Afterlife landscapes

Przysługujący widmom wywrotowy, niemalże rewolucyjny potencjał został odsunięty oraz zagubiony poprzez pozbycie się tej kontrowersyjnej kategorii z terytorium metafizyki i zbyt pośpieszne odesłanie jej do przestrzeni badań nad literaturą, sprowadzając ją jedynie do roli użytecznego, bezpiecznego narzędzia interpretacji.

Książka Andrzeja Marca odzyskuje niepokojący charakter widmontologii i ponownie wprowadza widma do myśli metafizycznej. Czym nawiedzona i przeniknięta jest tradycyjna metafizyka, co właściwie ją dręczy, nie daje spokoju oraz nieustannie podmywa jej stabilność?

Kategoria widma Derridy posłużyła Marcowi przede wszystkim do rozważań nad charakterem współczesności i przeobrażeń, jakie dokonały się w obrębie myśli ponowoczesnej. Współczesna kultura, zdaniem Marca, stała się miejscem powstawania widm, nieustannie powracających z przeszłości. Uznając, że nie jesteśmy już w stanie tworzyć utopijnych wizji przyszłości, autor stara się zdać sprawę z widmowego charakteru współczesnej kultury, analizując m. in. strategie vintage, retro, nurt no future w kulturze lat 70. czy nurt fantastyki naukowej w literaturze.

Current events in science imply that a new scientific revolution in physics is unfolding. This new revolution will be as much about mind and consciousness as it is about matter and physics. It will bring a new theory of physical reality that includes the consciousness that senses, interprets and interacts with physical reality. The new theory of consciousness will lead to explanatory models of the paranormal as well as explain how consciousness survives death. This prediction is not an optimistic 'pipe dream', but our present and future. A theory of this type has already been developed. It is based on a five-dimensional Einstein-Kaluza model of the space-time continuum. ‘Single field theory' or SOFT can easily account for paranormal phenomena and the survival of consciousness. Whatever theory finally succeeds in bridging the gap between mind and matter, indications are that it will have many of the characteristics of SOFT if it is not SOFT. Whatever the case may be, a valid theory that combines physical reality and consciousness is truly a theory to die for!

The Theogony of Epimenides of Crete and the origin of the Orphic-Pythagorean doctrine of reincarnation
It is commonly believed that the epic Theogony of Epimenides of Crete derives from the corpus of pseudepigrapha under his name and that it was composed by anonymous author (with Pythagorean background) after 500 B.C. We demonstrate (mainly on the basis the reconstruction of the proem of the Theogony) that such influences do not exist and we arrive at the conclusion that the Theogony was written by Epimenides himself around 600 B.C. Aristotle who was sceptical about the authorship of the poems attributed to Orpheus and Musaeus, cites Epimenides without reservations as the real author of the verses he cites. Therefore the common elements between Epimenides on the one hand, and the Orphics and Pythagoreans on the other (Night as the first principle, the cosmic egg, the immortality and reincarnation of the soul), should be interpreted as borrowings by the latter from Epimenides, not vice versa. As a “priest of Zeus and Rhea” Epimenides belongs to the ancient Cretan hieratic clan that claimed discendance from Aiakos, son of Zeus; in view of the extreme conservatism of Cretan cultural, political and religious traditions, the sources of Epimenides’ divine wisdom should be sought not in the hypothetical “northern” or eastern quarters, but in the local oral traditions that go back the Late Minoan times and are closely tied to the cults and myths of the region around Mount Ida and similar oracular caves. The discussion of Epimendes’ herbal medicine shows that it is connected both with therapeutuc use of herbs and with cathartic rituals; Indian Ayurveda provides a close typological parallel to this, so common Indo-European roots are possible. After this we address the problem of the origin and the
sources of the Orphic Theogony and propose a new solution. Taking at its face value Aristotle’s information on Onomacritus as the author of the Orphic epic Theogony, we discuss the “Cretan connections” of Onomacritus and adduce in favour of our hypothesis numerous literary and epigraphical- archeological pieces of evidence that connect early Orphism and the belief in the reincarnation with the Idaean cave and the region around it (Orphic golden plates and epistomia from Eleuphtherna and Sfakaki near Rethymno collected and studied by Tzifopoulos). Inter alia, we also propose a new interpretation of the Orphic graffiti written on bone plates from Olbia as divinatory devices (mantic cards, the oldest known ancestor of the cards Tarot) that probably belonged to the “diviner of Hermes” Pharnabazos of Olbia and were connected with the dice divination (astragalomanteia), the proper art of Hermes. The divinatory dodecahedron found in the Idaean cave seems to be connected with astragalomanteia, as well.
Keywords: Epimenides of Crete, Theogony, early Greek philosophy, divination, oniromancy, epic poetry, ritual slendering, rite de passage, Orphism, Orphic gold plates, pythagoreism, Pythagoras, soul, immortality, longevity, reincarnation, metempsychosis, Onomacritus, Aristotle, Euripides, Theopompus, Lion of Nemea, liar’s paradox, phytotherapy, history of herbal medicine, Ayurveda, Crete, Idaean cave, Eleutherna, Sfakaki, origin of the cards Tarot, astragalomancy (dice divination), Hermes, Apollo, Zeus.

