Mind and Body
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Chapter 4
“Katherine (school teacher) looked at me, studied my face, and I knew she could tell that I was about three feet to the left of my body.” Kelly Carlin 
 It should be evident by now that our intention is to move away from the largely materialistic, brain-centered view which governs medicine as well as psychology in the present day. We are then “heading” toward a subtler picture of holism and consciousness, mind and soul. They are so important to understand human existence. Many people including Kelly Carlin and probably her father have had their own very personal experiences of finding themselves for moments or longer out of their bodies. Such occurrences rarely enter into day-to-day conversation – unless a person has had a dramatic Near Death Experience or an approximation thereof. Far less likely would it be that someone has entered into an Out-Of-Body Experience and dares to share the observation beyond contact with a close friend – if that. But eventually, medicine and science someday will adopt the energetic nature of the human mind and body as a fundamental belief, then teaching. Eventually, ideas similar to those developed here will be common to every day thought and understanding. By then, we will be developing “the eyes to see.” Our fundamental focus thus is a simple aphorism attributed to ancient Hindus: “The
mind is not in the body, but the body is in the
mind.”
This concept is much like the one championed by the medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart: “The body is in the soul, rather than the soul in the body.” Others along the way have taught similarly this simple idea which has profound implications. Medicine has long treated human beings as bio-chemical machines – limiting the mind, imprisoning it in the brain, and placing it in the cranial vault at the top of the shoulders. But, the fact is that the mind only appears to be limited by medical thinking. The mind commands and works through more organs than the brain, and actually manifests through the whole body.  from Principles of Light and
Color
by Edwin Babbitt The Mind is in fact a field of mental energy – beyond measurement by present laboratory methods. It is much broader and subtler, surrounds and interpenetrates the whole human being. The brain is its chief but not only means of exchange with the physical form and world. How often have we heard that we use only one tenth of our minds? Maybe that is partly because we have restricted its function to the organ which sits between the ears. Along the way, we must discuss Vital Energy. Called prana in the East for ages, it is foundational to existence, human life, and mind-body function. The healthy body is known by clairvoyants to exist in a flow of pranic energy which appears as a mist or haze within, around and extending a few inches beyond the surface. These currents of energy are focused within the physical body proper to constitute the subtler parts of the “body” and its organs. The currents can respond to thought, feeling and will do so with extra-ordinary rapidity, and expand and contract with deep breathing, relaxation and changes of mood. The currents of prana amidst the body are also subject to continuous interchange and interaction with the environment. Seers recognize thoughts as objective things. They say that “the human mental body is astonishingly open to influences from the thoughts of other mental bodies in its neighbourhood.” Furthermore, currents of ideas and thought are recognizable at the level of mind to those who have the eyes to see. Thoughts like the mind itself, can be seen coming and going, arising and dissipating from the minds of human beings. Some are powerful and persist for eons. Consider for a moment the simple thought that “God is Love.” Feelings which emanate from human beings also go forth and produce effects sometimes even more potently than thoughts according to their receiver. Another way to look at this part of life is to consider Thought-forms. (See the book Thought-forms by A. Besant and C.W. Leadbeater) Human beings, like all other forms in and around us, are Ideas or Thought-forms created either by the Creator, the Great Ones, or human beings. “Man, the Thinker, is clothed in a body composed of innumerable combinations of the subtle matter of the mental plane, this body being more or less refined in its constituents and organised more or less fully for its functions, according to the stage of intellectual development at which the man himself has arrived.” Thoughts and emotions have form! Just as human minds have form! They are the forms behind, beyond, and within outer bodies and their organs. We are talking about the real substance and force of our being. Yes, thoughts have form, shape and color. Thoughts can be clearly and precisely created. They can also gather into dark clouds and even become astral fog banks which stymie many parts of behavior and activity. Such things call to be dissipated. But, we are generally quite unconscious of them. And, those unconscious forms often rule us to our detriment. Besant and Leadbeater tell of three general principles which underlie thought-forms: 1. Quality of thought determines color. 2. Nature of thought determines form. 3. Definiteness of thought determines clearness of outline. Thoughts and feelings aid in building and rebuilding the human vehicle. Or they collect to congest, obstruct, and disturb it – even to the point of rupture and death. Our habits of thinking and common feelings constantly remold our structure and keenly influence the functions of all organs – much more than the food we consume. “We are what we eat – but really more what we think.”  All of us dwell in a whirlpool of our own mental energies. And the waves of our mental pools go out to nourish or disturb the seas around us – touching most directly those near at hand and of similar vibration. They can and do go on to affect the collective mental ocean (universal mind – collective conscious) in myriads of ways dependent on individuals and the “equipment” that they carry into physical life at birth. Habits and drugs, stresses and shocks play upon the mind. A holistic picture could be painted even without clairvoyant vision to show the state of mind and thence the bodily picture of any individual. Yes, holistic pictures have been “painted” variously by clairvoyants over past generations. The details do not concern us. We merely need to recognize that mental forces can be disturbed, intoxicated, anesthetized, deadened, depleted, shocked, concussed, strained, twisted, discolored, dislocated, broken, collapsed and even dissembled thus creating the range of the dementia picture – the demented states noted in the previous chapter. Advancing age, levels of activity – from inertia to overstimulation, debilitating habits of mind such as prejudice and eccentricity, emotional addictions and dysfunctions/dissociations predispose people to greater likelihood of experiencing one kind of dementia or another. And, substances like drugs which feed these energies. The roots of all illness, however such appear outwardly, lay in the mind and its relationships to environment. “Don’t
get your cortex caught in a vortex.”
George Carlin Consciousness As previously noted, mind and consciousness are nearly synonymous. But, it seems necessary to consider consciousness in its own wide range to help us understand the broadest picture of the mind. First, we have set aside the generally accepted view of mind as an effect of brain. So then, the reader may wonder how such an illusive, ethereal, energetic thing can function in the physical and produce such wonders – even like now to allow one to read a book. So, let us begin to broaden our study by considering a quote by the noted psychologist William James: “Our
normal waking consciousness…
is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different… No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.” from Varieties of Religious Experience William James covered a lot of territory in these few words. And helps us go further to explain mind or consciousness being the universal force which goes far beyond that which is commonly thought to be produced by the human brain. You might say, “Animals have consciousness and minds, but they also have brains.” Quite so. Yet, we can go much further to suggest that plants also have consciousness. They work through a kind of “instinct,” which is a rudimentary form of consciousness. Decades ago, Cleve Backster showed that plants react – as recorded on polygraph machines – to violent thoughts directed towards them. At the other end of the spectrum, the renowned horticulturist Luther Burbank said that he was able to do magical things with plants, “because I loved them.” Plants clearly have sensibility and sensitivity. But, plants have no brain – nothing remotely like a brain. Nor do stones, rocks, and jewels. But believe it or not, minerals and metals – most notably magnets – have consciousness which cause them to attract and repel others of their species. Stones and jewels take on forms which fit the consciousness which underlay their essence. The earth itself – Gaia – surely has mind but no brain. We offer the simple proposition that planet Earth must have consciousness or mind else none of its inhabitants could have it. Only humans and animals have brains – at least of the fleshy kind. The planet is obviously brainless, but very conscious. “The
visible world is governed by the invisible.”
