Life in B Flat(Science and Spirituality)

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Why are Most Scientists Skeptics?

Someone in an internet discussion forum asked why most scientists are physicalists. A physicalist is someone who believes that all things can be explained in terms known to physics such as matter and forces of nature. Physicalists do not believe in psychic phenomena or the afterlife or that consciousness is not produced by the brain. None of these things can be explained by modern physics. I replied to that question with five reasons that most scientists are physicalists:

Habitual reductionist thinking prevents scientists from accepting anything that they can't explain in terms of simpler phenomena, such as non-physical consciousness, qualia, and psychic phenomena.
Indoctrination into philosophical naturalism during science education.
Psychological attachment to the status quo scientific world view because it is the source of their status and livelihood.
Fear of alternative means of obtaining knowledge about the universe that might supplant science as the most important source of knowledge. If you can ask a psychic or a spirit, why would you need scientists?
Persecution of heretics. If Nobel prize winning physicist Brian Josephson is ostracized because of his interest in psi, what chance does an ordinary scientist have?

References:

Habitual reductionist thinking prevents scientists from accepting anything that they can't explain in terms of simpler phenomena, such as non-physical consciousness, qualia, and psychic phenomena.

Causes of skepticism

Research has shown that people who think analytically rather than intuitively tend to be atheists. People who analyze problems using logic, because of their education, career, or innate characteristics, may become habituated to reductionist analysis. Reductionism is the belief that something complex can be understood by the interaction of simpler components. This way of thinking works well in many branches of science. Psychology can be explained in terms of biology, which can be explained in terms of chemistry, which can be explained in terms of physics. However, some scientists, engineers, philosophers, and other intellectuals, may become so habituated to reductionist thinking that they are unable to conceive that some phenomena cannot be explained in terms of simpler phenomena. For example, the subjective experience of consciousness, what pain feels like, or what red looks like, cannot be understood through reductionism. Psychic phenomena that cannot be explained by current scientific theories such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and precognition cannot be understood through reductionism. This is why some people who are habituated to reductionist thinking simply cannot conceive that psychic phenomena could be real or consciousness might be nonphysical and survive bodily death. Reductionists suggest consciousness is an epiphenomenon even though that is a poor explanation of consciousness, because it is the best they can conceive of within their reductionist prison.
Indoctrination into philosophical naturalism during science education.

T. H. Huxley: Accidental Founder of Modern Pseudo-skepticism

Why are so many scientist skeptics? Because naturalism is an implicit part of the culture of science and science students are indoctrinated in that philosophy during their education. Naturalism is the belief that science should only study natural processes and consider natural explanations for phenomena. This is a mistake. Science should be the search for the truth where ever it leads. This flaw in the culture of science is due to a large extent to T. H. Huxley and the X club. The X Club was founded by T. H. Huxley and played an important role in making naturalism a fundamental tenet of modern science.
Psychological attachment to the status quo scientific world view because it is the source of their status and livelihood.

Suppressed Parapsychology

Dean Radin, in his book "The Conscious Universe" in the chapter "Seeing Psi" proposes that some scientists may have too much self interest in preserving the materialist status quo to be objective about psychic phenomena.

...

It should be understood that Radin is not saying NAS members are deliberately dishonest about the existence of psychic phenomena. He is saying they are so caught up in the scientific world view, (for example, because they get a lot of personal status from it, or because they spend their careers defining that world view) that they are unconsciously unable to accept that the scientific world view might be so seriously flawed, that it could have such big gaps in it, that psychic phenomena could be real.
Fear of alternative means of obtaining knowledge about the universe that might supplant science as the most important source of knowledge. If you can ask a psychic or a spirit, why would you need scientists?

Causes of skepticism

Genuine psychic phenomena have been produced by ordinary people throughout the history of humankind. However, these phenomena were rejected by science for "political" reasons, not empirical reasons, when the scientific revolution deposed religion as the ultimate source of knowledge. Besides being seen as allied with religion, psychic phenomena are a competitor to science as a means of obtaining information about the universe. Therefore, some modern scientists have a lot of cultural baggage that prevent them from seeing the otherwise obvious evidence that some paranormal phenomena are real.
Persecution of heretics. If Nobel prize winning physicist Brian Josephson is ostracized for interest in psi, what chance does an ordinary scientist have?

How to Run a Conference

Certain invitees to a workshop on the Foundations of Physics received from the organisers letters withdrawing their invitations. The letter to Brian Josephson asserted:

It has come to my attention that one of your principal research interests is the paranormal ... in my view, it would not be appropriate for someone with such research interests to attend a scientific conference.

while a similar letter to David Peat asserted:

"It has come to my attention that you are the author of books on Jungian synchronicity and quantum physics, and on connections between Native American Indian thought and modern physics ... in my view, it is not appropriate for an author of such books to attend a scientific conference."
These letters illustrate well the defensive, paranoid attitudes of members of the scientific community such as those who pressed for this action to be taken; for such people, science equates to 'closed minded enquiry', in the light of which their action is in no way surprising.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Reports of Paranormal Experiences

If you like reading about paranormal experiences, you might be interested in the Reddit paranormal community. The column on the right margin has other reddit links on similar topics. I've started reading the rss feed.

I posted about this on an internet discussion forum and someone replied with a link to a thread in a discussion forum for nurses about their on the job paranormal experiences. It's a huge thread, as I write this there are over 281 pages with over 2177 posts. Below is my favorite, so far, because it shows a practical application of spiritual knowledge. It's on page 3:

Jun 13, '05 by ZASHAGALKA

We had a patient, chronic CHFer, always on the call button, hated being on fluid restrictions. you know the type: the nurses have to take turns during the shift answering the call button so the primary can actually do other work.

And this was a frequent flier cause he was very chronic, very borderline, and the hospital was the only place he wouldn't fluid overload.

I work 7p-7a. He died about 8pm. Oh the look on his face, like, "how could you let me die!" - Like it was our fault.

Anyway, family came and gone by 9pm, funeral home gone at 930pm.

About 10pm, the call button starts going off. I was there - call button going off every 5 minutes.

One of the nurses was a very spiritual girl. At about 2am, after like 4 HOURS OF THIS, nurse Mary snaps, 'Enough!'

She walks down to the room, and, practically screams into the empty room, "Mr X, you have died. You can't be in here bothering us anymore. Move along. In the name of Jesus, I'm exorcising you from this plane of existence. Go to the light and be happy!"

And I kid you not, the call button stopped going off then and there.

~faith,
Timothy.

For more information on how to handle troublesome spirits, see How to help earthbound spirits complete their transition to the spirit world. Also of interest: What are ghosts?

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Spiritual Questions Answered by Carol and Mikey

Here is a video and two part audio interview (part 1 part 2) of a medium, Carol, who combines mental mediumship with physical mediumship. She communicates with the spirit of her son, Mikey, who died in a car accident. Some of the communication is through mental mediumship but they also use a pendulum to spell out words. The communications are mostly on spiritual topics, they don't give readings. However, you can read many questions and answers and even ask Carol and Mikey your own spiritual questions at afterlifeforums.com.

Here's a sample. In this post, Carol discuss prayer, and why prayer might not help with some of life's hardships:

This is Mikey's take on prayer:

Prayer is good and helpful to all. With prayer, there can be much power. But do know, that if you ask for something that would interfere with a life lesson you chose or someone else chose, it will not be answered. ... If you are thankful, and asking for something that is not related to a life lesson, often it will be answered. Mikey also says that prayer is as powerful "individually" as it is in a "group". (Such as in church.) Mikey also says that God is not a bad "parent". God is trying to teach us how to be loving and forgiving in all situations. In Heaven, we "choose these situations" we often are praying for here on earth. Therefore, God is actually helping us to achieve our goals!

