New species discovered in 2013 (photos)

Wisdom Quarterly; LiveScience.com 

While 2013 may not have been the year that saw a Sasquatch shot dead (that happened in October of 2010) or a Chupacabras captured alive, the past year boasted a surprising number of newly-discovered species. From the adorable dwarf lemur (pictured) to the ghastly ghost shrimp of Catalina Island, California, a vast array of remarkable new animals and plants were found in both remote locations as well as more familiar locales (some near the LAX runway). For a look at 13 of the most breathtaking animal and plant discoveries of 2013, check out this gallery at LiveScience.

COMEDY: "Saturnalia" by Jimmy Dore (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; Jimmy Dore (jimmydorecomedy.com), Wikipedia edit

Greco-Roman: Ruins of Temple of Saturn (eight columns to the far right), with three columns from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus (left) and the Arch of Septimius Severus (center)

• AUDIO: The Jimmy Dore Show (12-27-13)
• True origins of Xmas: Pagan  "Saturnalia"  orgy

In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labor in a state of social egalitarianism. 

 

The sexual revelries of Saturnalia (held around the winter solstice and the famous date of Dec. 25th) were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age, not all of them desirable. The Greek equivalent was the Kronia, an Athenian festival held in honor of Cronus (Greek Kronos. More

 

In the most classic and well known version of Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos (Greek Κρόνος) -- not to be confused with Chronos (the personification of time) -- was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans (Buddhist asuras), divine (deva) descendants of Gaia (Mother Earth or Bhūmi), and Uranus, the sky (space). He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus. 

ZEN: Roshi Joan Halifax (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett (onbeing.org, 12-26-13), Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

"The craft of loving-kindness is the everyday face of wisdom and the ordinary hand of compassion. This wisdom face, this hand of mercy, is never realized alone but always with and through others." - Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

 

Joan Halifax on Compassion's Edge States and Caring Better

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the bad news and horrific pictures in the world. This is a form of empathy, Joan Halifax says, that works against us. The Zen abbess (Upaya.org) and medical anthropologist has bracing, nourishing thoughts on finding buoyancy rather than burnout -- or compassion fatigue -- in how we work, live, and care.

• Unedited interview: Joan Halifax
• Radio Show/Podcast (MP3, 51:06) 
• Learn More about the Show

(Library of Congress) Joan Halifax talks about empathy and compassion

on the part of caregivers who are tending to the ill and dying. 

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priestess, medical anthropologist, and author. She is founder, abbess, and head teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over 30 years and is director of the Project On Being with Dying. For the past 25 years, she has been active in environmental work.

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• Padmanadi vegan restaurant Edmonton, Alberta

The Bitter Buddha, comedian Eddie Pepitone

Wisdom Quarterly; John Rabe (Off-Ramp/SCPR.org), Eddie Pepitone

Budai AK-47 (Mr. Will Coles)

Most comics use the F-word in their live acts like it's an article. But when Eddie Pepitone [a regular on the Jimmy Dore Show] uses it, it comes from the heart, or maybe his ample gut [which is good luck to rub].

 

The 54-year old comedian and actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Beat, Now and Again), who lives in North Hollywood, California, is finally seeing a glimpse of the fame his friends and colleagues have wished for him for years.

• VIDEO: "The Bitter Buddha" (comedy)

He's a regular on the club circuit, gained fame through appearances on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, and is the star of the documentary "Eddie Pepitone: The Bitter Buddha," by Steven Feinartz, which is now out on DVD.

 

Ya gotta feed'em the right nuts for their teeth!

Host John Rabe sat on a blanket with him at his favorite park in North Hollywood where he meditates and feeds the squirrels with his wife Karen. "And we're a little pedantic to other people in the park," he says, "because we see them feeding squirrels things like bread and even peanuts, and we're like 'No, no, no! Walnuts are the best for them because the shell works their teeth.' So we've gotten this reputation for being the squirrel pains in the asses." More

• AUDIO: Listen to the episode now

Lipton: Science, Spirituality, Consciousness

Wisdom Quarterly; Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. (The Biology of Belief, Spontaneous Evolution)

(Bruce Lipton) Biology of Transformation - "The Field" 2013

What part of our genome will we turn on?

Dr. Bruce Lipton is an internationally recognized authority on bridging science and spirit. His groundbreaking book The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles documents the amazing new awareness that is currently rewriting the science of biology and medicine -- awareness that the mind's perception of the environment, not genes, controls life at the cellular level. 