Sebastian Wirdig Consciousness or mind is key to existence in all beings. But, we can even recognize consciousness apart from forms – embodied beings. Spiritualists have communicated for centuries with the souls of the dead, shades and shells. Saints and sages have done the same with angels and devas. Mind exists and persists throughout the universe. Mediums
“Ideas come from space.” Thomas Edison The world is filled with mediums: because we are all mediums to one degree or another. We are constantly touched, influenced, sometimes bombarded by thoughts and feelings that are not our own. Depending upon our sensitivities, we take them on, reflect them, or simply ignore them – sometimes knowingly, most often quite unconsciously. Those thoughts and feelings originate from Points of Consciousness – mostly embodied, but sometimes discarnate. Minds, not brains, are directly involved in specific mediumistic work as “controls” take over the bodies of mediums to speak through them. Some mediums have entertained controls who have played musical instruments or created art works through them. But, typical mediums sit quietly, slip out of their bodies, and thus allow their bodies, brains, and voices to be used by external forces. Those “forces” are rarely given names, but – whatever they may be – some of them have been revered from ancient times.  The most famous medium or intermediary of all times was the high priestess at the Oracle of Delphi in Greece. The priestess-oracle medium, then called the pythoness, gave counsel and divine inspiration to applicants. The sacred site and its female mediums did their work for approximately 2000 years until around 500 AD. In modern times, mediums and seances came into vogue in America beginning with the Fox sisters in New York in the 1840s. Mediums persist into the present day – also called readers, channels, etc. Their value and validity depend again on times, places and persons involved. Self-described mediums, trained or otherwise, “sit” to receive and transmit messages from discarnate forces. In modern times, some such mediums have become famous, written books, found places on television and even films.  There comes to mind the popular 1990 film Ghost in which a reader-medium was featured and plays a key role. Romance, murder, and mystery were combined to create a blockbuster at box offices. Patrick Swayze played Sam, an investment counselor who was killed by a mugger one night. He had to remain on the scene in his subtle body to watch over his lover Molly played by Demi Moore. Sam needed to inform her somehow that his death was not an act of random urban violence, but a contract murder. He was murdered because he was about to uncover a multimillion-dollar scheme to launder drug money. So, Molly was also in danger. Whoopi Goldberg played Oda Mae a novice “spiritual advisor” who had never made real contact with the dead until Sam caught her attention. Oda Mae, after Sam hounded her clairaudiently, had to reach Molly and convince her of Sam’s presence and warnings. Eventually, Oda Mae got through to Molly when Sam took over the medium’s body, to use her physical presence as an instrument for caressing the woman that he loved. After that touching scene, Sam was able to take flight while dark forces punished his killer. We now give brief introductions to a few present-day mediums in the following notes:  Sylvia Browne was a psychic-medium, who appeared regularly on television and radio and also wrote several top-selling books, dying in 2013 at age 77. Browne conducted thousands of hypnotic regressions and hundreds of trance sessions. As well as communicating with the dead, Sylvia said that she looked into the future. “I don’t know how I do it, but I’ve done it all my life.” Browne became aware of her psychic abilities at age 3. It was a “very scary thing” when she realized that she could tell if someone was going to die. Once taking on a public career, her aim was to help “people gain control of their lives, live more happily, understand the meaning of life and to find God in their unique way.”  Allison DuBois calls herself a medium and profiler, due to negative connotations with the word “psychic.” DuBois, born in 1952, became aware that she had the ability to communicate with departed souls when she was 6 years old, has used her ability to connect deceased loved ones to the living, and has helped law enforcement agencies solve crimes. Her powers as a medium have been tested and supported by Dr. Gary Schwartz at the University of Arizona. A show called Medium, which aired from 2005 until 2011 on NBC and CBS, was based on Allison DuBois's book, Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye. “Every episode is not a biography of my life, but simply based on my life experiences.”  John Edward says that as a medium, author and lecturer for over three decades, he has “helped thousands with his uncanny ability to predict future events and communicate with those who have crossed over to the Other Side.” Edward began his work on television in 2000 with the program Crossing Over which ran four seasons. John has also written New York Times Best Sellers and been featured on numerous television interview programs. Born and raised on Long Island, NY, John exhibited psychic abilities from an early age. John eventually worked on developing his own abilities after an encounter with psychic Lydia Clar. She pointed him toward the mission of becoming a medium in order to bring comfort and hope to people by reuniting them with those who they loved and lost.  James Van Praagh, like the other notable mediums, has been hailed in his circle as a “pioneer” of the mediumship movement. Van Praagh considers himself “one of the most widely recognized and accurate spiritual mediums working today.” He also calls himself a “survival evidence medium,” because of the proof of life after death through highly detailed messages from the spiritual realm. Van Praagh’s messages have brought comfort to millions. He has worked with international heads of state, religious world leaders, and celebrities. He has composed best-sellers and appeared on countless national radio and television shows. Van Praagh hosted his own internationally syndicated television show, Beyond, and produced a CBS mini-series based on his life, Living with the Dead starring Ted Danson, and a movie of the week, The Dead Will Tell, starring Eva Longoria. Near-Death Experiences
Another way to consider mind beyond brain is to look at reports – by the thousands collected by now – of Out-of-Body Experiences and Near-Death Experiences. Numerous books have been written in recent decades on these subjects in which people spontaneously and often in extreme circumstances find themselves looking at their own bodies from a distance. Someday, people like Kelly Carlin will write of their experiences which happen in relatively common moments in daily life. These episodes generally appear around traumatic events, surgeries, and the like. Affected individuals sense themselves hovering over their bodies, watching people – often medics – trying to resuscitate them. Their remembrances of names and faces are often “spot on.” They have detached – mind-soul – from their bodies and without use of their brains at all. Yet, these people have profound and unforgettable remembrances of activities beyond brain and body. They have perceived and registered information without their brains. This is another reason to suggest that memories are not stored in brain cells or nuclei.  