Do all of you remember the movie "Young Frankenstein" where Gene Wildler tells the help when he is going into the room with Frankenstein, "No matter what I say, how I beg, or how loud I scream to let me out of the room, DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR!" So he goes into the room, and Frankenstein starts getting out of control. Gene Wilder immediately starts begging his help to OPEN THE DOOR! And of course they wouldn't because of what he said earlier. This is a similar scenario. Funny movie, but anyway do you see the point? Prayer won't change the plan we previously agreed to. Prayer is powerful, but it cannot interfere with a plan.

Carol and Mikey "in Spirit"

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A Synthesis of Spiritual Healing and Qi Gong

Here is a way to practice self healing, distant healing, and healing for the world that combines elements of spiritual healing and qi gong. The purpose of the exercise is to develop the ability to bring healing energy through you for healing for yourself and others, and also to develop the ability to feel the healing energy. Before doing this exercise you should read my web page on Spiritual Healing. For more information on qi gong you may read Spiritual Healing Development with Qi Gong,
Sensing the Qualities of Qi, and
Sensing the Qualities of Qi (part 2).

The "Sending Out" and "Bringing In" Positions

Stand comfortably in a natural posture with your arms at your sides. Your weight should be balanced between the balls of your feet and your heels. Your weight should not be too far forward toward your toes or too far backward on your heels. Don't worry getting it exactly right but it should be balanced so you require the least effort in the muscles of your ankles to remain upright. Your feet can be approximately shoulder width apart. A little less is okay but they should not be too close together. The knees may be slightly bent or straight. Keeping the knees straight will put less strain on them. Bending them slightly will help loosen and straighten the spine.
Bend your elbows so that the back of your hands come up to your shoulders. Then move your hands away from you and down by relaxing your elbows to about 45 degrees (or whatever feels comfortable) with your palms turned away from you. Your fingers should be straight but you don't have to strain to make them perfectly straight. The fingers should spread naturally, don't force them apart or together. This is the "sending out" position.
Turn your hands so that the palms are facing toward you. This is the "bringing in" position.
As you do the exercise below, you may feel your posture improving. If you tend to slump your shoulders, you may find your back straightening. This is nothing to be concerned about, let it happen naturally. Don't force it or strain or maintain an unnatural or uncomfortable posture.
This exercise can also be done sitting down, moving the arms and hands as described for the standing posture.

The stick figure below depicts both the "sending out" and "bringing in" positions.

The Exercise

Stand in the "bringing in" position (with palms facing you), and pray silently, "Oh God, please may I have healing energy to give me healing for the highest good". Say this two or three times so it is clearly impressed in your mind as you say it. While you are doing that, imagine healing energy coming down into you from above into your head and hands.
Next, bring your hands in front of your chest so that the palms are facing each other. Slowly move your palms together until they are as close as you can get them without them touching. Your finger tips might be as close as one millimeter apart. Then, slowly move your right hand away while leaving the left hand stationary. When you have moved your right hand about eight inches, pause. Then slowly return the right hand to where it was so it is close to the left hand, palms facing each other. Pause. Repeat this a few times noticing any sensations in your finger tips or the palms of your hands. Repeat this moving the left hand and keeping the right hand stationary. Pay close attention to the sensation in the stationary hand.
Cup both hands as if you were holding a ball approximately four inches in diameter or whatever size feels comfortable. If you have large hands it might be bigger, if you have small hands it might be smaller. Now turn your hands, still "holding the ball" so one is on top and the other is on the bottom. Notice any sensations in the bottom hand. Turn your hands so the other is on top and the other is on the bottom and notice any sensations in the bottom hand. You can do this once or twice or more if you want to.
Throughout the following steps, hold your hands an inch or two or slightly more away from your body without actually touching it. Notice any sensations in your hands or your body where you move your hands near it. In particular, pay attention to these sensations as your hands pass over the top of the head, the forehead, the face, temples, the nape of the neck, the shoulders, the front of the throat, the heart, the solar plexus, the abdomen below the navel, and the root chakra.
Move your hands to the top of your head with the palms facing the top of your head. Notice any sensations in your hands or the top of your head. This step and the following steps can all be done in one continuous flowing motion, there is no need to stop in between steps.
Slowly move your hands down in front of your face, noticing any sensations.
Move your hands to the sides of your head so your palms are facing your ears.
Move your hands back so your palms are facing the back of your neck where the neck and shoulders meet. As you notice any sensations, also imagine energy flowing from your hands down your spine to the base of the spine.
Move your hands outward along your shoulders with your palms facing downward (horizontally).
Move your hands with the palms facing toward you vertically so they are in front of your throat. As in the other steps in the exercise, notice any sensation in your hands or the part of the body the hands are facing.
Move your hands downward so that the palms pass over your breasts, and continue down past the solar plexus and the lower abdomen.
Move your hands downward across the pelvis, and down the thighs until your hands are in front of your thighs and your elbows are straight. As your hands pass down your thighs point the palms toward your knees and feet and imagine healing energy flowing from your hands down your legs and to your knees and feet.
Bend your elbows to bring your hands up to the "sending out" position. Imagine healing energy coming down into your head and hand and pray silently, "Oh God, please move healing energy through me to where it's needed for the highest good." If there are any people you would like to send healing to, continue praying, "And please move healing energy to [name the people you would like to receive distant healing] to give them healing for their highest good."
Turn your palms back toward yourself in the "bringing in" position and repeat the entire exercise as many times as you like. Continuing for ten minutes is a suggestion.

When you do this exercise you may feel a lot of energy coming into you when you are in the "bringing in" position. You might also feel warmth coming from your hands as you move them close to your skin, particularly when they are in front of your face and in back of your neck. As your hands pass over some of the chakras you may feel sensations in the chakras.

If you are interested in psychic development, after doing this exercise you can do Exercise 3 or Exercise 4 on my web page A Natural Method for Learning To Communicate with Spirits. Substitute this exercise for the meditation portions of those exercises. After you finish this exercise, lie down and try to go into the hypnogogic state as described in those exercises. You should read the entire page, if you haven't already done so, before you start exercise 3 or 4.

When you are in the beginning stages of learning this technique, you may spend more time on steps 1, 2, and 3 in order to concentrate on learning to feel the healing energy.

You can customize this technique for self healing, by eliminating step 13 or by doing only step 1 for the entire session.

Another form of mental healing involves visualizing your immune cells winning a fight against harmful viruses, bacteria, or cancer cells. One way to do this is to visualize your immune cells engulfing and destroying, for example, any harmful virus particles in your body. You can combine this with the self-healing techniques described above, for example, in step 1. You can even visualize the healing energy adding power to your immune cells to help them in their fight.

There is quite a lot of similarity between qi gong and spiritual healing. Qi gong is usually done standing up as is spiritual healing. The sending out position is similar to a qi gong posture and is also similar to the way spiritual healing is given where the hands placed on the shoulders of the recipient.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

The Physical Mediumship of Einer Nielsen

Last May I posted some links to photographs of seances where physical mediumship was demonstrated.

This link and this one have photos of ectoplasm and materialized spirits produced by the medium Einer Nielsen.

Recently Zerdini has posted some information about Einer in a discussion forum:

The Mediumship of Einer Nielsen

This tribute comes from a pastor of the Swedish State Church:

“On, January 2nd, 1938, I attended a séance for the first time. It was a materialisation séance with Einer Nielsen in Copenhagen. It was peculiar to have such an experience, but by and by I became used to it and got on friendly terms with the different spirits.

“Einer Nielsen is an excellent medium, and is able to produce nearly all kinds of phenomena. Furthermore, he is a kind and interesting personality with an inclination to humour.

“During all the years since my first experience, I have attended about a hundred and fifty séances with Einer Nielsen and met about four hundred different spirits, among them many of my relatives. I have met my wife at several other séances, too. It is delightful to meet her and to talk with her. She also caresses my cheeks. “

As Nielsen may, at the present time, be the only real materialisation medium in Europe, scientists ought to study the different phenomena before it is too late. Many thousands of people have, through him, become convinced of the after-life. Thus he has performed a great mission in the service of God. I am greatly indebted to him for all that I have personally had through him and through his séances.