(BruceLipton.com)

Dr. Lipton describes his own life as "radically transformed" because of his research: "Though I sought science as an alternate to accepting spiritual truths, lessons learned revealed that life was not an issue of science OR spirituality; it was an amalgam of science AND spirituality."

Through Dr. Lipton's research and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information. 

(LegaliseFreedom1) Science, Spirituality, Global Shift in Consciousness

Suppose Darwin and the DNA model have missed something vital... something so vital that it changes the whole idea of who you really are. Suppose we are not who we are told we are. Suppose we are not separate, surviving in a dog-eat-dog world of competition and struggle. Suppose also that the DNA model is incomplete. Our human birthright is more magnificent than we are told, than we could ever imagine -- and it's all there already in our genetic make-up.

Research shows that genes and DNA do NOT control our biology. Instead, DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. The new science of Epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of the link between mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our personal lives and the collective life of our species.

In Spontaneous Evolution, Dr. Lipton and political philosopher Steve Bhaerman reveal how our changing understanding of biology will help us navigate this turbulent period in our planet's history and how each of us can participate in the global shift.

DR. LIPTON began his scientific career as a cell biologist, received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia before joining the Dept. of Anatomy at the Univ. of Wisconsin's School of Medicine in 1973. Researched muscular dystrophy with studies employing cloned human stem cells, focused on the molecular mechanisms controlling cell behavior. His research at Stanford Univ.'s School of Medicine, between 1987 and 1992, revealed that the environment, operating through the membrane, controls behavior and physiology of the cell, turning genes on and off. These discoveries, which run counter to established scientific views that life is controlled by genes, presaged one of today's most important fields of study, the scientific of epigenetics, as found in his inspiring book, Biology of Belief.

• David Wilcock: Understanding Consciousness and Universe
• AUDIO: Graham Hancock: Supernaturals, Consciousness
• AUDIO: Peter Russell on the Origin of Consciousness
• More interviews at legalise-freedom.com

Tyler, 9, dad, and Sherpa scale tallest peak

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; KPCC FM (SCPR.org)

(BBC) No Sherpa means no success on mountain: The Sherpa's Story (2013 documentary)

Aconcagua (Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images) and Tyler Armstrong (Kevin Armstrong/AP)

  

Our hero Buddha Boy (dharmasangha.info)

A 9-year-old boy from Orange County has become the youngest person in recorded history to reach the summit of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, which is the tallest peak in the Western and Southern hemispheres.

Tyler Armstrong of Yorba Linda reached the summit on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24th) with his father Kevin and a Tibetan Buddhist Sherpa, Lhawang Dhondup, who has climbed Mt. Everest multiple times.

I challenge you to karate, Tyler!

"That really hit my heart because me and my dad [and my Sherpa] did it together," Tyler said. "Most 9-year-olds...usually play video games, so they don't expect a 9-year-old to climb a 22,841 foot mountain."

 

They were in fine spirits Friday as they left Aconcagua, whose sheer precipices and bitter cold have claimed more than 100 climbers' lives.

"You can really see the world's atmosphere up there. All the clouds are under you, and it's really cold," Tyler said, describing the summit to The Associated Press. "It doesn't look anything like a kid's drawing of a mountain. It's probably as big as a house at the summit, and then it's a sheer drop."

(Journeyman Pictures) Climbing Mt. Everest with Nepal's Sherpas

 

Palestine-Israel at peace

Only 30 percent of the 7,000 people who obtain permits to climb Aconcagua each year make the summit, said Nicolas Garcia, who handled their logistics from down below. No one under 14 is usually allowed, so the family had to persuade an Argentine judge that Tyler could safely accomplish the feat. In their case, they took the "Polish Glacier" route, which doesn't require climbing, and roped themselves together only when crossing steep ice-covered slopes.

 

"Any kid can really do this, all they have to do is try. And set their mind to the goal," said Tyler, who worked out twice a day for a year and a half to prepare for the climb. He also held fundraisers...

Aconcagua's previous record-holder was Matthew Moniz of Boulder, Colorado, who was 10 when he reached the summit in 2008.