In a 1947 letter to Sir Stanley Unwin, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that "every romance that takes things seriously must have a warp of fear and horror". 1 The "romance" of which he writes is, of course, The Lord of the Rings, and the world he created within it certainly abounds in terrifying creatures. There are ghosts and spirits, werewolves and giant spiders, dragons and Balrogs. Yet one of the most frightening moments occurs fairly early in the story, in the confrontation between Frodo and the barrow-wight. This scene plays upon a number of primal fears, including the fear of being buried alive, the fear of trespassing upon the places of the dead, and, most of all, the lingering apprehension that some part of our consciousness will remain in the tomb. Although the wight gets very little stage time, it is one of the most rich and complex beings in the entire book, being rooted in the Icelandic sagas and legends, but tempered with Anglo-Saxon traditions and a little medieval ghostlore. Like a number of its medieval ancestors, the barrow-wight is ghostlike but not a ghost, living but not alive, haunting but also haunted. Far from being a simple type, the barrow-wight is a complex creature drawn from a blend of folklore, literature, and religious belief; and it embodies both medieval and modern anxiety about the dead and the places they inhabit. Barrows have long been seen as haunted places. This association makes, after all, a certain kind of sense: since the physical remains of the dead linger in the place of burial, so must the spiritual. As Theo Brown observes, "when educated men toyed with the notion that the earth in a burial ground was saturated with the virtue of dead corpses, it is hardly surprising that 1 Tolkien, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphery Carpenter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. p.120.

This study investigates the unique features of Icelandic geographical terrain and its impact upon cognitive reality of medieval Iceland. The focus is on saga depictions of Viking-Age individuals on Iceland’s western coast passing into their local mountains when they die. This, I contend, does not constitute death in the conventional sense of ceasing to be but instead a transformation into ambiguous ‘other’ entities which continue to inhabit the landscape in an altered state. This study brings textual analysis in dialogue with archaeological data concerning placements of mounds and burial sites in the same region and time frame. The aim is to illuminate the role of Icelandic landscape as a stage shaping medieval Icelandic beliefs and attitudes vis-avis their dead. Instead of a dichotomous opposition between this-world and other-world, I argue that the medieval Icelandic landscape was perceived as both at the same time.

This research aimed to explore and describe the concepts of afterlife and the realm of dead in Hebrew
Bible and related concepts in Modern Judaism that how modern Jewish thought is different from ancient Biblical Jewish thought about afterlife, resurrection, immortality and final judgement. And why Modern Jews are focusing on making present life better. For this purpose, the qualitative research method is used and data is gathered from books, articles, journals and student papers through which examined that Hebrew Bible depicted death and afterlife negatively and Modern Jews fear death they want to be immortal and focusing more on present life not talking much about afterlife. Key words: Death, Afterlife, Immortality, Final judgement, Reward and Punishment.

Nothing Better Than Death is a comprehensive analysis of the near-death experiences profiled on this website. This book provides complete NDE testimonials, summaries of various NDEs, NDE research conclusions, a question and answer section, an analysis of NDEs and Christian doctrines, famous quotations about life and death, a NDE bibliography, book notes, a list of NDE resources on the Internet, and a list of NDE support groups associated with IANDS.org - the International Association for Near-Death Studies.

