Five years ago, near the beginning of Urban Monk, I read the near-death-experience (NDE) of Dr. Eben Alexander, titled Proof of Heaven. A year or so later he wrote a follow-up, called, Map of Heaven. (Clicking on the above names will link you to my reviews of these books.)

Now he has written another book, Living in a Mindful Universe. Here Dr. Alexander goes deeper into the implications of his incredible NDE, implications for this life here-and-now, on earth. I highly, highly recommend reading this book. It is filled with incredibly helpful information to help us all to “live in a mindful universe”. I cannot do justice to a full review of this book, but will share just a few insights gained from my reading.

The subtitle of the book is, A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness. He deals a great deal with the importance of consciousness. Keep in mind, Dr. Alexander is a neurosurgeon. He has delved academically and literally into the depths of the human brain. He deals at length with the questions of the connection between the brain and human consciousness, and with the location of memory inside the brain.

His NDE helped him realize that consciousness is separate from the physical brain. After all, his brain was almost completely deteriorated in the course of his illness. Especially the neocortex, the most advanced and most evolved areas of the brain. His illness, bacterial meningoencephalitis, “ate” his brain from the outside in. That is, it destroyed first the outer, neocortex layers of the brain. “Such a complete inactivation of my neocortex, the outer surface of the brain, should have disabled all but the most rudimentary experiences and memory…” (p xiv). And yet, during the time his brain was being destroyed he experienced a most vivid and ultra-real supernatural experience. The memories of this NDE persisted so strongly that “. . . I was driven to find an explanation for the journey I took during the coma. . .” (p xiv). “This very real experience happened, and I was conscious of it–and my consciousness did not depend on having an intact brain.” (p xv)

His medical and academic studies had not led him to any sort of a belief in anything outside the prevalent materialistic, scientific world view. So began his pursuit of answers to the questions of physical brain, consciousness and memory.

Science has thus far not been able to locate any area of the brain which contains memory. And yet Eben came out of his coma with such incredibly vivid memories, that he was led to conclude that there must be another location for our human memory and consciousness. His experience had been vastly different than his intellectual training.

“There is a considerable difference between believing something, and knowing it. It is crucial not to simply believe what others say and then adopt those beliefs, including everything stated in this book. It is most beneficial to learn firsthand, to cultivate and trust personal experience in order to develop an inner capacity of knowing. Each of us will proceed on a slightly different path, according to unique motivations and goals. Letting go of ingrained beliefs can be extremely valuable in order to comprehend a situation from a fresh perspective.  In fact, this is what science is all about. A truly open-minded scientist considers all available evidence before making any judgment. (p 36)

He knew what he had experienced; he had such vivid memories resulting from his NDE. So he had to question the beliefs of his chosen field. Along the path of discovering more about NDE’s he encountered all the issues often arising from these experiences, including the concept of reincarnation.

This phenomenon of reincarnation supports the observation that memories do not seem to be stored in the physical brain. Finding a location for memories within the brain has completely eluded neuroscientific efforts. Just as filter theory allows that the brain is not the producer of consciousness, likewise, we use the brain to access memory from an information field (e.g., the quantum hologram or Akashic record) that exists outside of it. . . . This is not simply a discussion of what one wants to believe, but, as much as possible, we must address the world as it is. We must consider that reincarnation is apparently something that happens to us all (with or without our belief in it) and offers a richer view of our lives here on earth. (p 182)

Another concept he wrestled with is that we make decisions as souls prior to entering our life on earth. We choose the time and place to be born, and the outlines of what hardships we will encounter in order to learn certain lessons from this particular life.

Recognition that the soul lessons resulting fr0m the hardships, struggles, and conflicts in life might serve a purpose offers great insight in living our lives. And the more open you are to accepting the opportunities that these challenges present to become stronger, the more you are able to spare your future lives that continued suffering. If a particular lesson wasn’t properly learned, you might plan an even more daunting situation in the next lifetime. Should you successfully learn the lesson, it would never have to be repeated again and you could move on to the next challenge.