“Twice I have sat in the cabinet and kept hold of the medium’s hands. The ectoplasm came directly through his clothes. One figure that of Rita, rose up from the ectoplasm grasped my arm, and we went out together to the sitters and talked with them. Once I asked her to go to the artist Ernst Norlind and take hold of his beard, because he did not believe in her. She did so, and again took my arm. Twice Rita has kissed me. The first time she kissed my cheek. The second time she touched my upper lip with her upper lip. At the same time I felt her breathing. I told her that it was very interesting. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘how could you live without breathing?’

“At another séance, Knud, one of the controls, took a railway ticket out of the pocket of one of the twenty coats which hung in the hall and put it in the mouth of its owner. After a moment he took it away and put it between my fingers, where it stayed until the séance was over.

“When Queen Astrid materialised and came out of the cabinet, I asked if she would allow us to take a photograph of her. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you will get a good photograph of me.’ **

A week later she again materialised. I grasped her hand and thanked her for the beautiful photograph. She laid her hand upon my head and blessed me. Some Danish people asked if they were allowed to send the photograph to one of the princes who was interested in the cause. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘give my love to him.’

“Once, on a Good Friday, the Bishop Kingo came and delivered a beautiful talk. He said, among other things, ‘We have also celebrated as a festive occasion the remembrance of Jesus’ birth to the heavenly life.’

“My wife, who passed on February, 4th, 1946 has since materialised seven times and talked with me and caressed my cheeks. We are both very happy to meet. In the beginning my wife was very much against my Spiritualistic work.

She thought that we were hypnotised. It was also rather difficult to get her to attend séances. At last it succeeded in a peculiar way. She got the great chance to meet her first husband, and then she did not oppose me anymore. Now she is helping me in many ways and appears at different séances.

“At one of my first séances Pastor Christensen appeared, and said that he was working in the dark spheres and that the work was very hard. At another séance I was photographed together with him.

“Many people have met their relatives, and kissed and embraced them. It is a great experience when relatives meet each other in that way. At one séance a cousin of mine came and put her bare arm upon my hand and stood there for some minutes, but she did not talk, On another occasion she turned round, as if she had intended to approach us, and laughed. Probably some spirit told her something jolly.

“It is impossible to remember all the different séances I have attended with Einer Nielsen. I regret to say that I have not kept notes. However, what I have related may give an idea how interesting and abundantly fruitful these séances are.

“Martin Liljeblad, Pastor of the Swedish State Church.”
“Halsingborg, February 18th, 1949.”

**Liljeblad set up three cameras in different positions, arranging for them to take simultaneous pictures using a white flash. All three cameras secured photographs.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Everything you need to know about spiritual development in three links.

The three excerpts below explain the essence of spiritual development. We incarnate for the purpose of learning to love. We are supposed to make mistakes because that is how we learn. Meditation can help us to develop the spiritual qualities that will make us fit for the higher levels in the spirit world:

Mary Jo Rapini's near-death experience from the side bar on nhe-nde.org:

“I went into this tunnel, and I came into this room that was just beautiful. God held me, He called me by name, and He told me, ‘Mary Jo, you can’t stay.’ And I wanted to stay. I protested. I said, ‘I can’t stay? Why not?’ And I started talking about all the reasons; I was a good wife, I was a good mother, I did 24-hour care with cancer patients. And He said, ‘Let me ask you one thing -- have you ever loved another the way you’ve been loved here?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s impossible. I’m a human.’ And then He just held me and said, ‘You can do better.’ ” -- Mary Jo Rapini, describing her near-death experience

From Near-death.com

Howard Storm was given the following insights after his life review when he was afraid of returning to Earth life because he feared he would make the same mistakes again:

Mistakes are an acceptable part of being human. We are here to make all the mistakes we want because it is through our mistakes that we learn. As long as we try to do what we know to be right, we will be on the right path. If we make a mistake, we should fully recognize it as a mistake, then put it behind us and simply try not to make the same mistake again. The important thing is to try our best, keep our standards of goodness and truth, and not compromise them to win people's approval. God loves us just the way we are, mistakes and all. When we make a mistake, we should ask for forgiveness. After that, it would be an insult if we don't accept that we are forgiven. We shouldn't continue going around with a sense of guilt, and we should try not to repeat our mistakes. We should learn from our mistakes. God wants us to do what we want to do. That means making choices - and there isn't necessarily any right choice. There are a spectrum of possibilities, and we should make the best choice from those possibilities. If we do that, we will receive help from the Other Side. (Rev. Howard Storm)

Marines expanding use of meditation training at the Washington Times:

That benefit is the impetus behind Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (“M-Fit”), a fledgling military initiative that teaches service members the secular meditative practice of mindfulness in order to bolster their emotional health and improve their mental performance under the stress and strain of war.

...

studies have shown that habitual meditation:

Changes the way blood and oxygen flow through the brain;

Strengthens the neural circuits responsible for concentration and empathy;

Shrinks the amygdala, an area of the brain that controls the fear response;

What it is like in the afterlife.

Here is an excerpt about the afterlife from The New Revelation by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Mr. Wales is a cautious and rather sceptical inquirer who had put away his results with incredulity (he had received them through his own automatic writing). On reading my account of the conditions described in the beyond, he hunted up his own old script which had commended itself so little to him when he first produced it. He says:

At any rate I obtained, at various times, statements (as my contemporary notes show) to the effect that, in this persisting state of existence, they have bodies which, though imperceptible by our senses, are as solid to them as ours to us, that these bodies are based on the general characteristics of our present bodies but beautified; that they have no age, no pain, no rich and poor; that they wear clothes and take nourishment; that they do not sleep (though they spoke of passing occasionally into a semiconscious state which they called 'lying asleep'--a condition, it just occurs to me, which seems to correspond roughly with the 'Hypnoidal' state); that, after a period which is usually shorter than the average life-time here, they pass to some further state of existence; that people of similar thoughts, tastes and feelings, gravitate together; that married couples do not necessarily reunite, but that the love of man and woman continues and is freed of elements which with us often militate against its perfect realization; that immediately after death people pass into a semi-conscious rest-state lasting various periods, that they are unable to experience bodily pain, but are susceptible at times to some mental anxiety; that a painful death is 'absolutely unknown,' that religious beliefs make no difference whatever in the after-state, and that their life altogether is intensely happy, and no one having ever realised it could wish to return here.

I got no reference to 'work' by that word, but much to the various interests that were said to occupy them. That is probably only another way of saying the same thing. 'Work' with us has come usually to mean 'work to live,' and that, I was emphatically informed, was not the case with them--that all the requirements of life were somehow mysteriously 'provided.' Neither did I get any reference to a definite 'temporary penal state,' but I gathered that people begin there at the point of intellectual and moral development where they leave off here; and since their state of happiness was based mainly upon sympathy, those who came over in a low moral condition, failed at first for various lengths of time to have the capacity to appreciate and enjoy it.

More free e-books about the afterlife can be found at SpiritWritings.com and SurvivalEBooks.com.

More links to free e-book libraries can be found on my web site.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Woman in coma answers questions about God.

Snapjudgment.org has a podcast about a woman in a coma who answered questions about God. When in the coma, the only person she would respond to was her grandson. She answered his questions about the reality of God and heaven. Later, her grandson asked for a sign from God confirming His existence. He got the sign. The podcast is only ten minutes long and 10Mb to download.

Hello.

That's my boy.

Grammy, what do you see?

Bright light.

Is God real?

God is beautiful.

Is heaven real?

Heaven is beautiful.

What are you feeling?

Love, pure love.

The full episode of Snap Judgement includes more stories about The Other Side.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Extraordinary psychic claim from grieving mother: Dead son’s spirit holds my hand to write letters to me.

The Sun has an article about a mother who learned to communicate with her deceased son through automatic writing:

Sally then visited the medium, who told her she had spiritual gifts.

She recalled: “She said that Tony wanted to write me a message, and that I should try automatic spiritual writing.

“I was advised to sit in a darkened room, completely quietly, holding a pen very lightly to paper and to ask Tony questions so he could write the answer.