The unusual title of this book, "Nothing Better Than Death," was inspired by NDE experiencer Dr. Dianne Morrissey who once said, "If I lived a billion years more, in my body or yours, there's not a single experience on Earth that could ever be as good as being dead. Nothing."

Having read every NDE book I could get my hands on, I didn't want to create just another NDE book. My motivation was to give readers a large variety of information about NDEs challenging both the seasoned NDE enthusiast as well as the novice. This book gives readers the means to understand the NDE phenomenon from the perspective of a large number of some of the most profound NDEs ever documented. My hope is that you will enjoy this book, my labor of love, and that you will be truly blessed by the heavenly insights within it.

Christopher Buck, “Sapiential Theosis: A New Reading of Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Paradise.” Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society 9.2 (1995): 80–125. 

ABSTRACT

A fresh reading of the Hymns on Paradise (HdP) discloses how Ephrem the Syrian reworked soteriological presuppositions and thought-forms current in fourth-century Syria to effect a transformation of the doctrine of theōsis (deification), freeing it from its substantive categories, to lay emphasis on divinization at the sapiential level. See, for instance, HdP XII.15, where Ephrem states that “the human person can become / the likeness of God, / endowed with immortal life [i.e. theōsis] / and wisdom [i.e. sapience] that does not err” (HdP XII.15, HyP 166). While the form of the doctrine with its anthropological considerations was kept intact, the manner of Ephrem’s affirmation of theōsis was tantamount to its sophistication, in what amounted to a reformulation of the doctrine itself. In Ephrem’s eschatological scheme—which exalts form over substance—body, soul and spirit are rarefied beyond physicality, while corporeality is maintained. Even the argument for the body’s afterlife existence—the instrumentality of the senses being required for the soul’s ability to perceive—is effectively undermined by the obviation or precluding of the senses in the soul’s immediate cognition of the delights of Paradise. This innovation lent Ephrem’s doctrine of theōsis a greater potential for realization, in which eschatological Paradise came to enjoy a more edifying immediacy among the faithful.

The Resurrection, therefore, in Ephrem’s conception of it, is not simply an “arising” in the sense of revivification. It is an “arising” in the sense of a spiritual ascent, in which the whole tripartite being of man is “raised” to new life and to new heights. In what manner may we conceive of this? In this present life, in what really amounts to a realized eschatology for Ephrem, “the mind ... is spiritual” and it is the mind in mystic transport, and, at the eschaton, something like the mind into which the resurrection body is transformed, that can attain the environs of Paradise and, by the blessing of its Creator, enter into its Garden. There is in fact the suggestion that the metaphors Ephrem employs for his portrayal of Paradise may be decoded. From HdP VI.6 and elsewhere, we may thus infer: Symbols of Paradise (Symbol = Referent): Bud = Heart; Produce = Rational Speech; Fruit = Words (Deeds, VI.11); Plants = Truth; Sweet Scents = Love; Blossoms = Chastity (VI.12); Beauty = Mind (VI.13); Flowers = Virtuous Life (VI.13); Garden = Free Will (VI.13); Earth = Human Thought (VI.13); Trees = “Victors” (VI.14); Treasure Store = Hidden Mysteries (VI.25).

Paradise and paradigm:

Images and ideas are the twin hemispheres of the religious mind. The bicameral interaction of the imaginal and the abstract focus the believer on the archetypes of belief. To give a more complete description of any religious worldview, concepts should be complemented by conceits. In Ephrem, the Church is imagistically conceived of as Paradise. Since it is an extended metaphor, its imagery is extensible. Individually and collectively, paradise imagery can represent different facets of church life and experience. The phrase from the Lord’s Prayer—“on earth, as it is in Heaven”—perfectly expresses both imagistically and ideologically the Ephrem’s artifice at work in the HdP.

Ephrem’s Paradise is at once ecclesiastical and eschatological. Its imagery expresses a paradigm of purity. This is a purity that “cures.” It cleanses the soul of the “disease” of mortality. It restores primordial immortality. Life in Paradise, in both worlds, is for the pure. The pure in heart are Christians who are sexually pure and morally stainless. On this point, perhaps Ephrem and Bardaiṣan might agree. In a quote from Theodore bar Koni, Bardaiṣan, in one of his lost songs, taught: “And lo, the natures, all of them—with created things they hastened, to purify themselves and remove what was mingled with the nature of evil” (Segal 1970, 38). Although Ephrem rejects Bardaiṣan’s creation myth, the pursuit of ethical purity in both systems is, in nonascetic terms, comparable. In fine, Syriac Christianity’s response to Late Antiquity is the quest for purity, in which chrism, baptism, and the Eucharist become the ointment, fountain, and elixir of immortality, while the imagery of Paradise ennobles the sanctified soul.

