[Note to readers: At last, the book of essays long promised is available at Amazon (paperback for 12.99) and Kindle (for 3.99). Titled Beneath the Turning Stars: glimpses of the sacred in a very profane life,” (by Frederick Keogh), it is a collection of 35 of my essays written over the past 3 or so years, many of which first appeared in the website in the Essays section. As for me, I like them all, and love many of them. I feel profoundly grateful for having been able to write them, for I do not think that I have the depth or skill to have done so on my own. Most are multi-layered, giving different perspectives depending on one’s mood – something that I alone am incapable of producing. I thank the spirit of the unconscious, or simply spirit itself, for having used me for such works. They will never be good enough to thoroughly reflect the source, but I believe many are good enough to give one a look – a glimpse - into the greater depths of what it means to be alive. FK]
I had scoured the Amazon website looking for books for a week without finding much, when suddenly, this long weekend, I happened on a treasure trove of marvelous works. I wanted them all at once, but my grown-up side had me decide on one, as if I were being watched by grandma while at the cookie jar. It was tough at first until I met with an old friend, Dr Raymond Moody, out with a relatively new (2009, I recall) book, Paranormal: my life in pursuit of the afterlife. Not that I really knew him, but it seems so because of his books, particularly the groundbreaking Life after Life (@1975) which has changed our worldview forever, whether we know it or not. It was he who first gave us the studies (and the term) on Near Death Experiences (NDE’s) with the whole gamut of strangeness that many people have had while near death, including leaving the body (out of body experience), seeing The Light, having a full life review, meeting a holy person (for Christians or those of Christian background usually Christ), and then joining dead relatives and friends who tell them “it is not your time. You have more to do. You must go back!” And finally, showing us that many did not want to go back – that the after-life was better, and more real, than this life.
This is now a part of popular culture, and has fostered dozens if not hundreds of other books based on his research. But we did not really get to know the real Dr Raymond Moody – until this book. Here we find that he had an undiagnosed thyroid condition that caused him to go crazy at times, so much so that he lost his money from his books, then his wife, and finally, almost his life when he attempted suicide by swallowing two dozen sedatives. In the suicide attempt, he heard the spirits and levitated from his body, but was resuscitated before the other conditions of NDE’s prevailed. He had, as he said, experienced some of what he had studied for so long. And perhaps it was that experience (after which he took medication and was far better for it) which sent him on to other trajectories of investigations into death.
One, past life regression therapy, has resonated with time as well. I do not know if he was the first to get into this, but he was certainly not the last, and again we can find dozens of books on this subject now. But there was another, called scrying, which I will get into here simply because it is so bizarre and spooky.
I had heard of scrying before. The Vikings claimed to be able to navigate around much of the globe without sextant or trigonometry or clock because of a scryer, or special crystal rock that they gazed into for the needed information. I read a scientific piece that claimed that the crystal could actually enable one to see where the sun was on a cloudy day, facilitating navigation, but I believe the Vikings saw much more, thanks to another book I read about John Dee. He was the physician/wizard who cared for Queen Elizabeth in the 1500’s, just before the time when the Inquisition and witch trials permanently separated science from the “spiritual arts” (which also began the separation of religion from science, a fascinating accident of conditions that created our world today). One of his main instruments was a crystal ball, which is another iteration of a scryer, in which he claimed to talk to angels who gave him sage – and sometimes treacherous – information. Moody had read of Dee and of others, especially the Greeks who used pools of water in caves as reflective tools for people to see and conjure the dead, a practice also known a necromancy, something so condemned by both Protestant and Catholic teachings that one could be burned at the stake for it.
Thus I was surprised and a little alarmed when, toward his final chapters, Moody wrote of his studies in scrying. In his case, he set up a dark room lit with candles and had people stare into a mirror that was placed above their heads (where they would not see their own reflection) after a day of meditating on the person they wished to see. Remarkably, some 80% of the subjects actually saw that or another dead person, with about a quarter meeting them fully in the flesh – with warm touches and everything. Moody had started the experiments first with himself after a visit to the caves in Greece where such things had once been done. In his case, he meditated on his maternal grandmother, who he had dearly loved, then mirror gazed for an hour or so before turning on the lights and going down to the kitchen to get a snack. It was there, much to his surprise, where he met his grandmother as if in the flesh (I do not recall if she, too, possessed body heat) – except that it was his fraternal grandmother, who he had not liked. They chatted and got to know each other better, Moody changing his opinion of her for the better. And then she left.
I will not be doing any scrying soon – conjuring ghosts is not my style. Generally this reluctance is out of fear, including a perhaps archaic belief that I would be damned for it. It is only recently, after all, that I have accepted the occasional visits in dreams of dead people without terror. But this line of inquisition is important – as is the NDE and another he is currently working on, the so-called shared death experiences (where those near a dying person experience death as well, while fully coming back. This is important, because such an experience could not be caused by a diseased and dying brain, as some doctors and scientists have claimed is the reason for the NDE). All have led Moody and some others who have experience such things to believe – emotionally as well as intellectually – that this life is little more than a mirage. As one of his clients put it, “it’s as if we’re in Disneyland, and all the important stuff is done backstage and our life is only the superficial outcome.” Moody himself had a talk with some spirits (I cannot remember the context) where he asked about his financial situation and his attempted suicide. Those from the other side replied that suicide was ridiculous, because it meant we took this life too seriously. As for money, they barely gave it a thought: “Money is of no importance at all.”
All of which brings us back to our perennial concepts contained in religion and in spiritual experiences in general. More than once I have had the wonderful feeling of spiritual fullness, and in this felt that none of the problems of the world were worth anything. And yet, once that feeling has left, the problems, the desires for more, return as usual, as if the feeling were a dream.