“I tried it the next morning.”

To her amazement, as she sat down with a pen she felt an icy grip on her hand.

Then, without moving the pen herself, she found “Tony” written in her notebook.

Sally, whose husband is a car salesman also called Tony, said: “It absolutely drained me. It took hours just to get that one word — and by the end my whole body was tensed up. I felt freezing cold.”

With practice, the pair were soon chatting at length and with ease.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Skeptical Psychologist takes class in mediumship, communicates with the dead, is stunned by the accuracy of a reading he gave, becomes open to the possibility that “there is an unseen reality”.

An article at vancouversun.com describes a talk given by skeptical psychologist Leonard George about his experiences taking a course in mediumship. During the course he seemed to communicate with his father, his spirit guides, and he was stunned by the accuracy of a reading he gave to another student. He felt his experiences were not scientific proof of communication with spirits, but they left him open to the possibility that “There is an unseen reality”.

(There is ample proof (more here and here) of communication with spirits and in light of that proof, it is reasonable to consider his experiences were genuine communication with spirits. His experiences are somewhat similar to my own experiences taking classes in mediumship.)

Excerpts from the article:

Leonard George, a skeptic, was convinced by his experiences that Spiritualists were sincere an not involved in fakery.

George, a self-described skeptical psychologist, is also aware spiritualism has often been linked with fakery and fraud. So he wanted to get to the bottom of things.

...

What did George end up discovering about modern-day spiritualism? The first thing he realized was that the New York spiritualists conveyed “100 per cent sincerity.”

...

But the spiritualists’ high moral standards, and apparent complete rejection of trickery of any kind, did not begin to constitute any sort of scientific proof for George that they could speak to dead people.

He seemed to meet with his spirit guides:

“I had an experience of rising up. I was perched on a mountain and the lights were right in front of me. These lights communicated that they were my spirit guides. It was quite shocking.”

George seemed to communicate with his deceased father.

Following a sense of being buried alive, powerful images arose inside George of his father sitting on a marble bench; calm, talkative and reassuring. “It was one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me.”

He was stunned by the accuracy of a reading he gave to a classmate:

He did a reading for a female student whom he had never before met. In an altered state as he contemplated the woman’s soul, George sensed images of a short dark woman in a storm-tossed house covered with Christmas ornaments, whose name may have been Mabel or Annabel.

When George told the woman about the images that emerged during her reading, she responded that when she had been a child in the poor rural U.S., high winds would often knock out the family’s water supply.

So the woman would walk through the forest to obtain water from a black woman named Mabel, who decorated her house year-round with Christmas ornaments.

“When she said that my hair was standing up. It’s standing up right now,” George said, sitting at his desk. “It seemed so accurate to me. I didn’t have anything to say for hours after that.”

He seemed to realize there was something paranormal happening but did not consider his experiences scientific of communication with spirits. However the experiences left him open to the possibility that “There is an unseen reality".

He has not adopted spiritualist metaphysics since his summer apprenticeship as a medium. And he did not come away feeling he had “scientific proof” humans can psychically connect with people, including beings in an afterlife.

But that doesn’t mean he is not open to the possibility. “There is an unseen reality,” George said confidently.

“But I’m not committed to what spiritualists say it is.”

He was, however, convinced most spiritualists are having meaningful experiences that provide what he calls “personal proof” of another realm. These experiences tend, he noted, to make them more confident and resilient than most people.

It is not unreasonable to say these experiences are not scientific proof of communication with spirits. However there is ample proof (more here and here) of communication with spirits and in light of that proof, it is reasonable to consider his experiences to be genuine communication with spirits.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Nderf.org: Near Death Experience Research Foundation

The Near Death Experience Research Foundation has many accounts of near-death experiences in their archives. An e-mail correspondent recommended Jacqueline's Father's NDE. I thought it was particularly interesting because it describes a shared death experience where a living person witnessed angels coming to take away the soul of a person who died. It also demonstrates how valuable psychic perceptions can be in helping those suffering from grief.

Jacqueline's father had been hospitalized with cancer. While he was in the hospital, he saw angels come to take the soul of Danny, who shared the same hospital room, when Danny died. At that time, the angels accurately told Jacqueline's father when they would be coming back for him. Jacqueline eventually told Danny's mother that angels had come for Danny at his death and this was a great relief to her because she had been worrying about Danny's fate in the afterlife.

About two weeks before he died he told us that he would not be here in two weeks, my sister asked him why where are you going Dad?, he said I will be dead. He said this the night another young guy named Danny died, Danny had melanoma and was in the bed opposite Dad. Dad relayed to me what happened just prior to Danny taking his last breath, Dad saw 2 large Angels enter the room and stand on either side of the bed not touching the ground, Dad heard Danny take his last breath and then Danny with the 2 Angels stood at the foot of Dads bed. One of the angels said to Dad we will be back for you in 2 weeks time. Dad died exactly 2 weeks to the day that Danny died. He told me that when he saw Danny's soul that he was happy and rejuvenated. Another thing Dad told me do not be afraid of death as it is like walking through a door. My father went from being a person who believed in nothing to being saved by Almighty God and for that I am so grateful and privileged to have been a witness to his saving grace. A few years after Dad died I get getting a message that I had to find Danny's mother and tell her about her son. I said Lord I do not know where to find her if you want me to tell her I am sure you will help it happen. It became very persistent that I find her, as luck or divine intervention would have it I happened to be working with Danny's best mate, I only found out when we were talking about previous jobs we had done. I told him where I had nursed and he told me his best mate had died there in the year I nursed there. I asked him his mates name and when he told me I said thank you God. Danny's friend put me in touch with Danny's mother that very day and I asked her if I could come and see her immediately after work she said yes. Danny's mum was a very frail little old lady and I was so afraid to tell her about Danny's last moments for fear of her not believing me or upsetting her. I told her what my father had witnessed when Danny died, she broke down crying, I was mortified as I thought I had done the wrong thing.

I said I am sorry for upsetting you like this. she said you have not upset me these are tears of joy, you have made me the happiest mother alive, she said she had fretted for years wondering what had happened to Danny after he died and know she knew that he was saved. God moves in mysterious ways. Danny's mother had been suffering severe depression since his passing Danny was 26 yrs old when he died, my Dad was 51 yrs old and they both died on a Sunday 2 weeks apart. I hope this gives comfort to a lot of people out there, Jesus and God are real Angels are real I know because my Dad saw them and was saved. God bless all of humanity.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

I will probably not be posting as often as I have been...

For the information of my regular readers: I will probably not be posting as often as I have been. Many of my posts have come from discussions on internet forums and I have not found those types of discussions as interesting recently so I haven't been participating and I have less to write about on this blog.

I appreciate the readership of those of you who have been regular readers of this blog, and I'll try to post occasionally, but probably not as often as I have been doing.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Amy's NDE

Amy's NDE is quite interesting. It offers evidence in support of the filter model of the brain (see below). I recommend reading it. Here are some excerpts ...

Amy had an NDE after a bad reaction to pain medication:

I considered the doctor's prescription of three whole pills and decided to take them all and trust him.

I went to bed after taking all three and within minutes felt myself begin to go numb. Then the inside of my nasal passages swelled up and I couldn't breathe at all. I couldn't even open my mouth I was struggling to get air, but could not. My entire body felt like it was mummified. I couldn't call out for help, and it only took a couple of minutes before, the struggle was over.

There was a strong suction coming from the top of my head (like a vacuum) and an absolute sense of relief. There was no longer a need to breathe, and no feeling of being drugged on a medication. I had no sense of my own body. I've forgotten much of this next part, but it seems I travelled very quickly. This is a void area for me.

The next thing I remember is pulling through some kind of a portal along with many others. It felt like I was in a waiting room. There were many others coming through and I began to watch them move in.