In this beautiful book which is available on Amazon.com, of comforting and uplifting poems, Philosopher, Educator and Metaphysician Renata Leuffen allows the readers to take part in an enlightening conversation between a mother (Renata Leuffen) and her dead son (Siegfried Leuffen) and gives us an insight into the supernatural reality of human life, eternity and her insight that the dead are not dead but alive. Renata Leuffen's son Siegfried (Danny) died in 2011 in his sleep from Sudden Death Syndrome.
Renata Leuffen is an inuitive person who experienced many supernatural events. When her son was in the mortuary, she saw an angel or even her son or whoever this solemn figure in a long beige robe was, standing behind her son. She had a vision of her son's death about 1 year before he died, saw him before he was born and he has appeared to her several times in her dreams since he relocated to that place that we call Heaven. Life, dying, death, life after death, eternity, eternal life, the individuum and humanity in eternity are among the areas of research to which Renata Leuffen has devoted herself. It is her desire to find supernatural answers to guide humanity into eternity. This book will be of value to anyone who researches the paranormal, metaphysics, death and life after death.

Taking the medieval period as the highpoint of hell, this talks explores where this idea came from, including Greece and Rome, the mystery religions, Gnosticism, the Bible and the Christian Creeds. It explores ideas from Christian scholastics and theologians, and particularly from medieval literature. It looks at what was going on simultaneously in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Finally it discussed what happened to ideas about hell with the dissolution of the monasteries, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment.

In the New Kingdom Netherworld Books, the full potential of visual imagery is explored, with illustrations and vignettes very closely intertwined with captions and annotations. The beyond is now more than ever encoded in images that articulate its essence in symbolic terms, thus serving as  illustrated summaries of the main themes of the compositions. It is well known that the geographical aspect of the nocturnal journey of the solar god could assume the form of specific deities in funerary compositions since the Pyramid Texts. The 'spatialization' of divine beings, however, finds better delineation and depiction only in the New Kingdom compositions. This paper focuses on an intriguing aspect of the conceptualization of the otherworld in the Netherworld Books – a mysterious divine feminine figure called Shetayt, the "Mysterious One" – and discusses her identity, role(s), and the regenerative potential that she embodied within the Duat as well as her connection with the realms of magic and ritual. It will be shown that, harnessing natural forces as well as her own powers connected with the realms of fertility and magic on the one side while being connected and/or identified with the celestial goddess Nut on the other, Shetayt protected the nocturnal solar gestation taking place inside her body – that is, the netherworld space, thereby enabling the successful outcome of the solar journey at the end of the night.

Medieval otherworld visions are adventure stories — journeys into unknown realms — with ethical, theological and soteriological instruction embedded into them. The richness of these tales makes them an excellent foundation for such instruction. Part of their richness derives from a narrative strategy that includes descriptions that rely on the visionary's sensory experiences.

Inhalt:. Einführung: Eine kurze Geschichte des Jenseits; (I) Antike: Vom innerweltlichen zum außerweltlichen Jenseits; (II) Antikes Judentum und frühen Christentum: Himmel, Hölle und Gericht, (III) Islam: Der eine Gott und die vielen Himmel; (IV) Dsas Christentum und die Revolutionen des Weltbilds; (V) Abschied vom Jenseits?

Among the greatest questions ever asked, perhaps the greatest is whether some part of us survives death of the body. Whole religions, individual philosophers, scholars of all types, scientists and ordinary people have all tried to answer this question, so far without any verifiable success. Yet most people continue to believe that some form of a soul survives, but not much more than that is known. This book describes in general terms a new fundamental theory of physics based on a five-dimensional space-time continuum that includes new scientific definitions of life, mind and consciousness, Given these, the book explains a scientific model of the survival of consciousness and mind when the physical body dies. Other cultural beliefs about death are described and their essential points are compared to this new physical model of the afterlife.