 

This concept may seem counterintuitive, especially when it comes to extreme hardship and adversity. We might find it difficult to accept that we have intentionally planned less than ideal situations for ourselves. But when we make these plans, we have full knowing that the situation will be temporary and we will be generally unaware of the underlying arrangement during life. To add to the confusion of programmed forgetting, often we choose an experience opposite of something we wish to learn in order to understand from a different perspective. From the vantage point of here and now some of our decisions seem to be illogical, but nonetheless a pragmatic choice at the time it was made. (p 189)

 

We are all essential to this evolution of consciousness, and we cannot simply opt out. No one gets out of here dead–there is ultimately no escape from the continuum of conscious awareness. It is wise to embrace this glorious gift of physical life, and to rise to the challenges it presents to afford the possibility of true learning, growth, and transcendence. This is not to say such a thing is easy, especially in our modern culture. (p 204)

He goes on then, together with his coauthor, Karen Newell, to discuss ways in which we can participate more fully in the awareness of our own consciousness. These methods include listening to recordings called, “brain-wave entrainment audio recordings”, which Karen Newell helped develop. He also goes briefly into methods and disciplines which others have developed. But he stresses the importance of getting in touch with our own higher selves, with the wider consciousness which is out there. “. . . that informational substrate underlying our universe appears to be made of profound unconditional love. Those who have been to that brink and peered beyond, whose emotional state has been resonant with that infinite love, never forget that experience–they are forever changed. They know they are one with the universe.” (p 227)

We can all come to see the hardships in life, illness, and injury as the stepping-stones on which our souls can grow and ascend toward that oneness with the Divine. (p 237)

Then, quoting Ram Dass, he cautions,

Got to be careful not to go through the door of enlightenment too fast; that would be going through the door with your ego on. Good way to get delusions of grandeur, a messianic complex, to wind up in a mental institution. You’ve got to be really pure. You can’t just make believe you’re pure. (p 247)

All in all, a very profound book, well worth seeking out and reading it. I’d appreciate hearing any reactions to the book.

Over the years I have collected many albums of music. Initially, of course, this was by LP’s.  In the 70’s I went through a few years of cassette tapes, though I never saw this as my primary method of replaying music I enjoyed. While the 80’s saw me gradually shifting to CD’s, I was still searching for LP’s. Now, of course, with the advent of digital music all has shifted. But I still own quite a collection of both LP’s and CD’s. Many of my favourites I have changed over to digital and will put various playlists of music onto my iPhone.

I was listening to a large playlist a few weeks ago of folk, pop and early rock-and-roll. With over 900 tracks on this playlist, songs don’t come up all that often. A Dan Fogelberg song came on which I had not heard in quite some time, years probably. I own only one of his albums, High Country Snows and have always enjoyed this album. The song I heard that day was called, The Higher You Climb. The words struck me as reflecting my own journey in some way.

The higher you climb, the more that you see;

The more that you see, the less that you know;

The less that you know, the more that you yearn;

The more that you yearn, the higher you climb.

There is another verse, but this is the one which spoke to me. Listen to the words: the more that you see, the less that you know. It would seem that the more you see, the more you should know. But no, the more you see, the less you know. As I have climbed higher and higher in a spiritual sense, I know I can see more and better than ever in my life. Yet, it seems often that the more I see and learn, the less I know!!

For my self this can only be explained as the more I see and understand of the spiritual dimensions the more I realize there is to know. And in relation to that increased realization, I know less than before, proportionally, even though I know so much more!!!

It is an exciting concept!! I know that we will move into eternity continually learning and learning. We will climb higher and higher, always seeing more, and realizing there is so much more to know, yearning to see and know more and more!! I love it. I thank you Dan for encapsulating a simple truth so artistically!!

I have both read the book, and seen the movie. The book first: It is a very well-written, entertaining tale. Rather, it is a series of tales. After beginning the book as a library copy, I realized that it was long and involved enough that I went and purchased my own copy. It presents at first almost as a collection of short stories. But as I was working my way through them, it became obvious that there are connections weaving their way through completely disparate stories. These threads are not always immediately obvious, and I did not always understand them. But the stories of themselves are completely engrossing, so I didn’t mind not always understanding the larger picture. These stories cover history from several centuries ago, into the future, well into the future.

I will not delve in any detail into the content of the individual stories; I will allow the reader to discover those. One of the drawbacks for me personally was that I read the book over quite an extended period of time, reading other books in between (usually as library books became available, with a deadline). This made my comprehension of the overall sweep of the threads of Cloud Atlas difficult to follow. My recommendation, based on this experience of the book, is to read it over a shorter period of time. It seems to me this would be a very excellent book to take on a several-week holiday!!

Then I checked out the movie! This helped put the various threads into much clearer perspective. The movie covers the various vignettes piecemeal, jumping back and forth from one to the other. I am aware that the movie did not receive great reviews; I believe this to be the result that it could be quite confusing to follow for anyone not having read the book, and understanding what the author, David Mitchell, was attempting to accomplish.