Some lessons can only be learned by incarnating:

The teacher continued to offer more information. He explained how in aborting their own lives, these people would have a rest period, but that learning what they needed to learn would be difficult. I came to understand that as much as they were taught and infused with good and helpful information there, and even if they agreed "wholeheartedly" with what was being taught.. or what they needed to learn, that learning without a body is like learning to get over an addiction to drugs with no opportunity to do the drugs! Or like learning to love one's own enemy without having enemies to deal with. He explained how he needed to teach this group of people how vital it is to let go of themselves. How to lose their obsession with themselves. How they will be stagnant in all progress if they cannot unchain themselves from their own self-obsessions. He had to teach them the importance of humility. And yet, he shook his head, smiling slightly, and he implied that there was still very little he could help them with, without their bodies. His hope was to instill more of a passion for what he had to teach, strong enough that it would leave a seed of Light that might stay with them through their sojourns.

Spirits retain the same personality they had on earth:

Looking back at that part of my experience, I was astounded by how earthy.. how even animal-like people can be on the Other Side. One might expect that upon entering through Death's Door, there would be sudden enlightenment; that maybe everyone would realize absolute goodness and choose Light and a fresh start, possibly becoming more angelic and purified, but in that place, everyone came in exactly as they'd been before.

One's earthly religion is not important in the spirit world:

I'd also wondered at religion while I was there, and I quickly received the sense that this wasn't important. That one's religion, no matter which they joined or didn't join on earth, was always what was written in their own heart. It was about WHO the person was, not what label they wore or who or what they worshiped or believed in. Your own frequency, tone, mathematical equation and vibration says it all, and you can't tinker with that. You just ARE who you are. I learned that we are here to learn how to Love, Divinely. And to become Masters of ourselves. To nail down our own lower natures and to Raise up within ourselves our own Highest Self. We are all working toward Oneness again.

Life may seem chaotic and pointless but everything happens for a purpose according to a plan:

In my NDE though, I came to understand that most of us have lived much, MUCH longer than we could even fathom. That our lives that feel so very long are infinitesimal when placed in the Whole picture... which for that matter, cannot even be framed. I was shown how every single individual through their own free will chooses paths that MATHEMATICALLY take them to the circumstances of their next existence or life. That NOTHING at all sits in accident or chaos. That every single aspect of our lives are ruled by NATURAL Laws that we placed ourSELVES in! That in a sense, we create our own worlds. I was shown how one can never assume either, that if someone lives a life of suffering that this is because of "evil" deeds. Many may CHOOSE a life of suffering because of what it Awakens in them.. or to help another, etc.. We can NEVER EVER assume that we can be accurate in guessing why each Being lives the life they live. I cannot describe the relief... the refreshing, peaceful balm this Knowledge was for me. To finally gather this Truth that I'd yearned for all of my life... That all IS Good! That there IS sense and beauty all around. That no one is just "free-falling" as it had seemed before! That God doesn't just get to toy with us as He pleases with random ideas of tests, including rewards and punishments that just depend upon His current mood or mindset. While in this experience, out in the vast expanse of stars and planets, moons, and Knowledge, I Knew complete Trust for what felt like the first time. This was bliss for me. I had lived in fear and distrust and panic for 30 consecutive years.

During her NDE, Amy experienced enhanced mathematical abilities. This is strong evidence in support of the filter model of the brain, which says that the brain does not produce consciousness but only filters non-physical consciousness while we are incarnated. Like a piece of colored glass filters light so that only certain wavelength pass through it, the brain filters out some of the capabilities of consciousness while we are incarnated. When we are freed from the brain after death or during an NDE, we regain all our capabilities including the ability to understand advanced mathematics.

Amy's enhanced mathematical abilities during her NDE also seem to support the filter model of the brain as an explanation of Acquired Savant Syndrome. In acquired savant syndrome, a person develops exceptional talents after a brain injury. In some cases, this involves enhanced mathematical talents. In one case, a boy knocked unconscious when hit on the head by a baseball was able to do calendar calculations when he woke up. If the brain filters consciousness, then damage to the filter may act like a puncture and allow aspects of consciousness, like mathematical abilities, to pass through, that were previously restricted by the filter:

I want to add that in my life, I have always had a mental block when it came to math. Even the simplest math ideas, starting from the time I was only six years old were difficult for me to approach. I would shut down when anything with numbers was presented to me. So, in my NDE, while being shown such an enormous array of gorgeous mathematical equations and facts... and visual numerical splendor, I was overjoyed at my own ability to thoroughly comprehend all of it. Unfortunately, at my return, I was discouraged to find that I could not relay or bring with me the expansive amount of math understanding and knowledge I'd been so anxious to share with others. I was and still am, in love with numbers. That was a big leap forward!

Amy's life review gave her insight into the emotions of other people in her life and also into the the way higher beings react to our mistakes:

I was able to feel exactly what others around me had felt during my life. I understood how everything I did and said and even thought had touched others around me in one way or another. I was able to even enter the minds and emotional centers of many who had been around me, and understand where they were coming from in their own thinking.. how their own personal views and lives' experiences had brought them to the places each stood. I felt their own struggling and their own fears... their own desperate need for love and approval.. and more than anything, I could feel how child-like everyone was. With every person I viewed, including myself, I was able to See and Feel with a Higher Mind and Eye. And the feeling I had toward everyone was nothing less than what a loving mother would feel for her own children at toddler age.

It was actually comical at moments. I could feel how the "Elders" as I will call them (these are those who are Helpers on the Other Side.. who have Mastered themselves in many or all ways, and help work with us.) see us and find so much humor in the way we do things. It might seem brutally annoying to consider when we are in the midst of a great argument or drama that is playing out in our lives, that the Elders view these things very much like when a mother sees her two year old scream and cry and bop another child on the head with a stuffed animal.

God is in everything:

At NDE, 'God' was the Mind, or maybe I'd say, "The Order" in all things.. 'God' felt to be the Supreme Highest Vibration and Frequency, that felt like more of an ESSENCE than an old man, to me. It was all around and in everything. And 'God' no longer felt male to me. I didn't sense a gender, if there was one. The idea of that just seemed silly to from the Other Side. God was just all that is beautiful and peaceful and One, and all that is Good. And everything DID feel so good to me, there. In fact, I came back with this Knowing that despite what SEEMED "good" or "bad" before... it now became united to be only, "Good." Because I trusted and Knew that everything was in it's right place... even when people made decisions that I didn't agree with myself, I still felt that in the overall picture, it was ALL "Good." I had this Knowing as well, that there was the essence or spark of the Highest (as I'll refer to 'God') in EVERYTHING. In every mineral, vegetable, animal and human and beyond... I just Knew that the Highest waited within everything to expand and create and grow and experience. I lost all desire to analyze everything in life, as I'd done before through religious examples, by trying to judge everything little thing as being either "good" or "bad." I wasn't concerned. We are all just consciousness experiencing life, and learning how to love, create, and develop to the Highest we can be. I knew to choose what felt right for me and to trust more. That when something felt unjust or imbalanced, to do what I could to work toward harmony, but to not worry about that which I had no control over. I know that eventually, even without our taking over the controls, the Universe is so full of Order, it always finds a way to Balance everything, because the Universe cannot exist without perfect Balance. And it will continue to exist.

Since her NDE, Amy is much less judgmental in her thinking. She realized her old way of thinking was making her miserable:

I had never understood the all-encompassing monster of misery that my "Duality" way of thinking was in my life until my NDE If someone had walked up to me before my NDE and had asked me if my "duality" way of thinking was tiring and miserable for me, I would have been utterly confused and unable to agree with the statement or even make sense of it. I had never been aware of how my mind had always tried to label or judge in one way or another everything I came across. Even if in ways I thought of as "good," for example, "She's the nicest.." or "He's this or that.." or "That backyard is the prettiest one, etc." It was me judging one thing as better than another. Dual-thinking.

Since coming back from the NDE, I find that in my earthly body and mind, this tendency still comes up occasionally, but not as often, and I am much more conscious of when I am doing it. It no longer appeals to me. I don't feel the need.

