I have mentioned it before, especially after reading Proof of Heaven (an unfortunate name made for sales, I think): if such things can happen, that we can think after our brains are silent,then our world is not what we are told it is. While it is true that the above book is not proof of heaven - that cannot exist from this world's perspective - it certainly is strong evidence that consciousness exists beyond the brain. In the same manner, Bob Monroe's (from The Journey of Bob Monroe) out-of-body experiences provide similarly compelling evidence (ironclad to me, but not to doubters - but then again, some simply will not ever look at the evidence clearly): to be able to "see" from beyond the body - and there have been many cases where direct evidence is available that experiencers DID see (like telling the doctor what they saw on a high shelf while undergoing an operation), means that sight is not limited to the eyes. Just this alone throws all the materialistic concepts out the window. When we also have evidence of thought continuing while the brain shows no activity is just icing on the cake.
My first thought in thinking about this, done after recalling my own OBE's (as first stated in my Dream book), is that, if we are not restrained from thinking and experiencing by the body, then it is possible to live beyond our bodies. For Monroe (from the biography mentioned yesterday), the evidence was conclusive: we continue to be after death. Just what that means, though, is impossible to define. And, given some of his experiences, we might NOT want to cheer about this: the world beyond our physical bodies is not always a friendly place.
Yesterday I mentioned briefly Bob's first forays into the unknown lands beyond ours and how he sensed the presence of an intrusive, strict god. He visited another land as well, a parallel universe with physical laws much like our own, and he latter codified his experiences as such: Location 1 was Earth, where his awareness could float around to visit houses and such both close and far; Location 2 was the land of the first dead; and Location 3, an alternate reality similar to our own. These were later expanded, much to my relief, but I will here look at the first two locations, emphasis on the second.
What is interesting about the 1st is that he was able to actually interact, much as a poltergeist, while on his travels. He would go to a friend's house and sometimes have conversations with her alternate body (the body that travels), but later find that she had no recollection of this - only on occasions a sense that Bob was somewhere around. He then resorted to physical tactics - at one point, pinching a woman he was visiting in the stomach. A week later, he asked the woman if anything unusual had happened lately, and she showed him the black and blue mark where he had pinched, saying, "was that you? I thought it was!" Apparently, this "astral body" has some connection to the physics of this world. At some other time, a woman he was visiting saw a filmy wave in the air - like a ghost - which turned out to be the partial manifestation of Bob. Interesting and a little creepy - much like remote viewing, but that is for another time.
More interesting were his visits to Location 2. There he saw (paraphrase) "beings who were dead but not quite - as if drugged - suspended in the turmoil of un-lived sexual desire." There were also beautiful fields alive with happy people, as well as areas of warfare and intense suffering. It was here that he postulated the dead first go - a clearing house of souls - and what many who have after-death experiences probable describe. What is interesting to note - and chilling - is how closely it parallels the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as Dante's hell: that is, that the life and obsessions we have on earth will form our initial afterlife in a sort of heaven or hell. I, for one, am not comforted by this, and I can only hope that the guides, which he mentions are present at all phases of his life travels, can see the true and beautiful me beyond the calluses and dirt that I've acquired during life. If you are looking for solace in his accounts, they are there, but so are the fearful pits. Apparently, until one is HOME, that is, back to the source (which he talks about later in life), consciousness continues to be an adventure with cumulative rewards and punishments.
Another thing he became convinced of was reincarnation. The Christian churches of today do not like this idea, as they believe that one lives once, and then goes either to heaven or hell, depending on deeds and grace. There is one caveat, however - and that is Catholicism's purgatory. This seems to better describe Location 2, neither part of this life nor a final destination. But for Monroe, instead of going from there to heaven once your time is done, you are guided to a choice of either moving on to another level - probably not HOME but some reality more encompassing than Earth - or heading back "down" to Earth. He claims that once you make the decision to become incarnated the first time, you are now in the game and have no choice but to work out your fate. And the draw to (Earth) life - as it is also understood in the Eastern religions - is great. Besides the fulfillment of specific desires (I must have discussion of the nearly universal involvement of sex and sexuality in the spiritual life), it is the desire of life itself that draws spirits. That is, once incarnated, the will to live becomes overpowering, and functions on formerly alive spirits to make them want to live again - like a bad habit that infests the consciousness. Again I am drawn to the New Testament - why was it that Christ had to die for us? Jesus, the man , also did not want to die, but he overcame his desire to live to comply with the will of heaven. How this affects us all is still a mystery to me, but that he showed the way - what we must do, that is, how we must deny the tyranny of the will to live to free ourselves from "sin," or the suffering inherent in life itself - is clear.