The movie version includes some very high-profile actors, headlined by Tom Hanks. What the movie did, was clear up, maybe simplify, the threads running through the various stories. And the overall message was stunning!! At least to me!! What is presented in the movie is the concept of living various lifetimes, during different eras of history, being incarnated in vastly varying roles in these various incarnations. The movie also depicts the idea of us being incarnated with other souls who have accompanied us throughout our history, often playing very different roles in different lifetimes. So in the movie you have characters played by the same actors, in the various vignettes, relating to each other in very different ways, from historical episodes, to quite far into the future.

For any of you who have been following my often rambling posts on Urban Monk, you know that I’ve been learning about this sort of thing over the past couple decades. Each of us is part of a soul family. We agree to incarnate, often together, but with varying roles. We might be siblings, good friends, rivals, parents or children, etc, during our various lifetimes. And this is always done for the growth of the individual soul in their own progression.

To see this presented in a main-stream movie release is quite astounding!! As they say, art often reflects the truth of what is occurring in society. And I believe what Cloud Atlas does is to present spiritual truths to and about society.

I highly recommend both the book and movie. If you can do only one, see the movie. But be aware of the dynamics of the overall story being presented, to avoid confusion.

I have at times blissfully gone long periods in my life, interrupted by sudden startling discoveries, wondering why I had not seen this before. Three books by Hank Wesselman are in that category.

I have been exploring spirit dimensions for quite some time now. One of the things I have noticed is that people experiencing the spirit realm may do so through different tactics. They may come at this search in many different ways, whether it is religion, personal experiences, traditions, the experiences of others, there are many and varied ways people come to expanding their consciousness. Many experience the spirit realm spontaneously, without any prior desire or intent. I have noticed that there is a lot of similarity from these various ways. This congruity between what people are learning that gives great credibility to the information coming from the “other side”. What I mean by that is that people learning about the spirit realm, no matter how they come at it, must be experiencing the same dimension; and by coming “back” with information and knowledge which is so similar that lends credence to the truth of what is out there: life on the other side of this earthly dimension.

Wesselman’s books add to that pattern. He comes at the exploration of the spirit realm from a place quite different than most of the authors I have been reading over the years. And yet his experiences fit quite nicely into the information I have been learning from other sources.

Hank Wesselman comes to the quest from the perspective of shamanism. Like many others I have read, his initial encounters with the mystical occurred unsought. After all, he is a scientist, a PhD in anthropology. He was among a fairly select group of scientists exploring the ancient beginnings of human life on this planet. He would spend weeks and months at a time in the African Great Rift Valley area searching for clues about life’s earliest years.

As with most people of scientific persuasion and training he was not in the least bit interested in the mystical areas of life. In fact, when he first began having experiences which he could not explain from his scientific world view, he knew that his fellow scientists would not accept one of their fellows delving into the weird! He was very hesitant about beginning to share these experiences with others, thinking it might mean the end of his career which he had spent many years and dollars achieving.

One foggy summer morning. . .I experienced a full-fledged altered state of consciousness just before dawn. This was a spontaneous event, achieved without the catalyst of any mind-altering substances or disciplined spiritual practice, and for its duration, my physical body was rendered paralyzed by ecstatic feelings of power or forces that were quite formidable. Yet my mind was fully awake and hyper-aware, and it was in this expanded state that I had a direct encounter with what a tribal person might call a spirit.

Nothing in my academic training as an anthropologist had prepared me for these experiences,and I responded to them with an intense curiosity. I was not one of those worthies who had spent decades studying at the knees of the wisdom masters, practicing meditation and  yoga, hoping for visions and transcendent experiences, nor was I a member of the psychedelic explorers club. In those days, I worshipped solely at the altar of science. (p xi,xii of Visionseeker)

To my mind, anyone coming at this with no previous intention lends credibility to their experience. A person like that has less preconceived notions of what to expect, what their experiences “should” be like, what patterns they should be following, how this fits with previous beliefs, etc.

These sudden, unexpected glimpses through the portal often change the whole direction of our lives, and as a result, we come to an inescapable conclusion–that the everyday world that we all take so much for granted is not at all what it appears to be on the surface. (p 291 of  Visionseeker)

So it was with great eagerness that I tackled these three books. In fact, I had to go to some lengths in acquiring them. My local library had only the first volume, and it only in ebook form. These books were published between 1995 and 2001, so they’ve been around for awhile, and are no longer readily available. But they are well worth the effort required to obtain them. Read them, by all means!!!