7-y.o. Incan mummy (AcEx)

There was one younger boy who climbed the lower slopes of Aconcagua, Garcia noted: An Inca boy was sacrificed some 500 years ago at 16,400 feet on Piramide ("Pyramid"), one of the mountain's lower peaks. Scientific tests on the mummy, recovered in 1985, put his age at about 7.

Tyler had already climbed the 19,341-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the age of 8, and with Aconcagua conquered, is determined to reach all "seven summits," the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. More

• 60 years of epic (and deadly) climbs at Mt. Everest
• Present-day hikers find a 40-year-old letter and author
• Surviving K2, one of the deadliest mountains in the world
• Lorde's Asian boyfriend upends stereotypes: Net responds
• VIDEO: L.A. (NSA?) DUI checkpoints to use oral swab kits
• New Year's Eve 2013: cheap things to do without a club
• Rose Parade 2014 Guide: places to visit in Pasadena

Knowing and Seeing (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly translation "The Ship," Nava Sutta (SN 22.101)

The Buddha reclining into nirvana, Thailand flooding (framework.latimes.com)

  

SAVATTHI, ancient India - The Blessed One said, "O meditators, I tell you, the defilements (āsavas) end for one who knows and sees [who has wisdom and direct intuitive vision]. 

"For one who knows what, for one who sees what, is there the end of the defilements? 'Such is form [feeling, perception, formations, consciousness], such its origination, such its passing away.' It is for one who knows this, who sees this, that the defilements end.

 

"Even if a meditator -- failing to devote effort to development -- were to wish, 'O that my mind/heart might be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging!' still one's mind would not be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging. Why?

"It is due to a lack of development, it should be answered. A lack of development of what? It is due to a lack of developing the:

1. Four Foundations of Mindfulness
2. Four Right Efforts
3. Four Bases of Power
4. Five Controlling Faculties
5. Five Powers
6. Seven Factors for Enlightenment
7. Eight Factors of the Noble Path. [Collectively these 37 factors in seven groups are known as the "Requisites of Enlightenment" or bodhipakkhiya dhamma.]

I laid them; that should be enough.

"Suppose a hen has eight, ten, or 12 eggs. If she fails to cover them correctly, protect them correctly, incubate them correctly then, even if she were to wish, 'O that my chicks might break through the shells with their beaks and claws and hatch safely!' still it would not happen that those chicks would break through their shells and hatch safely. Why? 

"It is because the hen failed to covered them correctly, protect them correctly, incubate them correctly. In the same way, even if a meditator, failing to devote effort to development, were to wish, 'O that my heart/mind might be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging!' still one's mind/heart would not be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging. Why? 

"It is due to a lack of development, it should be answered. A lack of development of what? It is due to a lack of developing the [37 Requisites of Enlightenment].

Ship in a bottle in a storm like a castaway message (wallmay.net)

  

Success without wishing

"In just the same way, even if a meditator -- devoting effort to development -- were NOT to wish, 'O that my heart/mind might be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging!' — still one's mind/heart would be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging. Why?

"It is due to development, it should be answered. A development of what? It is due to development of the [37 Requisites of Enlightenment].

 

"Suppose a hen has eight, ten, or 12 eggs she covers correctly, protects correctly, incubates correctly. Even if she were not to wish, 'O that my chicks might break through their shells with their beaks and claws and hatch safely!' still those chicks will break through their shells and hatch safely. Why?

"It is because the hen has covered them, protected them, incubated them correctly.

"In the same way, even though a meditator -- devoting effort to development -- were not to wish, 'O that my heart/mind might be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging!' still one's mind/heart would be released from the defilements by abandoning clinging. Why?

"It is due to development, it should be answered. A development of what? The  [37 Requisites of Enlightenment].

  

Wearing away

The Buddha, Sukhothai, Thailand (ashabot/flickr)

"Just as when a carpenter or apprentice sees finger marks on worn into the handle of a tool but does not know exactly, 'Today my tool handle wore down this much, or yesterday wore down that much, or the day before yesterday wore down that much.' Nevertheless, the carpenter or apprentice knows it is worn down when it is worn down.

"In the same way, when a meditator dwells devoted to effort in development, one does not know, 'Today the defilements wore down this much, or yesterday wore down that much, or the day before yesterday wore down that much.' Nevertheless, one knows they are worn down when they are worn down.

 

Rotten ship crumbles and sinks (DM)

"Just as when an seafaring ship, rigged with sails and masts, after months on the water, is left on shore for the winter, its sails -- weathered by sun and wind, moistened by clouds during the rainy season -- easily rots and crumbles away. 