By the end of her NDE, Amy didn't want to leave the spirit world or her spirit guide, but she realized her daughter and mother needed her so she agreed to come back to earth.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Create Your Own Good Luck: Understand the Law of Karma

People who have near-death experiences and also many mediums who have communicated with spirits say that people chose a plan for their life before they are born. That plan determines the broad outlines of one's life. Also, we are all constrained by the laws of nature, the actions of other people around us, and the genetic and social circumstances of our birth. So, there are limitations to what is possible for each individual. However within those constraints, there is some room for flexibility. We have some ability to make plans and follow them to create the type of life for ourselves that we want.

However, there is also another factor that affects what happens to us in life. The law of karma. The law of karma states that we will experience the consequences of our actions and that good actions will have good consequences and bad actions will have bad consequences. If you want good thing to happen for you in life, within the constraints described in the preceding paragraph, use the law of karma. Avoid bad actions because they will have bad consequences for you. Try to do good actions because they will have good consequences for you.

Bad actions are actions that harm other people. Good actions are actions that help other people. Most people, most of the time, can figure out whether something is a bad action or a good action. There are a few complications, like when a person needs to learn something for himself and providing help would prevent him from learning on his own. In a case like that it might be better not to offer assistance.

Another complicated type of situation is when you see somebody doing something that is harmful to yourself or another person. Should you intervene? How? When one person does something that harms other people, those people are more likely to react in a way that also causes harm to someone. They might try to get revenge on the person who harmed them, or they might take it out on someone else. But if you see someone causing harm, and you stop him in a way that leaves him angry, that anger is going to find another victim.The best solution to these types of situations are solutions that break the pattern of harm. If you can somehow intervene in a way without leaving anyone angry, that would be a better solution. If you can find a way to break the pattern, either by absorbing the harm yourself and not transmitting it to someone else (and this is easier said than done), or by some other creative solution to the problem, that would be better than simply meeting negativity with negativity. Unfortunately, such difficult situations can be very complicated and an ideal solution may not always be apparent or available to you. In that case, a less than ideal solution might still be better than doing nothing.

However, when possible, if you are able to understand the law of karma, you can maximize the good consequences that come to you by doing only good actions and in this way create your own good luck in life.

Monday, October 29, 2012

How to Cope with Being Psychic

Overview

Many people imagine that psychic abilities such as being able to talk to spirits or knowing the future can have a lot of advantages. However being psychic can also cause problems too. It can cause someone to feel different, isolated, confused, and at times it can be frightening.

The remedy for these difficulties is knowledge. If being psychic is causing problems for you, learn as much as you can about being psychic and what other people have experienced. When you know more about the kinds of phenomena that can occur, that there are other people who have the same experiences, how to control them where possible, and how to use them, you will begin to feel more comfortable with psychic experiences.

In particular, learning about the following subjects can make it easier to cope with being psychic:

How to control the phenomena.
Understanding, accepting and finding purpose in having psychic abilities.
How it is possible for people to have psychic abilities.

However, there are limits to what can be accomplished by an article like this. If you are having problems caused by having psychic experiences and want to seek help from a mental health professional who has experience dealing with psychic and spiritual problems, there is a list of such professionals here.

Introduction

There are a wide variety of psychic abilities. If you are psychic, you might see and hear spirits, or sense them in other ways. You might have intuitions about future events. You might know what other people are going to say before they say it. Objects around you might move for no apparent reason, or electrical equipment may malfunction. You might have dreams of future events that come to pass, or dreams of events at distant locations that you can confirm. You might feel the emotions other people are feeling, or have other types of paranormal experiences.

If psychic phenomenon is not something you have studied before, you may feel alone, confused and frightened by this. If you don't know anyone else who is psychic and you have not read anything about being psychic you might not understand why or how you experience what you do. If you find yourself developing psychic abilities suddenly and unexpectedly, it can be confusing and frightening. Some people may wonder if being psychic is demonic, sinful, or a symptom of mental illness. Friends and family may be wondering the same thing. Peers, friends and family members may not believe psychic phenomena are possible, or they may have negative reactions to psychic phenomena. These things may cause someone who is psychic to feel confused, frightened, isolated, or abnormal.

This article is intended to help you learn to cope with psychic experiences and it is based on my knowledge of the difficulties experienced by people with psychic abilities. I have met many people who developed psychic abilities because I have been a member of several different Spiritualist churches. Spiritualist church services usually include a demonstration of mediumship and many of the people who attend the services are psychic too. Spiritualist churches usually offer classes in mediumship and healing and I have attended those types of classes so I have some experience with psychic abilities myself. I have also communicated over the internet with many people who have developed psychic abilities and I am currently a moderator of the Psychic Support Forum. This article discusses subjects you can learn about that will help you cope with being psychic and includes links to other articles with more information on many of these subjects.

If you are the parent of a child who has psychic abilities, you should also become familiar with this information and try to explain it to your child in a way he can understand. You should also understand that there is nothing evil about being psychic, many people have these kinds of experiences. If your child reports psychic experiences, react to them as if they were ordinary. You should not discourage your child or punish him for being psychic, but don't treat his psychic experiences as something very special either because you don't want to encourage your child to make up stories. You should also try to explain to your child that other people might not understand about his being psychic so he should be careful about who he talks to about his abilities.

If having psychic abilities is causing problems for you, there are several areas that you should learn more about:

How to control the phenomena.
Understanding, accepting and finding purpose in having psychic abilities.
How it is possible for people to have psychic abilities.

How to Control the Phenomena.

Section Contents

General Techniques
Sensing Spirits
Psychokinesis
Empathy: Sensing the Feelings and Emotions of Others
Psychic Self-defense
Phenomena that Might not be Psychic

Unfortunately, many psychics never develop the ability to completely shut down the phenomena or to turn them on at will. However there are things you can do to develop some control over them.

General Techniques

Meditation If you are not a regular meditator you might try meditation because it can be calming and relaxing and this may help you cope better with your experiences. However be aware that meditation can also make one more psychically receptive because it quiets the analytical mind allowing greater awareness of the intuitive mind. If you are a meditator and you want to reduce your psychic receptivity you might try doing less meditation or stopping it completely.
Listen to music. Listening to music can distract you from psychic perceptions when you don't want to be aware of them. If necessary turn the volume up but use head phones so you don't disturb the people around you and don't play the music so loud that you damage your hearing.
Practice using your abilities deliberately. If you can learn to use your abilities when you want to, you may also improve your ability to not use them when you don't want to. This may help reduce spontaneous occurrences.
Pray for guidance, assistance and protection. If you are not comfortable praying, you should try it anyway. When you are dealing with spiritual phenomena you must use the tools of spirituality. Just tell God what is bothering you or what you want. If you want help from divine or spiritual forces, often you have to ask for it before it can be given. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Part of spiritual maturity is understanding your part in the hierarchy of advanced beings helping less advanced beings. This means you should help other people when you can, but it also means it is your responsibility to ask for help when you need it. Cooperation, working together to accomplish something that cannot be done by an individual, is one of the most important spiritual values. Cooperation includes asking for help when you need it. Obviously, not every prayer will be answered but it is still useful for keeping communication open, for maintaining spiritual contact with the higher planes.
- The most powerful prayer is to ask to be shown how to do something. This is almost always more effective than asking to be given something.
- A good prayer for protection is: "Oh God, please watch over me and protect me so that only the highest and best forces can influence me."
When you ask a question in prayer, try to be open to receiving an answer when you pray, but also understand an answer may come later when you might be more receptive or when circumstances can provide a symbolic answer or some other type of sign.
In extreme cases medication may be helpful in curbing psychic perceptions.