The three books Wesselman wrote detailing his shamanic experiences and the knowledge he received through them are: Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future; Medicinemaker: Mystic Encounters on the Shaman’s Path; and Visionseeker: Shared Wisdom from the Place of Refuge. These books are will written, very entertaining, real page turners. Which is surprising to find in books of this genre. I eagerly attacked each new chapter, wondering what would happen next, both in Hank Wesselman’s life, and in the future which he connected with.

Wesselman’s shamanic visions occurred spontaneously over a period of a number of years. During these “expanded states” he achieved contact with a being living in the future. Over a period of time, he learned through this contact that Nainoa, as he came to know him, was living approximately 5000 years in the future. Nainoa was living in an area approximately where San Francisco, California, is today. Ocean levels had risen significantly, so that there was a huge inland lake, or bay, where the current Sacramento/San Joaquin valleys are. Nainoa’s community lived a fairly “primitive” lifestyle. All present day technology seemed to have disappeared. His community was quite organized, living a farming and fishing existence.

This community of people had immigrated a couple centuries earlier from Hawaii. The language they spoke was a mixture of current Hawaiian, which Hank was somewhat familiar with, having himself lived in Hawaii for some years. Nainoa also knew some of the ancient “English” so that when they did establish communication abilities they were able to make themselves understood to each other. Plus, as has happened in other circumstances, communication in the spirit realm is often by intuition and thought, rather than through actual words.

In the first book, Spiritwalker, Nainoa is sent by his chief on a journey to explore the interior of the land, across the mountains to the east (what we call the Sierra Nevadas). He has quite the experiences crossing the mountains. Once he was mostly through them, he encounters a group living even more primitively than his own people. This cultural group calls themselves “Ennu” people. Their history, which comes down to them through oral culture, is that they are descendants of what I gathered are today’s Innuit people of northern Canada. They had gradually migrated south, into what is today’s Nevada. From their knowledge it would seem that much of North America was uninhabited in their day, aside from a few nomadic groups such as they themselves.

You have to realize, dear reader, that I am offering my own interpretation of the information Hank Wesselman was receiving through experiencing Nainoa’s journey. The author does not do a lot of interpreting himself. He does contemplate how our current civilization could have almost totally collapsed and disappeared. Nainoa does encounter a few remnants of today’s technology, but mostly our cities, roads and such have been totally overgrown. Nainoa’s community does have a very few relics that have survived, or been discovered. But just about all we know today has disappeared in the subsequent millennia. I did not pick up from the books that Wesselman ever learned how or when our modern society collapsed.

The way Hank Wesselman presents his stories is to alternate chapters detailing his current life as Hank with chapters where he encounters Nainoa’s world through Nainoa’s eyes. In the beginning he becomes aware that he is looking at this world through Nainoa’s eyes, but does not have direct contact with Nainoa. Nainoa, however, slowly becomes aware that someone, some other being than himself, is periodically residing in his consciousness.

Through these experiences, over several years, Wesselman and Nainoa gradually grow in their relationship and knowledge of each other. Eventually Nainoa is also able to access Hank’s consciousness and experience Hank’s world. And they are able to “converse” through exchanges of thought consciousness. This exchange of communication and subsequent knowledge of each other’s worlds, gives both of them huge insight into their own worlds.

They also discovered they were genetically connected. I, myself, suspect from what I have  learned from other modalities that they might have been the same soul-being incarnating in different times. At any rate, Nainoa begins to view Hank as his “ancestor”, and Hank views Nainoa as his “descendent”. There is one artifact which connects them; it is a unique rock Hank discovered during a stay in Hawaii, which evidently was handed down through the generations and ends up in Nainoa’s chief’s possession.

I won’t go into any more detail. There is so much to this fascinating story! I don’t want to spoil it any more than I already might have. Go discover it for yourself. You will not be disappointed!!!

I recently watched a couple movies based on true stories about mathematical geniuses making a huge difference in our world.

#1. Hidden Figures, tells the story of several black women in the 1960’s who were hired as “computers” by NASA. That is, these people were very good with numbers and could do calculations with amazing accuracy and speed. NASA engineers relied on them to solve problems which would take the engineers so long that it would use up valuable time. So they hired this group of women to do the somewhat mundane work of crunching the numbers and coming up with the final solutions.