George Ritchie – Come Again George Ritchie (1923–2007) was an American psychiatrist whose future work was portended when in 1943 as a young army recruit in Texas, Ritchie caught pneumonia and passed out. A medical officer pronounced him dead, pulled a sheet over his face, and gave orders for his body to be taken to the morgue. But when the attendant came back a few minutes later he thought he detected chest movement, and convinced the medical officer to give him a shot of adrenaline into his heart. Ritchie's pulse returned and he started breathing. He regained consciousness four days later. But Ritchie had experienced waking up and seeing his body covered by the sheet. He then felt himself flying over the country, trying to get back to Virginia to continue his training to be a doctor. At one point he came down in a town and tried to ask someone a question, but the man didn't hear or see him. Ritchie wrote of his near-death experience (NDE) in Return from Tomorrow in 1978. In the book he tells of his out-of-body experience, his meeting with Jesus Christ, and his travel with Christ through different dimensions of time and space. Ritchie's story led Raymond Moody to investigate over 150 cases of NDEs in his book Life After Life.  Eben Alexander – Heaven at Hand Eben Alexander is a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon who survived a seven-day coma in 2008 that was medically-induced to treat meningitis. After he pulled through, Alexander recalled vivid experiences during his ordeal. He was puzzled and couldn't find a scientific explanation because his brain had not then been active for a whole week of his life. How could he know things that he didn't know before? The answer has been changing his life ever since. It should be noted that Alexander experienced significant psychic traumas before his illness and heavenly travels. They were previewed by medical complications of a different kind. Prior to Dr. Alexander’s confrontation with death and heaven, he had been reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine for performing operations at incorrect surgical sites, two times over the course of a month. As a result, Alexander lost his privileges at the hospital and was forced to pay a fine to the Virginia Board of Medicine as well as complete ethics and professionalism training to maintain an unrestricted medical license in the state. Then following the release of his book, Esquire magazine reported that Alexander had been terminated or suspended from multiple hospital positions, and had been the subject of several malpractice lawsuits and that he had settled five malpractice suits in Virginia within a period of ten years. Regardless of professional and personal precipitating factors, Alexander has garnered much press and interest through his colorful, unique recollection of heaven. His book, Proof of Heaven, tells of his effort to comprehend consciousness and its origin. Alexander believes that humans are conscious despite our brains, that consciousness is embedded in our souls. “Our eternal spiritual self is more real than anything we perceive in this physical realm, and has a divine connection to the infinite love of the Creator.”  Elizabeth Taylor – Return Engagement Elizabeth Taylor told in her latter years the amazing story that she was pronounced dead four times during her life. Taylor recounted one near-death experience in 1961. In that episode, she fell into a coma while suffering from pneumonia. Taylor described what she saw during the time she was thought to be dead. She said that at first, she could see the doctors working around her but could not communicate with them or move. “And then I went into this — I sort of floated into this tunnel. And there were other figures that I recognized. And this welcoming, like sun, white sun, and warmth, and like being in liquid mercury. It was like being weightless.” She also visited the afterlife, where she communicated with her late husband Mike Todd who had died in a plane crash in 1958. “Mike was there. And I wanted to be with him more than anything in the world. He'd been dead about three years, and I was still mourning.” Taylor went on to say that Todd told her to return to her life. “And I was like, ‘But I want to be with you,’ “But he said, ‘You can't now. I'll be here. You have to fight to go back.’” She decided to share the experience with Oprah Winfrey in 1992 after hearing about similar accounts from other people who came close to death. “There's got to be something to it. There's just too many people who've gone through it.”  Sharon Stone – Basic Instinct The reader has encountered Sharon Stone earlier in regard to the ordeal she experienced around her stroke in 2001. In her book she told that the stroke began as, “I suddenly felt everything moving strangely, as if the film of my life were moving through a camera backward. Fast. I started to experience a feeling of falling, then as though something were overtaking me, body and soul, followed by this tremendous, luminous, uplifting whiteout pulling me right out of my body and into a familiar brilliant other body of … knowing? … “The light was so luminous. It was so … mystical. I wanted to know it. I wanted to immerse myself. Their faces were not just familiar. They were transcendent. Some of them had not been gone for long. I had cared for some of them until the end of this life. They were my closest friends, Caroline, Tony Duquette, Manuel. I had missed them so much. I felt so cold in the room I was coming from. They were so warm, so happy, so welcoming. Without their saying a word, I understood everything they were telling me about why we are safe, why we should not be afraid: because we are surrounded by love. That in fact we are love. “Suddenly, I felt like I had been kicked in the middle of my chest by a mule, the impact was so harsh, and astoundingly, I was awake and back in the emergency room. I had made a choice. I took the kind of gasp you take when you are underwater far too long. I sat up; the light was blinding.”  Tony Cicoria – Back in the Body Antony Cicoria became famous for developing an obsession for piano after being struck by lightning. He is also and orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor. The following story is his own, published in Missouri Medicine in 2014: Getting Comfortable With Near-Death
Experiences:
My Near-Death Experience, A Telephone Call From God It was a beautiful August day at Sleepy Hollow Lake in Athens, New York in 1994. The occasion was my in-laws celebrating their annual group birthday gathering. About twenty relatives and their siblings were in attendance. While the children ran amok screaming and playing, I prepared the party barbeque. We had gathered on the second floor of a lakeside pavilion. The ground level included picnic tables and barbeque pits. A pay phone was attached to the wall on the side of the building. As the thought occurred to me to call my mother and check on her, I remember seeing a few light sprinkles of rain. In the midst of the revelry and chaos, and unbeknownst to me, the beautiful sunny day had surrendered to powerful dark storm clouds moving swiftly in over the lake. I ambled around the building to the pay phone and dialed my mother’s familiar number. I let the phone ring eight times, but there was no answer. With my left hand I pulled the phone hand piece away from my face to hang it up. When it was about a foot away from my face, I heard a deafening crack. Simultaneously I saw a brilliant flash of light exit the phone hand piece I was holding. A powerful bolt of lightning had struck the pavilion, traversed through the phone striking me in the face, as its massive electrical charge raced to ground. The force of the lightning blast threw my body backwards like a rag doll. Despite the stunning physical trauma, I realized something strange and inexplicable was happening. As my body was blown backwards, I felt “me” move forward instead. Yet I seemed also to stand motionless and bewildered staring at the phone dangling in front of me. Nothing made sense. At that moment, I heard my mother-in-law scream from the top of the stairs above me. She raced down the stairs towards me. I felt like a deer in the headlights. As she approached I could see she was looking beyond me to my right and headed in that direction. She was oblivious to me standing there. I turned to see where she was going. Suddenly, I realized what was going on. A motionless body was lying on the ground some ten feet behind me. To appearances the person was dead. To inspection the person resembled me. To my astonishment another look confirmed it was me! I watched as a woman who had been waiting to use the phone dropped to her knees and began