"In just the same way, when a meditator dwells devoted to development, one's defilements [bonds] easily rot and crumble way."

• Knowing and Seeing by Pa Auk Sayadaw The Three Trainings of virtuous conduct, concentration (absorption), and wisdom are the three stages of Buddhist practice. Through the practice of these Three Trainings an ordinary person can attain supreme nirvana and become a noble one. The Path of Purification, compiled by Ven. Buddhaghosa, is an exposition of the Three Trainings based on the Pali sutras and commentaries, which explains the Seven Stages of Purification and the 16 insight-knowledges.
• See "Discourse on All Defilements" (MN 2) Which defilements should be removed through vision? 17. "Monastics! What are the defilements that should be removed through vision? In the world the uninstructed worldlings not in the habit of seeing the noble [enlightened] ones, who is not proficient in the Dharma of the noble ones, and who is not trained and disciplined in the Dharma [and Vinaya] of the noble ones, who is not in the habit of seeing the virtuous [enlightened], who is not proficient in the Dharma of the virtuous, and who is not trained and disciplined in the Dharma of the virtuous, does not know the factors..."

Social Media: The First 2,000 Years (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Standage, Mitch Jeserich (KPFA), Frank Rose (NY Times, 11-1-13)

Through the ages: A Roman wax tablet and its 21st-century electronic descendant, the iPad.

The Romans had social media and tablets. The Victorians had an Internet. We are taught to believe it's novel, but it's the way things were before media got centralized. Technology has just returned us to where we were with everything potentially faster and cheaper.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve thought of “new media” as the brash young upstart and “old media” as the stalwart if increasingly embattled establishment. 

But what if new media aren’t as new as we assume -- and old media not really old at all?

 

Social media history (popscreen.com)

So argues Tom Standage in Writing on the Wall, a provocative book that asks us to look at media less in terms of technology -- digital or analog -- than in terms of the role they invite us to play. Are we passive receptors for whatever facts, opinions, and ad messages come our way? 

Or are we participants, sharing what we like with others, amending or commenting in the process? The second is characteristic of the Internet in general and social media in particular. But there’s nothing revolutionary about this, Standage says. 

Instead, it’s the role of consumer, so typical of 20th-­century mass media, that’s unnatural -- and to Standage, a historical blip. This observation has been made before, but never with such a wealth of information to back it up. Standage -- the digital editor at The Economist and the author of such unorthodox chronicles as... More

Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage. Illustrated. 278 pp. Bloomsbury.

• Letters and Politics, Dec. 26, 2013, 10:00 am
• PLAY AUDIO NOW (in own media player)
• Download this clip (MP3, 10.28 megabytes)

Buddhism in SWEDEN is growing fast!

Jaya (Buddhist Broadcasting Network, bbncommunity.com, 9-11-13); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

It is evident that Europe is changing very rapidly, economically and socially. Although these changes are widely discussed in the media, there are a few that attract very little attention.

 

The change in demography, in particular the growth of alternative religions, is one notable item. Sweden is no exception.

Due mainly to the arrival of Diasporas and the organic growth of Eastern traditions, such as Buddhism, many domestic people are paying attention. Buddhism is still relatively small in Sweden. But in recent years it has seen tremendous growth. It is trending, and estimates on new Buddhists are on an upward swing.

• Indigenous Buddhism in Kalmykia, Europe
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• Celtic Buddhism in Ireland

In April 2011 (the last year for which reliable data are available) it is estimated to have risen to around 35,000 to 40,000 or 0.38-0.43% of the Swedish population, making it the third largest religion after Christianity and Islam.

 

Most practitioners have Asian backgrounds from Thailand, China, and Vietnam. According to official reports in 2011, Buddhism is proportionally the fastest growing religion.

There are now several Buddhist temples in Sweden, including Stockholm (Theravada Thai and Sri Lankan), Borås, Eslöv, Gothenburg, Fredrika, and other parts of Sweden.

 

A BNN reader reports that a giant project in the northernmost part of Sweden is underway. It is supposed to be the biggest Buddhist center in Europe. It has now, however, had to scale back its plans to get clearance for its application to build. But once the project is completed, Sweden will have an enormous Buddhist center that can facilitate more followers.