Sensing Spirits

How to Get Rid of Spirits
If you are hearing voices, talk back politely.
If you are sensing the presence of spirits, understand that you can be an active participant in the communication. You don't have to be a passive, silent observer:
- If you would prefer the spirits to leave you alone, politely but firmly tell the spirits to stay away from you. If it is just an inconvenient time and you wouldn't mind if the spirit came back later, say so. If you don't like a certain spirit and want him to stay away permanently, say so. When you speak to spirits you can do it mentally, like with prayer, you don't have to speak out loud.
- If the spirits are doing something you don't like, you should tell them, they may not realize the effect they are having on you. One medium I knew was so sensitive that when the spirits tried to explain to her how they died, it could be very unpleasant. She felt what they felt causing their death too strongly. She had to learn to tell the spirits not to communicate so intensely. The spirits didn't realize how they were affecting her but they would be more sensitive when she explained what the problem was.
- Don't do something just because you think a spirit told you to do it. It is your life and you are here to learn from experiencing the consequences of your actions. Spirits may remind you of factors to consider, but they should not be giving you too much advice about how to run your life. Not every spirit has your best intentions in mind, and sometimes it is possible to misunderstand a spirit or to mistake an ordinary phenomena for a psychic perception (see below).
Suggestions on how to handle possession.

Psychokinesis

If you are experiencing objects moving unexpectedly, hearing raps, or electrical equipment is turning on or off or otherwise malfunctioning, this may be due to unconscious psychokinesis (PK). If these phenomena are restricted to one location, and or do not depend on the presence of any one person, they may be caused by a spirit. If the phenomena seem to occur in different locations and only occur when you are present it is more likely to be psychokinesis. Psychokinesis is often a consequence of emotional upsets and dealing with the issues that are upsetting you may reduce the occurrence of unconscious PK.

You can also try to use a psi wheel to develop control over psychokinesis. The linked article describes how make a psi wheel and turn it by placing your hand near it. If you can turn the wheel without placing your hand near it, practice that way.

Empathy: Sensing the Feelings and Emotions of Others

Try to continue your daily routine and keep busy as much as possible so that your mind will be filled with mundane thoughts.
Try sending spiritual healing energy to the person you are sensing the feelings of. The way you can do that is explained here: Spiritual Healing: You Can Do It. Taking practical steps to help the situation may make you feel better about it.
Visualize a shield of white light surrounding yourself that protects you from outside emotions and feelings.
Pray for, or ask your spirit guides for, help shielding you, or to help you understand how to shield yourself. I have found that asking to be shown how to do something myself is one of the most effective forms of prayer. Try to listen for an answer immediately after asking, but also be aware the answer might come later at an odd moment when you might be particularly receptive to perceiving it. See the section on Prayer for more information.

Psychic Self-defense

My article on psychic-self defense has additional information and links that may be helpful.

Phenomena that Might not be Psychic

Learn to distinguish between genuine psychic phenomenon and ordinary phenomenon that may appear to be psychic. People who are psychic are more likely to confuse ordinary phenomenon with psychic phenomenon, Because they have so many psychic experiences, psychics have a low threshold for accepting that something is psychic. There are two phenomenon you should be aware of that are relatively common and while they may seem psychic they may not be. Just like sometimes dreams may be precognitive or be communications from spirits but many dreams are not psychic at all, the first two phenomenon below may or may not be psychic.

Sleep paralysis
Hypnopomic hallucinations - are hallucinations that occur when waking up from sleep. They may seem very real but you should be suspicious of any type of psychic perception that occurs immediately upon waking, it may not be a psychic perception at all but just a hallucination.
Hallucinations
Fears or wishful thinking. One common mistake beginners make is that they confuse their own fears or wishful thinking with psychic perceptions. It can take a bit of experience to tell the difference. Genuine psychic perceptions are usually a type of "knowing" without emotional content. You might react emotionally to the information but your sense of the information does not come from an emotional part of your mind.

Understanding, accepting and finding purpose in having psychic abilities.

Understand that you are not alone and that many other people have had these experiences.
Learn more about the evidence for the afterlife.
Learn more about the evidence for ESP and some of the different types of psychic perception.
Learn more about what it means to be psychic and what people like you experience.
- Get to know other people who have had psychic experiences.
  - The Psychic Support Forum is an on-line forum where you can meet other psychics and people who are interested in psychic phenomena and discuss anything you want.
  - Spiritualist churches are a good place to meet other psychics. The services usually include a demonstration of mediumship and offer spiritual healing to those in attendance who desire it. Spiritualism is a very tolerant and undogmatic religion. You can be any other religion or even an atheist and still go to Spiritualist services. There is often a social hour after the services for people to meet and get to know each other. Spiritualist churches also usually offer classes in mediumship and spiritual healing.
  - IANDS The International Association for Near-Death Studies has local groups in many locations. People who have near-death experiences often have psychic experiences too.
  - You may be able to meet other psychic on-line through Internet discussion forums.
- Read biographies of psychics so you can learn about what other psychics have experienced and how they coped with it.
- Reading about scientific studies and other investigations of psychic phenomenon can also be helpful.
- Here are some web sites and blogs with articles on psychic phenomena:
  - Psychic FAQ at the Psychic Support Forum.
  - Spiritual Development My web site.
  - Life in B Flat This blog.
  - The Frequently Asked Questions page from this blog.
  - Zerdini's World
  - Paranormalia Journalist Robert McLuhan's blog.
  - Entangled Minds Parapsychologist Dean Radin's blog.
  - Michael Tymn's blog.
Find meaning in your abilities.
- Some psychics learn to use their abilities to help other people by giving psychic readings, helping people to communicate with spirits, or giving spiritual healings. If you want to use your abilities to help other people, you should find a competent teacher who can help you develop your abilites and guide you on how to use them ethically and responsibly.
- Some psychics find meaning in their abilities by studying them scientifically to contribute to humankind's understanding of the phenomena. If you become involved with scientists studying paranormal phenomena, make sure they have a set of guidelines on the ethical treatment of human subjects in scientific experiements. Read and understand those guidelines. Know if your privacy and anonymity will be respected. Also find out if the investigator will profit from your participation through books and lectures about his research on you. Avoid any type of public contest or challange designed to prove the reality of paranormal phenomena. The mass media and skeptical organizations are not interested in helping psychics. They are interested in promoting themselves.
  
  Further reading on participating in research:
  - Ingo Swann's on-line book Remote Viewing - The Real Story describes his experiences as an experimental subject and you would be wise to follow his guidelines for participating in research described in Chapter 20.
  - Is participating in Psi research a good idea? by Sandy
  - My First Time (participating in Psi research) by Sandy

How it is Possible for People to Have Psychic Abilities.

It is possible for you to have psychic experiences because a human being is a spirit incarnated in a physical body. Psychic abilities are abilities that come from our spiritual nature. They are the abilities we have before we are born into the physical world and that we will have again when we leave the physical world after the death of the body. People who have near-death experiences experience expanded consciousness while they are out of their bodies and experience many types of psychic phenomena such as precognition, clairvoyance, and spirit communication. For most people, the brain filters out these abilities while they are in the body but in some cases these abilities make it through and we have access to them while we are incarnated.

More Information

If you are interested in spirits and the afterlife, there is a lot more information on those subjects at my web site.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Allison Dubois Psychic Medium on Radio Out There Podcast

Barry Eaton, the host of Radio Out There interviews psychic medium Allison Dubois.

Links:

Radio Out There Podcast: Program 409
allisondubois.com

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Why do Spirits Communicate Symbolically?

Last week, I blogged about what it is like to communicate with spirits. That post was based on some conversations that took place on an internet discussion forum. At about the same time on the forum there was a thread from someone who wanted to know why spirits communicated symbolically rather than with words. This is how I replied ...

Many mediums can receive communications from spirits best if the spirits show them a picture, so most spirits will try to communicate with a picture. However spirits don't communicate with pictures of words very often. It does happen sometimes but very rarely.

Part of the difficulty is that letters are very familiar and there are a finite number of them. It seems to be true for all types of psychic perception that the more open ended the possibilities for perception the less interference there will be from the mind of the psychic. (Charles Tart discusses this in his book Learning ESP) For example, remote viewing is easier than guessing zener cards because in remote viewing the possibilities are unlimited but zener cards are limited to 5 possibilities.

