shoulder. It wasn't like a dream it was like it was real.

Knowing about other smart people who believe that consciousness exists independently of the body helps too. My web page on Eminent Researchers discusses many Nobel prize winning and other brilliant scientists who believed the evidence that consciousness exists separate from the physical body.

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What Should You Do In This Life To Make Sure You Will Be Okay in the Afterlife?

Q. What should you do to make sure you will go to a nice place in the afterlife where you will be happy?

A. During your life, desire to be a good person and try to be a good person. By good person I mean be nice to other people. I don't mean follow some religious doctrine or religious rules. And you don't have to become a slave to helping other people and you should respect your own limits and boundaries and needs also. Just live a normal life, take care of yourself too, but do your best to be nice to people.

I think meditation helps me to live more in accordance with my spiritual values, but it is not something everyone has to do. Near-death experiencers are not coming back from the afterlife and saying, "Everyone has to meditate". They are saying that you should just try to love other people and be nice to them.

Q. Do you need to be religious?

A. You don't need to be religious. But if you like religion, be aware that there is no "wrong" religion. The religion that brings you closest to God is the best religion for you. What the sources of information about the afterlife say is important is that you try to be nice to people as well as you can. There are many circumstances that make life hard, some beyond our control, so just do the best you can. If you desire to be a good person that is the most important thing. Everything else can be corrected and atoned for, but the most important thing is to desire to be good.

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Preparation for Death

Q. What if you are really scared of dying, does it matter? Does it mean you'll go to a bad place in the afterlife?

A. No, it won't cause you to go to a bad place. As people approach death, spirit guides prepare them for crossing over. They have visions of the afterlife and deceased family coming to visit them. These phenomena are called Death Bed Visions

The more you learn about the afterlife, the more your mind will be prepared, the easier the transition will be because it will be easier for spirits to help you. So it is good that you are asking these questions now. The knowledge should make your transition very easy when the time eventually comes for you to cross over. Understanding the principles of spiritualism is all anyone needs to know to make their transition easy.

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Who Will We be With in the Afterlife?

Q. Will we be with our relatives? My aunt died 3 months ago. Am I going to see my aunt one day?

A. It is very possible that you will meet your aunt in the afterlife. Usually when you die you are met by your family and friends that have preceded you and they will help you adjust to your new life as a spirit.

Q. Are you afraid?

A. No, I think the afterlife will be much nicer than the earth life.

Q. But doesn't it bother you that you will be alone?

A. I don't expect to be alone, why do you ask that?

Q. What if you are not in the same level as your friends and family?

A. But we have friends in our own level, and we have our soul group. We don't remember, but most likely some of them are people you know in this life. You can also visit with spirits in other regions of your own level and spirits in other levels if they are not too far above or below yours.

Some of the evidence for reincarnation indicates that spirits incarnate together with different relationships each time. One time you are the mother, another time the son, another time a family friend. Before you incarnate, you meet with your spirit friends and plan your future lives. You will know the same people in life and in the afterlife.

There will also be spirit guides, more advanced spirits that have advised you in the past, who you will remember when you cross over.

Q. But i don't like changes!!!! And I want to be with my friends and family for good!

A. You will have friends who make progress at the same rate as you. Some of these are probably people you consider part of your family now. As you advance you will make more and more friends. Eternity is a long time. You will want new things to do.

Q. And what about love?

A. Spirits love each other as friends. They don't have to keep to marriages because earth relationships are only for the earth life. But if two or more spirits want to stay together they can. One spirit can delay advancing to a higher level while waiting for a less advanced friend to catch up. Some people say spirits have something like sex but there isn't a lot known about it.

Everything in the earth plane corresponds to something in the spirit world but the earth version is a pale shadow compared to what it is in the afterlife, including love. One time when I was in mediumship class, the spirit of a woman communicated through me. She wanted to tell to her boyfriend, who was one of my classmates, that she still loved him. She did this by causing me to feel the love that she felt for him. It was very powerful. All I could think of was, "I wish someone loved me that much." I tried to tell my classmate, "She says she loves you ... a lot", but human words cannot describe the feelings of pure spirit.