CPR. I spoke to the people around my body but they could not see or hear me; I could see and hear everything they did and said. It suddenly occurred to me that I was thinking normal thoughts, in the same mental vernacular I had always possessed. At that moment I suddenly had one simple, ineloquent and rude thought, “Holy shit, I’m dead.” This cosmic realization of consciousness meant that my self-awareness was no longer in the lifeless body on the ground. I, whatever I was now, was capable of thought and reason. Interestingly there was no strong emotion accompanying my apparent death. I was shocked, certainly, but otherwise I felt no reaction to what should have been the most emotional of life’s events. Seeing no point in staying with my body, my thoughts then moved to walking away. I turned and started to climb the stairs to where I knew my family still was. As I started to climb I looked down at the stairs like I would normally do. I saw that as I reached the third stair, my legs began to dissolve. I remember being disconcerted that, by the time I reached the top of the stairs, I had lost all form entirely and instead was just a ball of energy and thought. My mind was racing frantically trying to record and make sense of what was happening. At the top of the first flight, the stairs went up and left into the second flight. Instead of bothering with the stairs, I passed through the wall into the room where everyone was. I went diagonally through the room, over my wife who was painting children’s faces. She had one child in front of her, one behind that person and one to the left. I had a clear realization that my family would be fine. Dispassionately, I departed from the building. Once outside the building, I was immersed in a bluish white light that had a shimmering appearance as if I were swimming underwater in a crystal clear stream. The sunlight was penetrating through it. The visual was accompanied by a feeling of absolute love and peace. [More on Dr. Cicoria and particularly his subsequent musical addiction can be found in Oliver Sacks’s book, Musicophilia] Sleeping and Waking
Believe it or not, Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences actually mimic every human’s nightly experience. That is when we pass into and out of the sleep state. And one of the clearest ways to look at the brain-mind question and to arrive at a sense of the mind having “a life of its own” separate from the body is to consider sleeping and waking. It takes little to recognize that during the hours of sleep, the soul-mind escapes the confines of the body and is active elsewhere. Then our inner being allows the body to rest, much like computer operators do with their favorite device. Just as the computer goes into a quiescent state when put to SLEEP, the body is in its own dormant condition when the mind-soul checks out every night. Then, the body flips back to active mode in the morning when the mind-soul makes its regular return. Why do we sleep? Well, because we get tired. It is obvious, isn’t it? Then, why do we get tired? Because we run out of energy is another obvious and useful answer. But one not well understood by medical investigators who focus largely on the ill effects of lack of sleep. They also focus on sleep making neurons happy and communicate better. Really? But factually and actually relevant to medical interests, two important things occur during sleep time: 1 – Energy is channeled to the physical form – the whole form, not just the brain. Our real food – terrestrial ether or prana – is more available to the body during the quiet hours and without the distractions which are almost constant when the mind is fully coupled with the body. The body [our constant servant] absorbs energy – much more usable energy – while resting than is received from eating. The tap is then “wide open” for the body to receive its real nourishment. “I hold that sleep is that physiological condition of the organism in which the nervous system of the individual (in precisely the same manner as the electric storage battery) is being recharged from without, by the external, all-pervading cosmic energy, in which we are bathed, and in which we live and move and have our being.” Hereward Carrington, Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition Human bodies do works comparable to photosynthesis much like plants do. They absorb vital energy from the Sun and turn that energy thanks to subtle and occult means into all manner of human forces, cells, tissues, and organs. “All energy comes from the sun in the first place, so why do we have to depend on ‘middle men,’ plants and animals, for food?” (Jack Schwarz, Human Energy Systems)  The Soul Hovering over the Body reluctantly Parting from Life by William Blake 2 – The mind is released from the body to allow this work to be done. But just as importantly, the mind is freed for hours for its own rest – or for exploration and study unfettered by physical limitations. The fact that we do not recall these interludes suggests that we have neither the aptitude nor the language to bring our experiences into waking consciousness. Some few people do have that ability. As mentioned earlier, Sleep and Death have much in common. A detailed picture of the latter follows in the next section. Thus, we can visualize subtle energy as the true structure of the human body and mind as the network which holds the whole being together. Just imagine for a moment what medicine-healing will be like when these facts are expanded into common awareness and understanding. When humans are de-materialized to be recognized as constantly changing energetic beings; when medicine returns to its healing roots; and when health is seen as a dynamic state and wholly recoverable when body, mind and soul are brought to equilibrium.  Andrew Jackson Davis and The Great Harmonia Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) grew up with little schooling in a poor family along the Hudson River, New York. But the young man demonstrated clairvoyance and clairaudience very early in life. Inevitably in a state of mesmeric trance, Davis found that he could accurately diagnose medical disorders. He then described how the human body became transparent to his spirit eyes. Organs stood out clearly with a special luminosity of their own which were diminished in cases of disease. Davis eventually became renowned for his conscious spiritualistic abilities, lectured far and wide, and wrote over 30 books including The Magic Staff and The Great Harmonia – in five volumes – from which the following information is taken. At one point, Davis decided to investigate with his spiritual eyes the process of dying. This coincided with him encountering a sixty-year-old woman who visited him to receive a medical examination eight months prior to her death. At that time, he discovered that she would die with a cancerous disease of the stomach. He resolved to be present and watch the “much-dreaded phenomenon.” Between the medical exam and the ensuing event, he boarded for a time in her house, and officiated as her physician. His subsequent experience was related as follows: “When the hour of her death arrived … I saw that the physical organization could no longer subserve the diversified purposes or requirements of the Spiritual Principle. But the various internal organs of the body appeared to resist the withdrawal of the animating soul…. the Spirit was eternally dissolving its co-partnership with the material organism. Now the head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine — soft — mellow — luminous atmosphere; and, as instantly, I saw the cerebrum and the cerebellum expand their most interior portions; I saw them discontinue their appropriate galvanic functions; and then I saw that they became highly charged with the vital electricity and vital magnetism which permeate subordinate systems and structures. That is to say, the Brain, as a whole, suddenly declared itself to be tenfold more positive, over the lesser portions of the body, than it ever was during the period of health. This phenomenon invariably precedes physical