If you take cards from a deck of playing cards and try guess which are red and which are black without looking at them, you already know what the two possibilities are. The mind tends to be very active and hard to control. If I say don't think about a pink elephant, most people will think about a pink elephant. If you are trying to guess cards you will likely be thinking about different cards. These thoughts are likely to drown out your psychic perceptions. Your thinking about the next card might drown out any faint psychic perception you might have of it. You also know the color of the next card might be the same as the color of the previous card so you may confuse your thoughts and memories of the previous card with your psychic perception of the next card.

However, if a spirit is communicating with images of real world objects, a medium will have no idea what is coming next, he will have nothing to base a guess upon, and he is less likely to think about what might come next, and therefore is less likely to confuse his own thinking with a psychic perception. He would also not expect the next image to be related to the previous image so it would be unlikely that he would confuse his memory and thoughts about the previous image with his psychic perception of the next image.

An image usually comprises an entire concept. But if you were seeing images of words it could require several words to communicate a concept. Your thoughts, assumptions, memories, associations, and inferences that arise from the meaning of previous words and clauses could influence your expectations about what the next word would be and you could confuse that expectation with your psychic perception of the next word. If the spirits tried to communicate by showing pictures of letters, the medium would likely be thinking about and visualizing words and letters, trying to guess the next letter based on the letters of the word already shown or the next word based on the words of the sentence already shown. It would be harder for the spirit's communication to be perceived over the noise.

When spirits communicate with pictures, the picture can very often be interpreted literally. When I would communicate with a spirit, I would usually see them as they looked in life. They would show me pictures of things they did, what their house looked like, where they worked etc. These types of images helped the sitter to identify the spirit.

However, spirits will use symbols when the thing they want to communicate cannot be represented with a literal picture.
Some things can't be described with a simple picture but can sometimes be communicated with symbols. Names are one example of this. One time I was getting a reading and the medium brought through my uncle. He showed the medium a picture of a snowy field which I recognized as the name of the town he lived in: White Planes. (This is why it is important for a medium to report exactly what they perceive and not try to interpret it. Usually the sitter will know what is being communicated symbolically and how to interpret it. If the medium saw the snow and said something like "snow was meaningful in the spirit's life" it would not have made any sense to me. I have had many readings by inexperienced mediums who provided a lot of evidential material but wove it into a story of their own creation that had nothing to do with reality.)

There are also many occasions when a spirit will communicate something without using a picture. Once when I was giving a reading, a spirit named Rose identified herself to me by making me smell roses. Another time I was giving a reading and the spirit identified his cause of death by inducing me to place my hand under my neck and close my hand. This helped the sitter to recognize the spirit as a cousin who died by hanging himself since the gesture I made was like I was grasping a rope around my neck.

Some spirits do communicate with letters but it requires a special development process that few mediums go through.

It involves a ouija board which I don't recommend anyone use. The ouija board is a form of physical mediumship and if you open yourself to the influence of spirits there is a possibility that "undeveloped" spirits can influence you. In general, like attracts like, if you are using the ouija board as a joke for vulgar entertainment you are likely to attract vulgar spirits that might like to play jokes and tricks on you.

If your intentions are of a high spiritual nature you will likely attract highly developed spirits. However with physical mediumship there is no real guarantee that the good spirits can keep the bad spirits away. There are many cases in the history of physical mediumship where the good spirits were not able to prevent such interference. It often takes a team of spirits to work with a physical medium, some of whom act as spiritual bouncers to keep away the etheric riff-raff. There must be a strong karmic purpose for your mediumship in order to justify an entire team of spirits working with you.

(In mental mediumship, you are in direct mental contact with the spirit and it is easier to recognize the personality traits of the spirit - with physical mediumship they just control your body so it is much easier for them to fool you.)

There are cases where very proficient mediums got started with a ouija board, but there is some risk to it. After using the ouija board for a time the medium may begin to know in advance what the next letter is going to be and she can just say or write it rather than use the ouija board. Later she may begin to know what the next word is going to be and she can stop spelling out the words. Eventually she may develop into a full trance medium.

There are a couple of free ebooks about excellent mediums who got started with the ouija board:

The Betty Book and Our Unseen Guest. Both are available at:
http://www.spiritwritings.com/library.html. Unfortunately, this site seems to go down frequently. If the site is not up and you want to download the books you might try to use a search engine to see if they are available elsewhere on the internet.

The Betty Book:

"As with numerous others, our interest in the ouija board began quite casually. On the date I have mentioned, some friends called on us bringing one of these with them. They had bought it as a toy, to try Out,without belief that anything in particular would happen to it.

...

But once, in the middle of our laughter and buffooning, the glass moved with a sharp quick decision as though impatient, in striking contrast to its customary fumbling.

"Why do you ask foolish questions?" it spelled.

Those sitting at the board denied having anything to do with this: it was too apropos! Nevertheless we suspected them, and they suspected each other.

....

Next our attention was caught by the repeated spelling out of the name Betty. Now there was present a young woman nicknamed Betty. She was standing in front of the fireplace after a very brief trial at the board-and a somewhat scornful trial at that. We insisted that she was being paged and that she must try again. She was reluctant, thinking this merely an attempt of those sitting to lure her back into the game, but finally yielded and took her place.

Immediately her fingers touched the glass it began to move in circles. Around and around it went, faster and faster until she and her partner could hardly keep their fingers on it. So comically like a dog frisking in delight was it that we all burst into laughter.

"It's glad to get Betty," said we."

Our Unseen Guest

OUR first experience with psychic phenomena occurred on the evening of December 7, 1916---by way of a ouija board. Neither Joan nor I had ever seen a ouija board before. The "toy" came into our hands quite by accident. We were taking our dinners at a private boardinghouse some blocks from the apartment building in which we lived. On the evening in question a sudden storm blew off the lake, while we were at table, and after the meal Joan and I wandered into a deserted sitting room to wait until the wind and sleet abated. There one of the resident guests had left the ouija, a remnant doubtless of some Halloween party.

"How does the thing work?" Joan asked.

I read the directions; we rested the board, whereon the alphabet was printed in two semicircles upon our knees, and put the tips of our fingers on the flatiron like pointer.

"Now," said I, "this tripod affair is supposed to move from letter to letter, spelling out a message."

Thus we sat for a period---ten minutes, perhaps. We joked, I remember, of the good fortunes ouija would tell us. But no message came. Then, just as we were about to give up, the tripod began to move.

"Quality of consciousness," it spelled. A pause---then, once more, "Quality of consciousness."

"Darby!" Joan took her fingers from the pointer. "You can't fool me like that. You did it! 'Quality of consciousness'---that doesn't mean anything, anyway."

I looked into Joan's eyes. Was it she who had moved the tripod, or did she honestly accuse me?

"Not guilty!" I pleaded. For a moment we faced each other in silence. Then said Joan, gravely, "Let's try it again." So we tried it again.

On the instant the tripod gathered strength. Over the alphabet it moved, slowly, yet with machinelike precision, pausing on this letter and that. Here are the words it spelled: "For you two I have a message, a revelation....

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Pseudologia Fantastica

From the wikipedia article on pseudologia fantastica:
(The links in the excerpt below were added by me.)

Pseudologia fantastica, mythomania, or pathological lying are three of several terms applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.[1][2] It was first described in the medical literature in 1891 by Anton Delbrueck.[2] Although it is a controversial topic,[2] pathological lying has been defined as "falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime".[1]

...

There are many consequences of being a pathological liar. Due to lack of trust, most pathological liars' relationships and friendships fail. If the disease continues to progress, lying could become so severe as to cause legal problems, including but not limited to fraud.[9]

...

Pathological lying is a complex phenomenon, differing from other mental illnesses. It has many life-changing consequences for those who must live with the illness. Currently, there is not enough research in the area of pathological lying to guarantee a cure.[12]

Pages

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The "Sending Out" and "Bringing In" Positions

The Exercise

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Friday, December 7, 2012

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Friday, November 2, 2012

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Overview

Introduction

How to Control the Phenomena.

Understanding, accepting and finding purpose in having psychic abilities.

How it is Possible for People to Have Psychic Abilities.

More Information

Friday, October 26, 2012

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

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