It is not a dream. More and more we are shown that there really is more – much more; that the life we are living, for the most part, is flat and cartoonish compared to what it really is. It may be even larger than the afterlife of Moody, as he noted towards the end of his book: “There may be something much more profound beyond even the initial journey to heaven, a story that goes far beyond what even that could bring us” (all above in quotes are my paraphrases). Yes, most certainly. What we have on our hands is an adventure that only God could, or would, make. FK
I had scoured the Amazon website looking for books for a week without finding much, when suddenly, this long weekend, I happened on a treasure trove of marvelous works. I wanted them all at once, but my grown-up side had me decide on one, as if I were being watched by grandma while at the cookie jar. It was tough at first until I met with an old friend, Dr Raymond Moody, out with a relatively new (2009, I recall) book, Paranormal: my life in pursuit of the afterlife. Not that I really knew him, but it seems so because of his books, particularly the groundbreaking Life after Life (@1975) which has changed our worldview forever, whether we know it or not. It was he who first gave us the studies (and the term) on Near Death Experiences (NDE’s) with the whole gamut of strangeness that many people have had while near death, including leaving the body (out of body experience), seeing The Light, having a full life review, meeting a holy person (for Christians or those of Christian background usually Christ), and then joining dead relatives and friends who tell them “it is not your time. You have more to do. You must go back!” And finally, showing us that many did not want to go back – that the after-life was better, and more real, than this life.
This is now a part of popular culture, and has fostered dozens if not hundreds of other books based on his research. But we did not really get to know the real Dr Raymond Moody – until this book. Here we find that he had an undiagnosed thyroid condition that caused him to go crazy at times, so much so that he lost his money from his books, then his wife, and finally, almost his life when he attempted suicide by swallowing two dozen sedatives. In the suicide attempt, he heard the spirits and levitated from his body, but was resuscitated before the other conditions of NDE’s prevailed. He had, as he said, experienced some of what he had studied for so long. And perhaps it was that experience (after which he took medication and was far better for it) which sent him on to other trajectories of investigations into death.
One, past life regression therapy, has resonated with time as well. I do not know if he was the first to get into this, but he was certainly not the last, and again we can find dozens of books on this subject now. But there was another, called scrying, which I will get into here simply because it is so bizarre and spooky.
I had heard of scrying before. The Vikings claimed to be able to navigate around much of the globe without sextant or trigonometry or clock because of a scryer, or special crystal rock that they gazed into for the needed information. I read a scientific piece that claimed that the crystal could actually enable one to see where the sun was on a cloudy day, facilitating navigation, but I believe the Vikings saw much more, thanks to another book I read about John Dee. He was the physician/wizard who cared for Queen Elizabeth in the 1500’s, just before the time when the Inquisition and witch trials permanently separated science from the “spiritual arts” (which also began the separation of religion from science, a fascinating accident of conditions that created our world today). One of his main instruments was a crystal ball, which is another iteration of a scryer, in which he claimed to talk to angels who gave him sage – and sometimes treacherous – information. Moody had read of Dee and of others, especially the Greeks who used pools of water in caves as reflective tools for people to see and conjure the dead, a practice also known a necromancy, something so condemned by both Protestant and Catholic teachings that one could be burned at the stake for it.
Thus I was surprised and a little alarmed when, toward his final chapters, Moody wrote of his studies in scrying. In his case, he set up a dark room lit with candles and had people stare into a mirror that was placed above their heads (where they would not see their own reflection) after a day of meditating on the person they wished to see. Remarkably, some 80% of the subjects actually saw that or another dead person, with about a quarter meeting them fully in the flesh – with warm touches and everything. Moody had started the experiments first with himself after a visit to the caves in Greece where such things had once been done. In his case, he meditated on his maternal grandmother, who he had dearly loved, then mirror gazed for an hour or so before turning on the lights and going down to the kitchen to get a snack. It was there, much to his surprise, where he met his grandmother as if in the flesh (I do not recall if she, too, possessed body heat) – except that it was his fraternal grandmother, who he had not liked. They chatted and got to know each other better, Moody changing his opinion of her for the better. And then she left.
I will not be doing any scrying soon – conjuring ghosts is not my style. Generally this reluctance is out of fear, including a perhaps archaic belief that I would be damned for it. It is only recently, after all, that I have accepted the occasional visits in dreams of dead people without terror. But this line of inquisition is important – as is the NDE and another he is currently working on, the so-called shared death experiences (where those near a dying person experience death as well, while fully coming back. This is important, because such an experience could not be caused by a diseased and dying brain, as some doctors and scientists have claimed is the reason for the NDE). All have led Moody and some others who have experience such things to believe – emotionally as well as intellectually – that this life is little more than a mirage. As one of his clients put it, “it’s as if we’re in Disneyland, and all the important stuff is done backstage and our life is only the superficial outcome.” Moody himself had a talk with some spirits (I cannot remember the context) where he asked about his financial situation and his attempted suicide. Those from the other side replied that suicide was ridiculous, because it meant we took this life too seriously. As for money, they barely gave it a thought: “Money is of no importance at all.”
All of which brings us back to our perennial concepts contained in religion and in spiritual experiences in general. More than once I have had the wonderful feeling of spiritual fullness, and in this felt that none of the problems of the world were worth anything. And yet, once that feeling has left, the problems, the desires for more, return as usual, as if the feeling were a dream.
It is not a dream. More and more we are shown that there really is more – much more; that the life we are living, for the most part, is flat and cartoonish compared to what it really is. It may be even larger than the afterlife of Moody, as he noted towards the end of his book: “There may be something much more profound beyond even the initial journey to heaven, a story that goes far beyond what even that could bring us” (all above in quotes are my paraphrases). Yes, most certainly. What we have on our hands is an adventure that only God could, or would, make. FK
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