The article discusses different scientific perceptions of the early Greek afterlife. Jan N. Bremmer identifies changes of attitude towards death already within the Homeric epics and links them with a development Philippe Ariès claimed to have proven for the period of the Middle Ages to the Modern times. Ian Morris on the other hand emphasises the continuity of the Greek concepts of afterlife in the Archaic period. The article demonstrates that no developmental change in beliefs relating to the afterlife took place between the composition of the Iliad and that of the Odyssey. Still, contrary to Ian Morris, further Archaic literary and epigraphic sources prove that the imagination of the Realm of the dead did change though not in a linear way. Furthermore certain parts of the Homeric concepts continued to exist.

It is fairly common to refer to our use of the paranormal aspects of consciousness as a sixth sense, but the idea of a sixth sense comes much closer to the truth of our physical situation in the universe-at-large than we might imagine. The universe in which we exist is commonly thought to be a four-dimensional space-time continuum. All five of our normal senses evolved within this common four-dimensional environment. Each individual consciousness interacts with the four-dimensional world via our five normal senses. However, our universe is actually five-dimensional so it would be safe to assume that human evolution has also taken the fifth dimension of the space-time continuum into account and given humans a sixth sense. According to all indications in modern science, this assumption would prove true. Our sixth sense actually represents the manner by which we gather information about the universe in which we exist via the fifth dimension, just as our normal five senses allow us to gather information about our physical environment within the four normal dimensions of space-time. Even when our four-dimensional material bodies die, we still continue to exist, communicate and gather information via this five-dimensional connection with the rest of the universe, and sometimes show ourselves and communicate with the living.

Postoji sasvim izvesna veza između sve velike stvorene muzike i svetlosnih struna određenog predela: slika preseka na-sebi-zastalih geoloških strujanja i iz-nesvesnog-izroneli obrisni zapis muzičke kompozicije stoje u prisnoj vezi. * Pra-zvuk kao među-zvučje ili čista ekspresija jedne nepodnošljive tišine, imaše svoju slikovitu predstavu u svetlosnoj zmiji "koja guta svoj rep"; te on beše i vakuumsko zrno sadržavanja pra-opreke u sićušnome-kao trepereći oblik suzdrške ospoljenja one beskonačnosti što u vidu okatog zrna svetlosti počiva u čvoru stvaranja, klupku buduće kompozicije. Otud taj biljno-mineralni zvuk podzemnog struktuiranja nebeske dis/harmonije, beše izvirao tek kao podčujni efekat mnogoglasja svetova; odnosno, kao kristalni zglob kugle sveobuhvatnog-koji u-sebi-konzervisanom jedinicom tišine prelamaše svaki pojavni zvuk u izraz nepodnošljive situacije bivanja-u-procepu. Otud se može reći da on beše praopisan krug zračenja oko upravo one mikro-doze apsolutne tišine, kakva bi jedina mogla da nađe svoj daleko poredbeni izraz u domenu pojavnosti. Jer, ovaj zvučno-slikovni oblik pri tom ne konzervisaše samu tišinu, nego međutrenutni doživljajni efekat te tišine, odslikan u oku njenog prislušavaoca; tako je on "slikovit simbol reči", "zvučna slika delanja i činjenja" (Herman Broh), te kantovska forma čiste čulnosti a priori, zgusnut vid znanja one beskrajno vrludave putanje kakva jedina dovodi do mesta (nemogućeg) susreta:-susreta jastva sa svojom nepoznavano poredbenom slikom, u koju to isto jastvo beše samom sebi neshvatljivo preduklopljeno. Stoga, tek na takav način fluidno ritmovanog omeđavanja pra-date mogućnosti nereceptivnog saznanja, ovaj kristalni oblik neispoljenog zvuka beše omogućio večno-produžnu delatnost /solipsističkog/ mišljenja.

The article deals with a short, almost unknown Latin poem by Albertino Mussato entitled Somnium, which relates the author's oniric journey into the afterlife. As has already been noted by critics, it is a scholarly exercise in controversy with Dante and linked to classical sources, especially Virgil. The present article defines the position of the text in the tradition of medieval visions of the afterlife: it classifies the descriptive and narrative motifs used by the author, compares them with medieval texts previous or contemporary to Mussato and underlines the hybrid and original solutions provided by the author to this tradition. Although the innovation of the canon of visions of the afterlife does not appear to be Mussato's priority, it nevertheless provides a curious example of the contamination of the genres and forms of medieval literature.

