I read this when it appeared on the Essential Foundation site, and it's lost none of its power being reprinted here.
I'd love to hear from others who have experienced this in academia. Going through my doctoral program in clinical psychology, I came across this fundamaterialism repeatedly. Thank Goddess I didn't have to have any dealings with academia after I finished grad school.
But this fundamaterialist attitude pervades society in various pernicious ways. I'd love to hear from others who see this, and hear also if you have any ideas on how to deal with this.
I'm starting a project next year that involves collecting as much data as possible regarding paranormal facts related to near death experiences, stories of rebirth, research involving telepathy, remote viewing, etc.
Do you know (and I've asked Ed Kelly and other folks at the Division of Perceptual Research at the University of Virginia about this) there is not one single place on the internet where you can easily access this information!
I'm convinced (and I've been convinced for 50+ years) that if people had access to the VOLUMINOUS data - irrefutable research, well conduced, well replicated, as well as well validated single case studies - what are usually mislabeled "anecdotes" - it would bring about a revolution in all the sciences.
thanks Tina. I studied with Raymond during my grad work at West Georgia College. Brilliant and funny guy. My first few weeks as a native Northerner (New Jersey and NY City) in the Deep South, I learned one of my favorite Southernisms from him, when he was talking about how his parents, when he did something wrong, would "slap me upside the head" (or as it's said in Georgia, "Hay-uuuhhh-duh." (seriously - 3 syllables)
(In rural Georgia it's amazing how they can take 1 and 2 syllable words and turn them into 3, 4 and even 5 syllable words. One day a newly arrived student from Long island - where they can collapse 5 syllable words into one long one-syllable word, was talking to a Georgia native.
Every time the native spoke, the Long Islander would pause and then answer.
Finally the native said, "Why are you pausing before you answer?" The Long Islander responded, "I'm subtracting syllables."
New Jersey: "manaise" - sometimes fast enough to sound almost like 1 syllable.
Rome, Georgia: May-oh-nay-uh-zzzz"
I've been told it has something to do with the sweltering hot summers, or maybe something akin to the speech of their Scots-Irish ancestors. In any case, it's fun and there's also a wonderful down home sense of raw humor - maybe all that contributes to greater openness to subtle and occult perceptions!
Hi Billie - got your letter and emailed back. Just for anyone else who sees this, our work (jan - my wife - and I) is informal, though we have contacts with academics like Ed Kelly of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, and one of my main colleagues in this work, physicist Marco Masi, spent years as a research physicist and has other academic contacts.
This will NOT be a typical, formal academic work, but we do aspire to keep to rigorous standards in terms of what we present as factual evidence and valid research.
Re: "Colors don’t exist in nature, only electromagnetic waves that are translated by the brain into something that we perceive as color." This begs the question: Is everything beige like some scientists have claimed is the true color of the Universe? And IF there is indeed no actual color, then we must ask why are these electromagnetic waves emitted by things? Could it be that colors are made up of those waves?
Re: entanglement. I find this totally believable. There is a saying that "the flap of a butterfly wing can affect things thousands of miles away." It's true because we are all connected.
Materialism is a very limited, constricted viewpoint. I never did like those intellectuals who were so skeptical of mysticism. How many "coincidences" would it take to shake those folks up?
I've have so much psi phenomena and synchronicity in my life that I have a sense of knowing that there is so much more to reality than those folks ever dreamt of.
Hi Billie, I’ve seen you post in these forums before and wanted to say hello. I have a lot of inexplicable experiences as well, and am fascinated by the concepts of colors mentioned. The colors of auras in particular are of interest to me since I see them at will and spontaneously. I have taught a number of friends to see them as well and they can to some degree. It makes me wonder about the ubiquity of these abilities, the ease in accessing them, the tendency for some to come easier than others. It’s such a rich area to explore and I’m just getting started. I’m sending you wishes for a wonderful day :)
I'm getting the feeling the tides are turning on materialism (physicalism, rather). I hope so!
Just watched this video in which Christof Koch talks about how his views have changed over the years as he moved away from the physicalism. It's the one titled: PLENARY 12 'THE SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS - 30 YEARS ON' PANEL: DAVID CHALMERS, CHRISTOF KOCH, STUART HAMEROFF, PAAVO PYLKKÄNEN
And you can watch other videos from the 2024 TSC April 30th Annual Conference here:
David Bentley Hart brings up a similar point in his book, "The Experience of God": "...even the most basic phenomenology of consciousness discloses so vast an incommensurability between physical causation and mental events that it is probably impossible that the latter could ever be wholly reduced to the former. It may well be, in fact, that the widely cherished expectation that neuroscience will one day discover an explanation of consciousness solely within the brain's electrochemical processes is no less enormous a category error than the expectation that physics will one day discover the reason for the existence of the universe."
I read this when it appeared on the Essential Foundation site, and it's lost none of its power being reprinted here.
I'd love to hear from others who have experienced this in academia. Going through my doctoral program in clinical psychology, I came across this fundamaterialism repeatedly. Thank Goddess I didn't have to have any dealings with academia after I finished grad school.