 

 

Stockholm Buddhist Temple

The Stockholm Buddhist Vihara (monastic residence) is a Buddhist temple in the Theravada tradition. Like old centers in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and elsewhere, it was established by the Sinhalese community to continue an ancient tradition of spreading the Dharma or Dhamma. The center was built in Sweden in 1985 by the Sri Lanka-Sweden Buddhist Association (SIDA) in conjunction with the arrival of the first resident monastic in Stockholm. It is the first ever Buddhist temple formed in Scandinavia, and the members are mostly of Sri Lankan origin.

A Scandinavian home
SIDA came into being in 1983 as a result of the energetic efforts and dedication of ardent Buddhist devotees who gathered in Stockholm during the winter of 1982 to discuss the possibility of forming an association.

Their courage and determination resulted in establishing a temporary organization, which became permanent after a general meeting in March, 1983 at the SIDA Auditorium in Stockholm.
 
Once established in 1985 the Stockholm Buddhist Temple moved to several temporary locations until the monastics and devotees succeeded in acquiring a permanent building for the center in Jakobsberg in 1995.

Thai Temple in Gothenburg
In 2005 Mrs. Eh and her husband Stein donated five hectares in northern Rörum for a temple building. However, lack of municipal water and sanitation would have meant additional costs if it had been built there.
 
So in 2006, Mrs. Eh and her husband found a property, one owned by a Thai/Swedish family, was for sale. They jumped at the opportunity to create a temple in southern Sweden and decided to purchase the property.
 
The temple has been built by Theravada Thai Buddhists and their partners living in southern Sweden. They have received help from the monks of Wat Pa in Copenhagen under the direction of Abbot Phar Kru Somsak.

Theravada temple in Skåne Åstorpsvägen


Buddhism is not a law or set of dogmas. It is a direct path to enlightenment, something to be undertaken and verified for oneself. Since it is not a "religion" in our Western sense, one need not abandon any faith or creed to practice.

It is often spoken of as an Eastern philosophy or a way of life, says the Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Assati. All are welcome here to meditate, not only Buddhists. When the temple at Railway Road 13 in Åstorpsvägen was recently inaugurated, about 100 people attended. Most were Sri Lankan Buddhists from southern Sweden who previously had to travel to Stockholm or Copenhagen, where there are already Buddhist temples.
 
"Some attendees were not Buddhists," says Mr. Nandi Dei Zylva, Chairman of Standing Behind the Temple, a Sri Lankan Buddhist cultural association in Skaane. "My wife, for example, is a Christian."

"We’re neighbors with Björnekulla Church, and the pastor and his family came here," continues Mr. Dei Zylva. "They were very friendly and accommodating and said that our visitors were free to use their parking [lot]."



The temple in Åstorpsvägen was financed by members and is a Sri Lankan Buddhist temple, unlike the Bjuv, which is Vietnamese. Bhikkhu Assati explains the difference:
 
"Buddhism, which originated in Nepal and India, has two branches -- ours called Theravada ["Teaching of the Buddha's elder enlightened disciples"] and the Bjuv called Mahayana ["Great Vehicle"]. Theravada is more conservative than the Mahayana. It is much like the difference between Catholicism [which is like universalist Mahayana] and [back to basics] Protestantism."

• [A more apt comparison might be Sufism to Islam or Judaism to Christianity because both are related but one is a popularization and is ten times larger.]

"Regardless of the difference, we have a good working relationship with the temple in Bjuv," adds Mr. Dei Zylva. "Before we got our own [Theravada] temple, we went there often."
 
The temple’s representatives wish many Åstorpsbors will come to visit and meditate. They welcome all who feel the need to replace their daily stress with a moment of contemplative rest.
 


In addition to the Bjuv Buddhist temple of Sweden, there is a Vietnamese temple in Katrineholm.

Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Posadas, New Year...

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The best place to be for the holidays is Pasadena (or NY, maybe Boston, or SF) -- New Year's Rose Parade, Rose Bowl, Shambhala Meditation Center, Norton Simon's permanent Buddhist collection, Pacific Asia Museum, and more eateries than patrons.

  

The Berry Princess, bestest hostess

Won't it be great when we all celebrate Kwanzaa and speak Esperanto? What could be greater than the conformity conservatives crave?