Drawing on an ethnographic research in Trabzon, northeast Turkey, I explore the interrelations between the discreet presence of Greek heritage and the enchantments of local topographies. I particularly focus on imaginations of treasures across seemingly "natural" interfaces to discuss how abjected memories "live on" and why we must attend to their afterlives.

Everyone seems to have some innate idea that there is an afterlife. Developing a mental picture of the afterlife seems quite natural to us and seems be as old as humankind, more than likely predating even the earliest development of religions. However, religions have taken the initiative in dictating our most commonly held views of the afterlife over the past few thousand years even though there is no hard and fast rule stating that only religions have the right to develop views of the afterlife to the exclusion of all other forms of human knowledge. In fact, a concept of the afterlife is more fundamental to religions as a whole than belief in a Supreme Being, God or gods. Some of religion’s grasp on concepts of the afterlife have recently slipped as moviemakers have taken the initiative in representing how we picture the afterlife. On the other hand, science has been conspicuously absent from this whole process even though science has developed more and more complex paradigms about life, mind and consciousness, just those concepts which would seem important with regard to any possible afterlife. The very silence of science on this issue is simply deafening. However, the present lack of scientific worldviews that include some form of an afterlife will soon change as science takes a greater interest in the concept of consciousness and develops working theories to explain consciousness. Only then will science begin to consider the possibility that consciousness, at the very least, could survive death of the body and brain and only then will science consider the possibility that the afterlife is another part of our physical reality requiring explanation.

About 12,000 years ago, in the Hilazon Tachtit cave close to the Sea of Galilee — the small, lopsided body of a middle-aged woman was lowered into an oval-shaped grave. Her final resting place had been carefully cut into sterile breccia and plastered with mud. Laid on her side, her spine and pelvis following the curve of the egg-like hollow, her legs were folded inward at the knee. Ten large stones were placed directly on top of her head, pelvis and arms. Congenital pathologies — including the fusion of the coccyx and the sacrum, and deformations of the pelvis and the lumbar and sacral vertebrae, mean that in life she would have had an asymmetrical appearance, an awkward gait and most likely a limp.

Amongst her unusual grave goods, was found a complete articulated human foot, which had once belonged to an adult individual much larger than herself. Perhaps this was a form of sympathetic magic, to rid her of foot-dragging in an otherworld or afterlife.

She was also buried with 50 complete tortoise shells. The belly plates (plastron) of the tortoises were broken, but the carapaces undamaged. Many tortoise limb bones were found in the burial material, suggesting that there may have been a tortoise feast as part of this important woman’s funerary rites. The remains of these tortoises are part of a uniquely diverse assemblage of rare animal body parts, demonstrating a significant investment of time and energy on the part of the deceased’s community. In this evidently deeply meaningful burial, we can track the spiritual and ritual innovations that evolved alongside a socioeconomic shift from nomadic hunter-gathering into settled, semi-sedentary village life.

As the people of the Natufian culture began domesticating animals and sowing the first seeds of agriculture in the Southern Levant, they also had more opportunity, space and time to begin cultivating and exploring personal interactions. Naturally, new social behaviours, habits and rituals developed, advancing an individual sense of self and facilitating new relationships between the inner and outer worlds. The body was more settled, but the mind and imagination continued to wander.

Every living organism is characterized by two different classes of complex physical field patterns. These constitute (1) the ‘life force’ or biofield and (2) the mind-consciousness complex. The biofield deals with the normal biological functions of anatomy and physiology, which can be represented by a complex three-dimensional matter/energy field pattern within the overall quantized space-time continuum. But the particles, atoms and molecules that comprise that material body can also be associated with a pattern of changing electrical charges and associated fields that generate an even more complex pattern of magnetic field variations (constituting magnetic domains in various groupings) around them. Together these complex field patterns of electric scalar and magnetic vector potential constitute the mind and consciousness that are characteristic of all living organisms.This physical model has grave consequences because it directly implies the survival of consciousness/mind beyond material body, a new form of non-traditional top-down evolution from consciousness to the organism and DNA and the necessity of new as yet unrealized higher senses that are a result of directly realizing and experiencing the higher embedding fifth space-like dimension that is required by the physics of our commonly experienced four-dimensional space-time continuum. The awareness of ‘self’ that normally characterizes the present level of human consciousness is a product of the normal three-dimensional world of experience and evolved according to the physics of the four-dimensional space-time continuum some forty to one-hundred thousand years ago, therefore the existence of a higher embedding physical (though non-material) dimension implies that we either have evolved or are presently evolving a second higher self that can take advantage of the embedding space just as our material awareness utilizes the four-dimensional space-time continuum and that we are still evolving an even higher level of consciousness. The human species is not just still evolving, but the rate of evolution is accelerating which strongly implies that we are on the threshold of a new evolutionary leap forced on us by a newly emerging higher level complexity of consciousness.