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Connecting With Loved Ones Who Are Already In The Afterlife

Q. Is it going to be okay? What about my aunt?

A. I don't see any reason to think you or you aunt will have any problems. Is there something in particular that concerns you about her?

Q. She had problems with anxiety for many years.

A. I am sure she is much happier now that she is disconnected from her physical brain.

Q. Do you think she can still see me?

A. Very probably. If you want to tell her something just talk to her.

Q. Do you think she knows that I still love her and miss her? I don't feel her presence.

A. Yes, she most likely knows. But you can tell her if you want to. Spirits also like it if we pray for them, something positive, for example, that they may be happy in their new environment and among people who love them.

If you want to try to communicate with her, have a look at this article: How to Communicate with Spirits. You don't have to try it, but you might find it helpful to understand some of the ways we can communicate with them.

If you are interested, these links are about my experiences communicating with spirits:

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Fear of Death

Q. I'm so Jealous that you aren't scared. I cant do anything because all I can think about that its all going to end.

A. When you get a chance, read some of the material I suggested and it might help you feel better.

Q. The thing is that there are a lot of scary stories so how do you know what to believe?

A. A lot of scary things happen to people while they are alive. Do you live your life in fear?

Q. I know that a lot things happen here, but I don't know about the afterlife so that's what's scared me ... if its going to be worse than here.

A. The people who have near-death experiences and the spirits who communicate through mediums say that it is much, much nicer in the afterlife than in the earth life. Often, near-death experiencers don't want to come back to the earth, they would rather stay in the afterlife. They say the atmosphere is permeated with love. Those that do want to come back usually feel that way only because they have children who need them.

I went to a workshop once on trance mediumship. That is a different form of mediumship than I was learning in my classes. In trance mediumship, the spirit comes into the body of the medium and speaks in his own words through the medium. I was a new student at the time so I was not allowed to participate I could only observe. But most of the other students were well known to me because they were in my mediumship class and were members of my church. When they each took at turn at trance mediumship, the spirits who were communicating through them were asked by the teacher of the workshop if they wanted to come back and live another life on the earth. None of them said they would like to do that. They all preferred the afterlife to the earth life. It is much nicer there than here. I knew these students, I saw what happened, they were not hypnotized or faking.

All of this is a lot to absorb at once, particularly if you haven't come across this information before. You can't change your whole world view instantly. Try reading some of the material I suggested, biographies of mediums and accounts of near-death experiences. Maybe over time you will absorb the ideas and feel better. But I can only give you information, I am not trained to help you with emotions as a therapist or psychologist would be. If your fear remains, there are therapists who specialize in spiritual issues you could try. A therapist might help you with grief for your aunt as well.

Sometimes people may fear death, or experience excessive grief, or question the purpose of life, due to psychological factors and in that case no amount of knowledge about the afterlife or any answers to spiritual questions will help them. In such cases, a person might do better by seeking answers in psychology either through self-help books or seeing a therapist.

It's like when someone is afraid to fly in an airplane. They know thousands of people fly everyday and the chance of a problem occurring is next to zero, but they still panic when they think of flying. The problem is not knowledge, it is something psychological and the solution will be found through psychology rather than through studying information about flying.

I have to go now, if you have more questions send me a message and I will try to get to them later. My main suggestion is to try to read some biographical books by John Edward and George Anderson or other mediums. There are also some free e-books at Spiritwritings.com see the section "Future Life in the Spirit World". Or read about people who have had near-death experiences, try this web site: Near-death.com see the section on "Notable NDEs"

Bye for now.

Q. Thank you very much for your time.

A. You're welcome.

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Pages

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Sir Fred Hoyle

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Friday, April 25, 2014

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Monday, April 21, 2014

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Joe McMoneagle

Dr. Eben Alexander

Carl Jung

Friday, April 18, 2014

The Rise and Fall of Materialism

The Discovery that the Universe is Expanding shows the Universe had a Beginning. This Shakes the Foundations of Materialism

Something from Nothing Requires a Transcendent Creator

In the Beginning, the Universe Arose from Nothing. Materialism Cannot Explain This.

The Fine Tuning of the Designed Universe

The Designer's Continued Involvement: Life and Evolution.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

What happens when we die? A conversation about fear of death.