Diversity is greater, and it should be celebrated! Ever meditate on Bodhi Day with Budai smiling from the altar, walk a Mexican Posadas, shop on High Street for Boxing Day, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_day, wonder why there's a line at sleazy KFC in Little Tokyo, sing in a Swedish Lucia Pageant, eat a 12 course Chinese vegetarian temple food meal off a Lazy Susan...

Driving in L.A., our ZombieLand, is tough.

...sing rap songs in the OC for Cali Xmas, give nahas to the Cohens, worry about Polish Krampus and his elfish assistant Black Pete (Zwarte Piet), dance to techno under candy cane lights, and race to the base of reusable tree in search of gift card? That's what the Holiday Season is all about in modern America. 

If we don't have diversity, we don't have anything. Actually, we've always been diversity, we just haven't celebrated it with as much gusto as we do now.

• The Victorian Age Internet (Tom Standage)
• Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.
• Pioneering British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of gross indecency for homosexual activity, is granted a posthumous royal pardon.
• After the pardoning of businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an amnesty law in Russia leads to the release of thousands of prisoners, including two members of Pussy Riot, and the dropping of charges against participants in a Greenpeace protest.
• ESA's Gaia space observatory is launched to compile a catalogue of astronomical objects.

Dr. Moody: Everyone will believe in rebirth

Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Raymond Moody, M.D., David Randle (LogicOfNonsense.com)

Everyone's "island" is different. So be an island (dipa) unto yourself! (SN 22:43)

 
Near death experience (NDE) researcher Dr. Moody, M.D. has been studying and documenting the reality of rebirth, post mortem consciousness, and the existence of other dimensions. On Jan. 17-18, 2014 he is conducting a seminar and claimed on Coast to Coast that he will reveal a bombshell breakthrough in the scientific study of future and past lives. 

Neverland, Nonsense, Afterlife, Living Wisely

The story of Peter Pan has long been described as a metaphor for childhood and immortality.

Dr. Moody's new and groundbreaking work Nonsense (following Life After Life) shows that Peter Pan's story may also be a metaphor for understanding how nonsense can be a key to creating new language and thinking regarding the afterlife.

Understanding the afterlife offers us wisdom for living now. J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, shared that Neverlands are found in the minds of children. Although they always seem to be more or less an island resembling one another, they are not the same from one child to the next.

For example, John Darling “had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it,” while his little brother Michael “had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.”  Like Dr. Moody describes in his research on Near Death Experiences... More

  

The Power of Nonsense

Beauty and the bullet, Mona mad for the MIC?

"Nonsense wakes up the brain cells," according to Dr. Seuss. Science has brought humanity a long way during the last 400 years. We have cured [or at least developed profitable "treatments" for] innumerable diseases, mastered human flight, split the atom, and sent humans to the moon. So why do so many of our deepest mysteries remain beyond the reach of reason?

I have discovered a hidden collective cognitive flaw that impairs our ability to think cogently about some very fundamental problems of science, philosophy, and religion.

I am a psychiatrist and professor of philosophy and logic. During my almost 50-year career, I have examined a glitch that is practically built into the way we think. When Aristotle codified logic [for the Western world, having borrowed so much from India] 2,300 years ago, he left a gap, an area of incompleteness that compromises our ability to think rationally about important questions that do not fit easily into the literal frame of... More 

Neverland 
So how does one get to Neverland? Walt Disney popularized the directions to Neverland by giving the nonsensical directions, “Second star to right, straight on til morning.”  In the novel, however, Barrie said the directions were “second to right, straight on til morning.”

This is a great metaphor both for both entering the dream world and dying. One second to the right is the difference between being awake (alive) and being on our way in flight in dreams (death) until we wake up in the morning (make our passage to the new afterlife realm).

  

THE SEMINAR

Prof. Moody is a medical doctor and author

The program will guide participants through a process that awakens an important but forgotten power of the mind. The purpose is to enhance critical, analytical, and creative thinking in a rapid, observable way with three main objectives:

1. Increase critical thinking skills. Democracy depends on citizens' ability to think and debate logically. So this program teaches participants how to think more logically with entertaining exercises that enhance critical thinking skills.
2. Open new possibilities for advances in numerous fields including science, psychology, and advertising. There are direct applications in many fields, widening the scope of the mind in a way that is useful in any profession.
3. To enable us to study mystical states of consciousness including near-death experiences in an entirely new way. A study is in progress using the information in this program to understand the language of dying patients in more depth, which will help improve our care of the terminally ill. More