Potisnuće duha zemljinog šara u Podzemlje osuda je majke zvezdanih rojeva na život u progonstvu (njen pad u bezimenost). Tako je svet-pre-vremena ostao na površini pust. Ali ona je od ostatka stare svetlosti zemlje, upijene u sebe, stvorila samostalan slikotvorni mikrosvet: životodavna supstanca stalagnita sazdana beše od astralnih suza nje sâme. & Lemurka Maja – propala kroz rupu Vremenâ Slike u Njenom umu, još nespremne da se od Nje osamostale i projekcijom na Haos oprobaju, prosijavale su minimalnom energejom; plavoljubičastom svetlošću, odsevom Snevačice sâme – čije umno čelo je ispuštalo melem na pukotine-u-tkivu vlastitog snevanja: jedini način opstojavanja aristokratije duha, koja se gnušala učešća u usponu kanibalističke svetlosti. Vizija Njene prostorne mogućnosti rasla je sve do tačke Njenog buđenja – obrušavanja cele uzdrhtale građevine pojma (o svom postojanju) u Podzemlje: ono koje guta plavu zvezdu s vrha odapete strele praljudske opčinjenosti, i pretvara je u lotos-na-lokvanju vlastite močvare. Tek tu – u toj čekaonici turobne svejednakosti – Ona je izvršila rašivanje kružne teksture sopstvenih eteroplovnih slika: transfiguraciju latica unutar vlastite krune – usled koje se na jednu od njih ispisala strelica krajnjeg izlaza. Tako ova preobilna čaška Njenog temena najzad otkriva svoju tamnu odvodnu tačku, uski prolaz za putovanje unazad: u razređen eter vlastitog vodokorena. Jer Ona, projekcijom uveličana do visine kule (od-sopstvenih-slika – s krunom osmatralaštva na vrhu) beše (s Njenim krahom, koji se završava prizemljenjem krune) vraćena na prvobitnu veličinu. Pri tom Joj se sadržaj krune (pehar noćnog ambrozijuma) prosipa po prostranstvu vlastite samoprojekcije – groblju idejnih (pogranično upetljanih) slika. Tako im Ona daruje jedan svetlosno osamostaljen, profiltrirano zagrobni život, nalik na rastuće grozdove stalagnita. Ona sâma pri tom nestaje u rupi njihovog rojenja – jer upravo oni je sprovode iz neopredeljeno-davnog u izboreno-buduće vreme. Demonski proboj okrugline blaženog ostrva; oslobođen glisando iz podmorske pećine, i to kroz koral Jednoroga koji uvis raste. I najzad: izmeštenje kule-osmatračnice na krov sveta. & Svakome je poznato da se u snovima nikad ne vidi sunce, iako se često dobija utisak mnogo jače svetlosti. Predmeti i tela zrače sami od sebe. Nađoh se u nekom malom parku u kome su se nizali

I think that relevance is just the wrong word to use. It is not so much that psi phenomena and the afterlife are relevant to one another, but rather that they exist at the same level or order of physical reality with regard to the physical universe as a whole. They can be related theoretically, which indicates a physical relationship between the two concepts.

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Drawing upon historical, anthropological, medical, psychological, religious, parapsychological, and popular literature, this cross-cultural anthology will provide for the first time an easily accessible compendium of NDEs from around the world and throughout history.

It is no small consolation to one rash enough to agree to lecture on this subject that the title of the lecture is a question rather than an assertion. The title is a question to which the lecturer must address himself rather than a summary of the information contained in the lecture.