dissolution. Now the process of dying, or of the spirit’s departure from the body, was fully commenced. The brain began to attract the elements of electricity, of magnetism, of motion, of life, and of sensation, into its various and numerous departments. The head became intensely brilliant; and I particularly remarked that just in the same proportion as the extremities of the organism grew dark, and cold, the brain appeared light and glowing. Now I saw, in the mellow, spiritual atmosphere, which emanated from, and encircled, her head, the indistinct outlines of the formation of another head! The reader should remember that these super-sensuous processes are not visible to any one except the spiritual perceptions be unfolded; for material eyes can only behold material things, and spiritual eyes can only behold spiritual things, — This is a Law of Nature. This new head unfolded more and more distinctly; and so indescribably compact and intensely brilliant did it become, that I could neither see through it, nor gaze upon it as steadily as desired. While the spiritual head was eliminated and unchangably organized, I saw that the surrounding aromal atmosphere which had emanaed from the material head was in great commotion; but as the new head became more distinct and perfect, this brilliant atmosphere gradually disappeared….  While this spiritual formation was going on, which was perfectly visible to my spiritual perceptions, the material body manifested, to the outer vision of observing individuals in the room, many symptoms of uneasiness and pain; but these indications were totally deceptive; they were wholly caused by the departure of the vital or spiritual forces from the extremities and viscera into the brain, and thence into the ascending organism. The spirit arose at right angles over the head or brain of the deserted body. But immediately previous to the final dissolution of the relationship which had for so many years subsisted between the two spiritual and material bodies, I saw— playing energetically between the feet of the elevated spiritual body and the head of the prostrate physical body — a bright stream or current of vital electricity. This taught me, that what is customarily termed Death is but a Birth of the spirit from a lower into a higher state; that an inferior body and mode of existence are exchanged for a superior body and corresponding endowments and capabilities of happiness. I learned that the correspondence between the birth of a child into this world, and the birth of the spirit from the material body into a higher world, is absolute and complete — even to the umbilical cord, which was represented by the thread of vital electricity … Out-of-Body Experiences
While untold thousands have had sudden experiences in dramatic, life-and-death situations – NDEs, there are a relative few humans who have had spontaneous or intentional out-of-body episodes that they remember. Sylvan Muldoon, Robert Monroe, and Oliver Fox among others have consciously learned how to part from their bodies at will and bring back clear remembrances.  Sylvan Muldoon – Wander Boy Sylvan Muldoon (1903–1969) was an unusual being, as his photo suggests, who promoted the concept of astral projection. Muldoon experienced his first OOBE as a boy while at a Spiritualist camp. By 1927, Muldoon made contact with the psychic investigator Hereward Carrington and eventually collaborated with him in writing three books on the subject. According to Muldoon, astral projection assumes the existence of a subtle astral body which separates from the physical body in various ways and times and is capable of traveling outside it. Muldoon's description of the astral body includes its connection to the physical body by a long, elastic cord which has been corroborated by other astral projectors.  While Muldoon set the stage for those explorers, he seems to have been little recognized in his lifetime. He was born and died in Darlington, Wisconsin. Muldoon prefaced his first book The Projection of the Astral Body with the following words: When my first out-of-the-body experiences occurred I was but twelve — so young and immature in mind that I did not realize their magnitude. The occurrences came about involuntarily and repeated themselves frequently, until I became so accustomed to them that, as a matter of fact, I soon regarded them as nothing extraordinary and seldom mentioned them even to members of my own family, to say nothing of keeping a record of them, although I had been urged to do so by many interested persons. I had been told, by persons professing to know, that conscious projection of the astral body was nothing unusual, and that many psychics could produce it at will. I, too, wanted to be able to produce it at will, and I admit that I was envious of those who (I had heard) could do so. So I began a search for some one who could produce the phenomenon voluntarily. But my search proved fruitless, and eventually I concluded that I could not find that ‘some one.’ Thus I began to experiment with the phenomenon myself, and in this book you will find the results of my experiments. Although we are living in the twentieth century we still have with us the intolerance of the Middle Ages, and I am not optimistic enough to believe that a great many will read without prejudice what I have to say. I have written this work with the idea of giving the results of my findings to other students of the occult. Unfortunately many occultists are of the belief that what is claimed to be conscious astral projection is nothing more nor less than a dream. I am well aware of the fact that one must first experience conscious astral projection before he can believe in it, and I confess that I should not accept it as true myself, perhaps, had I not experienced it and know it to be true. The sceptic says, ‘I want the proof, the objective proof, then I will believe it!’ And the projector replies, ‘You cannot have objective proof. You must experience it, then you will have the proof.’ The argument that the projector cannot prove to the sceptic that it is not a dream is of no avail; for neither can the sceptic prove to the projector that it is a dream. Thus argument is useless— as useless as arguing the matter of a first cause or a last effect! I stand on a clear-cut issue. I say experience it. ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating!’  Robert Monroe – Journey Man Robert Monroe (1915–1995) was an American radio broadcaster who became known for his research into altered consciousness. His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body has been credited with widely expanding interest in “out-of-body experiences.” Monroe’s RAM Enterprises, a corporation that produced network radio programs, created a Research division in 1956 to study the effects of various sound patterns on human consciousness, including the sleep state. While experimenting with sleep-learning in 1958 Monroe experienced an unusual phenomenon, which he described as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by a bright light that appeared to be shining on him from a shallow angle. Monroe went on to say that this occurred several more times over six weeks, culminating in his first out-of-body experience. The following is taken from an early experiment 9/10/58: ~~ Again, I floated upward, with the intent of visiting Dr. Bradshaw and his wife. Realizing that Dr. Bradshaw was ill in bed with a cold, I thought I would visit him in the bed room, which was a room I had not seen in his house and if I could describe it later, could thus document my visit. Again came the turning in air, the dive into the tunnel, and this time the sensation of going uphill (Dr. and Mrs. Bradshaw live in a house some five miles from my office, up a hill). I was over trees and there was a light sky above. Momentarily, I saw (in the sky?) a figure of a rounded human form, seemingly dressed in robes and a headpiece on his head (an oriental concept remains), sitting, arms in lap, perhaps cross-legged a la Buddha; then it faded. I don't know the meaning of this. After a while, the uphill travel became difficult, and I had the feeling that the energy was leaving, and I felt I wouldn't make it. With this thought, an amazing thing happened. It felt precisely as if someone had placed a hand under each arm and lifted me. I felt a surge of lifting power, and I rushed quickly up the hill. Then I came upon Dr. and Mrs. Bradshaw. They were outside the house, and for a moment I was confused, as I had reached them before I got to the house. I didn't understand this because Dr. Bradshaw was supposed to be in bed. Dr. Bradshaw was dressed in a light overcoat and hat, his wife in a dark coat and all dark clothes. They were coming toward me, so I stopped. They seemed in good spirits, and walked past me unseeing, in the direction of a smaller building, like a garage, Brad trailing behind as they walked. I floated around in front of them, waving, trying to get their attention without result. Then without turning his head, I thought I heard Dr. Bradshaw say to me, ‘Well, I see you don't need help any more.’ Thinking I had made contact, I dove back into the ground, and returned to the office, rotated into the body and opened my eyes. Everything was just as I had left it. The vibration was still present, but I felt I had enough for one day. Important aftermath: we phoned Dr. and Mrs. Bradshaw that evening. I made no statement other than to ask where they were between four and five that afternoon. (My wife, upon hearing of the visit, said flatly it was not possible, could not be so because Dr. Bradshaw was home in bed sick.) With Mrs. Bradshaw on the phone, I asked the simple question. She stated that roughly at four twenty-five they were walking out of the house toward the garage. She was going to the post office, and Dr. Bradshaw had decided that perhaps some fresh air might help him, and had dressed and gone along. She knew the time by back-checking from the time they arrived at the post office, which was twenty minutes to five. It takes roughly fifteen minutes to drive to the post office from their house. I had come back from my trip to them at approximately four twenty-seven. I asked what they were wearing. Mrs. Bradshaw stated she was wearing black slacks, and a red sweater which was covered with a black car coat. Dr. Bradshaw was wearing a light hat and a light-colored topcoat. However, neither ‘saw’ me in any way or were aware of my presence. Dr. Bradshaw had no memory of saying anything to me. The great point is that I had expected to find him in bed, and didn't. The coincidences involved were too much. ~~ Monroe wrote three books on Out-Of-Body Experiences. His conclusions taken from the Introduction to Journeys Out of the Body may add to broader perspectives: ~~ First, OOBEs are a universal human experience, not in the sense that they happen to large numbers of people, but in that they have happened all through recorded history, and there are marked similarities in the experience among people who are otherwise extremely different in terms of cultural background…. Second, the OOBE is generally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, seemingly experienced by ‘accident’…. Third, the experience of an OOBE is usually one of the most profound experiences of a person's life, and radically alters his beliefs…. Fourth, the OOBE is generally extremely joyful to those who have it…. Fifth, in some instances of OOBEs the description of what was happening at a distant place is correct and more accurate than we would expect by coincidence. ~~ Past
Lives
“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Voltaire There is yet another phenomenon which is very supportive of existence and persistence of consciousness beyond brain and body. That is the widespread belief – which will one day be considered fact – in reincarnation and the growing awareness of this process. Belief in reincarnation and karma is central to the major religions of the East and taken for granted among various pagan traditions. That belief is increasingly accepted in the West to the point that it is shared by around a third of Americans. Like other ideas presented herein, reincarnation is not provable except within the range of a person’s own life experience. But for our purposes, the idea of reincarnation helps us to understand the concept of mind and soul beyond brain and body. We certainly do not carry brains and bodies from one lifetime to the next, but minds and souls may pass on over centuries and millennia to enter new bodies and enliven new brains. For now, let us consider the recollections of several notable figures from recent times. At the same time, we should emphasize to the reader that belief of a past lifetime is by no means proof – except maybe to the individual involved.  George Patton – Blood and Guts
General George S. Patton (1885-1945) believed that he had been reborn many times, always as a soldier. He fought in a Greek phalanx against the Persian Cyrus, as a Roman legionnaire, as a medieval warrior at Crecy, and as a sailor on a warship. Patton also remembered serving as a general under Napoleon. During World War I, his first assignment took him to Langres, France. A French officer offered to guide him around. But, Patton said he knew the place quite well and ended up giving the Frenchman his own guided tour. Patton gave directions to find the Roman amphitheater, the forum, and the temples to Mars and Apollo — even though some of the buildings no longer existed. Patton indicated the old military drill field and the place where Julius Caesar once pitched his tent. He explained to his startled companion that he had served in Caesar’s 10th Legion. Patton talked about fighting with Alexander the Great at Tyre, battling the invading Huns, being a Crusader, serving under Henry V at Agincourt, and being a Confederate soldier in the battles of Winchester and Gettysburg. “Old Blood and Guts” was adamant: “I damn well know there are places I’ve been before, and not in this life.”  Sylvester Stallone – One More Round Sylvester Stallone is a firm believer in reincarnation. His mother, Jacqueline, is a psychic and an astrologer. Thus, Stallone himself is no stranger to paranormal ideas. He is sure of four past lives. One ended gruesomely. In an interview early in his career, he said, “I’m quite sure I lost my head in the French Revolution…. I’d been reading about the Jacobins and that period, and when somebody at a party said how awful it must be to be guillotined, I found myself saying, ‘Oh no, it doesn’t hurt. You don’t feel anything—except your head hit the basket ... and that’s it.’” His success with his screen persona Rocky Balboa may have something to do with Stallone’s claim that he was actually once a boxer who was killed by a knockout punch in the 1930s. “Without question I’d want to be the heavyweight champion of the world.”  John Lennon – Changing Cars In 1968, Lennon called an emergency meeting of the Beatles at the Apple Records headquarters in London. High on LSD, Lennon told the group that he was Jesus Christ reincarnated. His saner companions intervened and prevented him from announcing it to the world. When the effect of the drug wore off, Lennon never mentioned the subject again. But he saw a connection between Jesus’s message and his own peace activism. “We’re trying to make Christ’s message contemporary,” Lennon said of his “Bed-In For Peace” with Yoko Ono. In The Lives of John Lennon, author Albert Goldman claimed that John thought he and Yoko had been lovers in multiple past lives and that they had once been pharaoh and queen in ancient Egypt. John was convinced he and Yoko were eternal soul mates. Touring the Step Pyramid at Sakkara, Lennon reportedly said, “This is a magical, magical place. I’ve been here before!” “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car and into another.”  Tina Turner – Queen of Egypt Singer Tina Turner was convinced that she was once the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, who ruled in the 15th century BC. Turner thought her former husband Ike was the reincarnation of the evil pharaoh Thutmose III, who was prevented from taking power by Hatshepsut. Turner experienced the strange pull of Egypt. “I spent holidays there because I felt so strongly connected to Egypt. That strange feeling of recognition became very strong when I was in Egypt at excavations and saw images of Amenhotep, a pharaoh from the 18th dynasty. Something strange happened to me. I knew that I was one of the portrayed figures, that I had lived there in that time!” In her song “I Might Have Been Queen,” Turner alluded to reincarnation: I’m