He subsequently found many other levels - again, as stated by the Eastern religions - and discovered that Love was indeed the answer, but not the love we understand. More on those later, FK
My first thought in thinking about this, done after recalling my own OBE's (as first stated in my Dream book), is that, if we are not restrained from thinking and experiencing by the body, then it is possible to live beyond our bodies. For Monroe (from the biography mentioned yesterday), the evidence was conclusive: we continue to be after death. Just what that means, though, is impossible to define. And, given some of his experiences, we might NOT want to cheer about this: the world beyond our physical bodies is not always a friendly place.
Yesterday I mentioned briefly Bob's first forays into the unknown lands beyond ours and how he sensed the presence of an intrusive, strict god. He visited another land as well, a parallel universe with physical laws much like our own, and he latter codified his experiences as such: Location 1 was Earth, where his awareness could float around to visit houses and such both close and far; Location 2 was the land of the first dead; and Location 3, an alternate reality similar to our own. These were later expanded, much to my relief, but I will here look at the first two locations, emphasis on the second.
What is interesting about the 1st is that he was able to actually interact, much as a poltergeist, while on his travels. He would go to a friend's house and sometimes have conversations with her alternate body (the body that travels), but later find that she had no recollection of this - only on occasions a sense that Bob was somewhere around. He then resorted to physical tactics - at one point, pinching a woman he was visiting in the stomach. A week later, he asked the woman if anything unusual had happened lately, and she showed him the black and blue mark where he had pinched, saying, "was that you? I thought it was!" Apparently, this "astral body" has some connection to the physics of this world. At some other time, a woman he was visiting saw a filmy wave in the air - like a ghost - which turned out to be the partial manifestation of Bob. Interesting and a little creepy - much like remote viewing, but that is for another time.
More interesting were his visits to Location 2. There he saw (paraphrase) "beings who were dead but not quite - as if drugged - suspended in the turmoil of un-lived sexual desire." There were also beautiful fields alive with happy people, as well as areas of warfare and intense suffering. It was here that he postulated the dead first go - a clearing house of souls - and what many who have after-death experiences probable describe. What is interesting to note - and chilling - is how closely it parallels the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as Dante's hell: that is, that the life and obsessions we have on earth will form our initial afterlife in a sort of heaven or hell. I, for one, am not comforted by this, and I can only hope that the guides, which he mentions are present at all phases of his life travels, can see the true and beautiful me beyond the calluses and dirt that I've acquired during life. If you are looking for solace in his accounts, they are there, but so are the fearful pits. Apparently, until one is HOME, that is, back to the source (which he talks about later in life), consciousness continues to be an adventure with cumulative rewards and punishments.
Another thing he became convinced of was reincarnation. The Christian churches of today do not like this idea, as they believe that one lives once, and then goes either to heaven or hell, depending on deeds and grace. There is one caveat, however - and that is Catholicism's purgatory. This seems to better describe Location 2, neither part of this life nor a final destination. But for Monroe, instead of going from there to heaven once your time is done, you are guided to a choice of either moving on to another level - probably not HOME but some reality more encompassing than Earth - or heading back "down" to Earth. He claims that once you make the decision to become incarnated the first time, you are now in the game and have no choice but to work out your fate. And the draw to (Earth) life - as it is also understood in the Eastern religions - is great. Besides the fulfillment of specific desires (I must have discussion of the nearly universal involvement of sex and sexuality in the spiritual life), it is the desire of life itself that draws spirits. That is, once incarnated, the will to live becomes overpowering, and functions on formerly alive spirits to make them want to live again - like a bad habit that infests the consciousness. Again I am drawn to the New Testament - why was it that Christ had to die for us? Jesus, the man , also did not want to die, but he overcame his desire to live to comply with the will of heaven. How this affects us all is still a mystery to me, but that he showed the way - what we must do, that is, how we must deny the tyranny of the will to live to free ourselves from "sin," or the suffering inherent in life itself - is clear.
He subsequently found many other levels - again, as stated by the Eastern religions - and discovered that Love was indeed the answer, but not the love we understand. More on those later, FK
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