But this fundamaterialist attitude pervades society in various pernicious ways. I'd love to hear from others who see this, and hear also if you have any ideas on how to deal with this.
I'm starting a project next year that involves collecting as much data as possible regarding paranormal facts related to near death experiences, stories of rebirth, research involving telepathy, remote viewing, etc.
Do you know (and I've asked Ed Kelly and other folks at the Division of Perceptual Research at the University of Virginia about this) there is not one single place on the internet where you can easily access this information!
I'm convinced (and I've been convinced for 50+ years) that if people had access to the VOLUMINOUS data - irrefutable research, well conduced, well replicated, as well as well validated single case studies - what are usually mislabeled "anecdotes" - it would bring about a revolution in all the sciences.
If you're interested in helping out, please write me at info@RememberToBe.Life
Have you reached out to Raymond Moody? He seems like the kind of guy who would know.
https://www.lifeafterlife.com/
thanks Tina. I studied with Raymond during my grad work at West Georgia College. Brilliant and funny guy. My first few weeks as a native Northerner (New Jersey and NY City) in the Deep South, I learned one of my favorite Southernisms from him, when he was talking about how his parents, when he did something wrong, would "slap me upside the head" (or as it's said in Georgia, "Hay-uuuhhh-duh." (seriously - 3 syllables)
(In rural Georgia it's amazing how they can take 1 and 2 syllable words and turn them into 3, 4 and even 5 syllable words. One day a newly arrived student from Long island - where they can collapse 5 syllable words into one long one-syllable word, was talking to a Georgia native.
Every time the native spoke, the Long Islander would pause and then answer.
Finally the native said, "Why are you pausing before you answer?" The Long Islander responded, "I'm subtracting syllables."
Another of my favorites: Mayonnaise.
New Jersey: "manaise" - sometimes fast enough to sound almost like 1 syllable.
Rome, Georgia: May-oh-nay-uh-zzzz"
I've been told it has something to do with the sweltering hot summers, or maybe something akin to the speech of their Scots-Irish ancestors. In any case, it's fun and there's also a wonderful down home sense of raw humor - maybe all that contributes to greater openness to subtle and occult perceptions!
How cool that you studied with him! I watched him on a YouTube video a while back and he seemed like a nice and thoughtful guy.
I just e-mailed you. I would LOVE to share my experiences with you for your study.
Hi Billie - got your letter and emailed back. Just for anyone else who sees this, our work (jan - my wife - and I) is informal, though we have contacts with academics like Ed Kelly of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, and one of my main colleagues in this work, physicist Marco Masi, spent years as a research physicist and has other academic contacts.
This will NOT be a typical, formal academic work, but we do aspire to keep to rigorous standards in terms of what we present as factual evidence and valid research.
Re: "Colors don’t exist in nature, only electromagnetic waves that are translated by the brain into something that we perceive as color." This begs the question: Is everything beige like some scientists have claimed is the true color of the Universe? And IF there is indeed no actual color, then we must ask why are these electromagnetic waves emitted by things? Could it be that colors are made up of those waves?
Re: entanglement. I find this totally believable. There is a saying that "the flap of a butterfly wing can affect things thousands of miles away." It's true because we are all connected.
Materialism is a very limited, constricted viewpoint. I never did like those intellectuals who were so skeptical of mysticism. How many "coincidences" would it take to shake those folks up?
I've have so much psi phenomena and synchronicity in my life that I have a sense of knowing that there is so much more to reality than those folks ever dreamt of.
Hi Billie, I’ve seen you post in these forums before and wanted to say hello. I have a lot of inexplicable experiences as well, and am fascinated by the concepts of colors mentioned. The colors of auras in particular are of interest to me since I see them at will and spontaneously. I have taught a number of friends to see them as well and they can to some degree. It makes me wonder about the ubiquity of these abilities, the ease in accessing them, the tendency for some to come easier than others. It’s such a rich area to explore and I’m just getting started. I’m sending you wishes for a wonderful day :)
I'm getting the feeling the tides are turning on materialism (physicalism, rather). I hope so!
Just watched this video in which Christof Koch talks about how his views have changed over the years as he moved away from the physicalism. It's the one titled: PLENARY 12 'THE SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS - 30 YEARS ON' PANEL: DAVID CHALMERS, CHRISTOF KOCH, STUART HAMEROFF, PAAVO PYLKKÄNEN
And you can watch other videos from the 2024 TSC April 30th Annual Conference here:
https://consciousness.arizona.edu/
David Bentley Hart brings up a similar point in his book, "The Experience of God": "...even the most basic phenomenology of consciousness discloses so vast an incommensurability between physical causation and mental events that it is probably impossible that the latter could ever be wholly reduced to the former. It may well be, in fact, that the widely cherished expectation that neuroscience will one day discover an explanation of consciousness solely within the brain's electrochemical processes is no less enormous a category error than the expectation that physics will one day discover the reason for the existence of the universe."