a new pair of eyes every time I am born
And original mind because I just died And I’m scanning the horizon For someone recognizing that I might have been queen For every sun that sets there is a new one dawning…. “I am very sure that my spirit will live on in a different place, as it has lived many times before.”  Shirley MacLaine – You Got Here from There Shirley MacLaine has long been a believer and cheerleader for the law of karma and reincarnation. MacLaine claims to have been, among other things, a Moorish peasant girl who had a sexual relationship with Charlemagne, whom she recognized as having been reborn as Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. MacLaine also recalls lives as a harem girl in Turkey, a gypsy in Spain, and one eons ago on the continent of Lemuria. In her 2012 book I'm Over All That, Shirley MacLaine wrote that, “Probably one of the reasons why reincarnation makes sense to me is because I understand how each one of us is so many people. When we open up and allow our soul's memory to emerge and express itself, we can be amazed at the talent for multiple personalities we each have. I don't mean multiple personalities in the sense of a psychological disorder. I mean each of us has had multiple experiences in past lifetimes that equip our souls with memories and intuitions that can't be explained any other way. How did I know and recognize streets and temples when I first went to India? Why did I find myself speaking Portuguese when I was in Brazil? Each human being can point to any number of similar experiences, specific moments that make them wonder why and how they know what they know….” ~~ There are many more celebrity stories which could be offered to help validate the idea of the reincarnation passage of a soul-mind from one body to another. The author has a few of his own. But, they are not much more than hints and possibilities. More recently, he does recall several fellows whose paths he crossed, mostly in Phoenix, AZ, years ago. Those people made claims not only to memories of past lives but also believed themselves to be notables of bygone eras. Saul of Tarsus, cloaked as a holistic psychologist, appeared in 1982 at the Wellness Center where the writer briefly practiced medicine. But, Paul took on a very unsaintly role and split apart the husband and wife team who led the organization. It seemed quite out of character for the ancient tent maker to forget his Biblical injunctions on marriage. Phoenix in that day seemed to make its claim to housing more than its fair share of famous reincarnates. Besides Paul just mentioned, the writer there also met Peter, at the time a chiropractor. Of more intimate note was Cleopatra, recently a Baptist minister. I’m no Anthony, but I sure fell for Cleo. I remember how she used to adore the sun, bake under it for long stretches, and carry a deep dark Egyptian tan for her efforts. Maybe one comparable to that worn by the original Queen of the Nile. Over the years, this writer had already come across St. Francis reincarnated in Houston and would later find a whole entourage of famous Russian composers transmigrated into one family living in northern California. People in growing numbers – commonly children – in the West appear to sense their own previous incarnations. In that vein, there is a story posted in several forms readily accessible on the internet which tells about James Leininger, who began at age 3 to have dreams and memories of being a World War II fighter pilot, Lieutenant James McCready Huston. Huston was killed at Iwo Jima more than 50 years before Leininger was born. Many more such stories – thousands from around the world – have come to us through the work of a man who studied the possibilities of rebirth for decades:  Ian Stevenson – Suggestions of Reincarnation Ian Stevenson (1919-2007) was named Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1957. He became fascinated with the subject of reincarnation and fortuitously his department was bequeathed millions in 1968 upon the death of Chester Carlson, the inventor of the Xerox copying process. Carlson had been introduced to Stevenson’s interests in reincarnation by his spiritualist wife. That money enabled Stevenson to devote himself full-time to the study of Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson eventually detailed well over 2000 “past life” case reports from all over the world. His first book in 1966, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, recounted stories taken from interviews in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Brazil, Lebanon, and Alaska. Stevenson made meticulous studies of children’s memories of previous lives. Typically, he identified an actual deceased person based on the statements given by a child. Then, he made exhaustive efforts to refute the paranormal account. “We can strive toward objectivity by exposing as fully as possible all observations that tend to weaken our preferred interpretation of the data. If adversaries fire at us, let them use ammunition that we have given them.” A somewhat representative case taken from Stevenson’s records follows: “In Sri Lanka, a child overheard her mother mentioning the name of the town Kataragama which was unknown to the girl. The child informed the mother that she drowned there when her brother pushed her into the river, that her bald father sold flowers in a market near the Buddhist stupa, that she lived in a house that had a glass skylight, that their house was next door to a big Hindu temple, outside of which people smashed coconuts on the ground. Stevenson confirmed that there was, indeed, a flower vendor in Kataragama who ran a stall near the Buddhist stupa whose two-year-old daughter had drowned in the river while the girl played with her ‘dumb’ brother. Their backyard was adjacent to the main temple where devotees practiced a religious ritual of smashing coconuts on the ground. The little girl did get a few items wrong, but 27 of her 30 statements proved accurate. The two families never met, nor did they have any friends, coworkers, or other acquaintances in common.” Stevenson’s most imposing work, published in 1997, was the 2,268-page, two-volume Reincarnation and Biology. His subjects had birthmarks and birth defects, such as finger deformities, underdeveloped ears, or missing limbs. Reincarnation and Biology contained 225 case reports of children who remembered previous lives and who also had physical anomalies that matched those previous lives. Some cases were confirmed by autopsy records and photos. Stevenson suspected strong emotions to be related to a child’s retention of past-life memories. Traumatic deaths leave an emotional imprint. Most of the children he studied claimed that they had met a violent end previously. There was also a gap of only a few years between lives. Stevenson observed the children had habits and fears linked to the nature of death. Those who said they had drowned in a previous life had an unusually intense fear of water; those who were stabbed displayed a crippling knife phobia, etc. Ian Stevenson’s works and findings didn’t and still don’t “fit” materialistic medical science. “The wish not to believe,” Stevenson once said, “can influence as strongly as the wish to believe.”  