One of the brightest of the human “computers”, Katherine Johnson, became recognized for her brilliance and her accuracy in solving complex scientific problem. John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, insisted that this woman’s calculations be used in planning his mission. There had been a disagreement between her figures and those of some of the lead engineers. As it turned out, her numbers were the correct ones, and Glenn successfully orbited and returned to earth.

Computing machines were in their infancy during this time frame, the early 1960’s. One of the women in this group, Dorothy Vaughan, became quite fascinated by computers and the language used by the machines. She taught herself computer language and would then sneak into the computer lab to run programs she was writing. She became so good at it that eventually, when she was “found out” she became a key component in the effort to place a U.S. man on the moon.

When I was in junior high, Grade Nine, I believe, I took a class titled, “Air Age Science”. In this class we learned about how accurate calculations needed to be for successful space launches. For example, we are talking about fractions of a degree for reentry angles. When watching this movie, I became completely impressed with how this was done by human “computers”. In today’s world, all these calculations would be quick and easy with modern computers. But in the early 1960’s, these computing machines were in extreme infancy; they couldn’t even come close to the computing power we today hold in our hands. These women were truly amazing.

Their story includes some significant turning points in the segregation of the time. For example, Katherine was asked at one point by the lead engineer, Al Harrison, (played by Kevin Costner) why she was gone from her desk for up to half an hour. Turns out, she had to run (in the high heels of the time) clear across the science complex in order to use the washroom. She would take papers with her so she could continue problem-solving while on these trips. When Al Harrison hears of this dilemma, he takes a sledge-banner to the segregated washroom signs!

In the “extras” section, after watching the movie, there is a story of Katherine Johnson’s subsequent life. A NASA building was named after her. This “extra” shows her in a wheelchair, in her 90’s, receiving the acclaim.

#2. The Imitation Game, tells the story of Alan Turing. This story takes place two or three decades prior to the Hidden Figures story. Again, it is based on the true-life experience of a mathematical genius. Turing was a “different” child. I think in today’s world he would be labelled autistic. His social skills were stiff and mechanical. But his brilliance with numbers was recognized early.

He was hired by the British military to work on a project trying to decipher the German code machines named “Enigma”. This work of course, had to be done under extreme secrecy. The Enigma code was considered unsolvable by all the top people in Britain, France and the U.S. Turing said, during his interview, (at least in the movie!) “Well, let me try, and then we’ll know for sure!” He was completely confident in his mathematical abilities.

When he came into the team working on the Enigma problem, he very shortly demanded more control over the working of this team. He immediately fired some of the members; and very quickly he asked for, and reluctantly received, 100,000 pounds with which to build a machine to solve the code. He successfully built this machine, with a number of episodes of near-defeat. The authorities wanted more immediate success and threatened to shut the project off several times. His commanding officer had to be prevailed upon to protect Turing’s work. And eventually they were successful, building a mechanical computing machine involving dozens of rotating discs.

But then they were faced with the dilemma of what to do with the information. If they immediately began thwarting German maneuvers the Germans would know they’d successfully solved Enigma. So they had to proceed carefully with the new-found information, including allowing some German successes. One powerful scene in the movie shows one such action, where a brother of one of the members of the Turing’s team was on a ship. The team had deciphered that u-boats were all heading toward that ship and would sink it. The information they had would have allowed the British military to out-maneuver the Germans and save this ship, which had many lives on board. But they did not relay the necessary intelligence to the higher-ups and the ship was sunk.

A complicating factor in the life of Alan Turing was that he was gay, in an age when homosexuality was a crime. Following the war, this information came out, and he was faced with the decision to either give up his computing machine or submit to 2 years of hormonal “therapy” to “cure” his homosexuality. He could not give up his machine, so submitted to the “therapy”. This destroyed his life; after one year of the hormones, he committed suicide. It was 1954; he was 41 years old.

His work, the machines he invented, became known for years as “Turing Machines”, before they were known as “computers”. He is considered by many to be the main force behind the invention of today’s modern computers.

Historians consider the work of Turing’s team to have shortened the war by at least two years, and to have saved tens of thousands of lives.

The British government, in 2009, apologized for the way Turing was treated in the 1950’s as a homosexual. In 2013 the Queen granted a pardon for his “crime”.

Because so much of the Enigma work was done in secret and highly classified, a lot of Turing’s contributions were not recognized until many years later. But today he is held in high regard for his contributions to today’s technology.

I highly recommend watching either one of these movies. Both are top-notch productions, and tell stories we all need to hear and remember.