Prodigies Ian Stevenson’s worldwide research on cases suggestive of reincarnation has been used to explain the distressing emotions and phobias of unusual children. At another point on the spectrum of unique children, the phenomenon of soul rebirth may be recognized in musical prodigies and other geniuses. They appear unexpectedly in all sorts of families – maybe even yours and mine. Mozart is one of the most striking examples. Wolfgang wrote his first musical compositions at age 5, first symphony at age 8, and first opera at twelve. Yes, his prodigious accomplishments might be attributed to heredity or family influences. His father Leopold himself was a violinist and composer. Elder sister Nannerl was herself something of a musical wunderkind. So, reincarnation can be dismissed or derided in cases like Mozart. “Mozart was simply born with absolute pitch. One of those freaks that nature causes to be born.” When we think of prodigies, those of the musical kind generally come to mind – in the likes of Mozart and Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann. Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn both had natural gifts for melody and impressive compositional skills at a young age. Interestingly like Mozart, they also died in their 30s. The only woman in our list of prodigies is Clara Schumann. Clara didn't learn to speak until she was four years old. Yet, she mastered the piano when she was only seven. In modern times, George Gershwin and Yo-Yo Ma seem to fit the picture. George was a relatively “late bloomer” as his musical skills did not become apparent until the family purchased a piano while expecting elder brother Ira to practice and learn music. But it was George at age nine who took to the instrument and was “plugging tunes” on Tin Pan Alley at age 15 after leaving school. The renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whose parents were from China, was born in 1955 in Paris, France. He gave his first public recital at the age of five. The internet now offers names and even performances of numerous musical prodigies of comparable age who live around the world in all sorts of families. Then we have Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder – both blind and playing music by age five. Why, we might ask, is it so often that musical prodigies grow up blind from very early years? Rex Lewis (see chapter 2) has exhibited prodigious piano skills, as others like him have shown over the years. There are in the present day on the order of one hundred “musical savants” amongst us. There have been and are other youngs geniuses from their early days in fields outside of music – like Pablo Picasso in art, Albert Einstein in science, and Bobby Fischer the chess prodigy. This writer’s favorite is Abraham Lincoln, who came out of a rude backwoods upbringing, to discover books in his early years, to educate himself in the law and eventually become America’s Great Lawgiver. Science really cannot explain any of these wonders through genetics or otherwise. But for those with open eyes, it is quite apparent that mental ability is a much more subtle commodity than that which the neurons of the human brain are capable of producing. Socrates comes to our aid with his Theory of Recollection. He taught that most of our knowledge really arises out of the recall of experiences in past lives. Our souls hold secure in their databanks the totality of our pasts. We draw on them as time and need and aspiration require. We now return to Ian Stevenson: we must say that although the medical community has not embraced his investigations, his work continues with Jim Tucker, MD, at the University of Virginia. There are others of his ilk who have studied reincarnation in various ways and written about their beliefs and discoveries. Some physicians have written on their works with people whose past lives were discovered through hypnotic regression. They include Arthur Guirdham, Brian Weiss and Roger Woolger. The British psychiatrist Andrew Powell has gone further to describe his own past life remembrances. And the following favorite story links the lives of two physicians who lived a century apart.  Norman Shealy and John Elliotson Norman Shealy was a world famous neurosurgeon and medical inventor, writer and specialist in pain management. The founding president of the American Holistic Medical Association, Shealy has been considered the father of modern comprehensive pain programs, which involve multidisciplinary approaches. Dr. Shealy’s work has been extraordinarily innovatitve but largely ignored by orthodox medics. Shealy learned about a past lifetime in which he was John Elliotson, a 19th century physician in Britain who was also a medical innovator and pain specialist. In his own words, he told: “In January 1972, I was sitting in a lecture at the Neuroelectric Society in Snowmass at Aspen waiting for Dr. William Kroger to finish his lecture. I was a bit annoyed because he was trying to convince us that acupuncture was hypnosis and he suddenly said, 'In the last century a British physician demonstrated that you could operate on patients who were mesmerized. His name was John Elliotson.' When he said that, I felt as if someone had thrust an iceberg down my back and I said to myself, ‘My God, that’s me.' “So in the June of that year, I went to London. I got in a cab and asked the cab driver to take me to the Royal College of Surgeons, assuming that John Elliotson must have been a surgeon. As we turned down one corner to the right, I was sitting in the back of the cab and suddenly was picked up physically and turned in the opposite direction, again feeling as if there were an iceberg down my back. A block down to the left, instead of the right, was University College Hospital of London, where my office had been as John Elliotson. I walked in the building and felt at home.” John Elliotson (1791-1868) was the first Professor of Medicine at the University College Hospital. He made his reputation in the 1830s giving public lectures and introducing the stethoscope and the use of narcotics from France where he had studied. He also brought mesmerism to England and gave public displays of mesmerism in the amphitheater. Some of his patients who were placed in mesmeric trance became clairvoyant and then were able to make diagnoses of other patients. Elliotson inspired the surgeon James Esdaile to do a large number of operations upon mesmerized patients. Esdaile eventually wrote widely of his experiences with his surgical patients and others who became clairvoyant while mesmerized. Eventually, Elliotson was asked by the Board of Trustees to stop putting on public displays of mesmerism. Elliotson then resigned from the hospital and published The Zoist monthly journal for twelve years. There he recounted many aspects of mesmerism including hundreds of patients who were operated on by another surgeon when Elliotson put the patient into a trance. There is much more to the Shealy-Elliotson stories which shows how their lives, works and interests have mirrored each other. Dr. Shealy (1932-2024) was seeing patients and writing books into his 80s. Dark Science
Despite the power and control of materialistic medicine, science in the mold of Einstein to Hawking seems to be “coming to the rescue.” In a “new wave,” scientists are catching up to ancient magicians and philosophers as well as individual explorers of the mind-body conundrum. They are now theorizing the presence of the underlying dark energy-matter in the universe. These forces are now thought to amount to over 99 percent of all energy-matter in the cosmos. The existence of Dark Matter is theorized – and apparently “proven” – through study of gravitational attraction in the cosmos. Dark matter makes up 30+ percent of the matter-energy composition of the universe; the rest is called dark energy (69+ percent) and “ordinary” visible matter is less than 1 percent. What we presently perceive and call “Real Matter” makes up only a tiny portion of the forces which compose the universe, manifest to our senses, and even form our very own bodies. “The
missing link in cosmology is
the nature of dark matter and dark energy.” Stephen Hawking So, hidden within Dark Matter and Energy, science may even be discovering the link between Body and Mind. One day, we may become comfortable using knowledge gained from studying cosmic forces as well as quantum physics to understand how mind and consciousness act in daily human life. |
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