Logic of Nonsense by David Randle (from the LOGICOFNONSENSE.COM website)

Logic of Nonsense
Neverland, Nonsense, the Afterlife, and Wisdom for Living
Published: November 5, 2013, 9:02 pm
Author: David Randle

The story of Peter Pan has long been described as a metaphor for childhood and immortality. The new ground breaking work Nonsense, by Dr. Raymond Moody, now shows that the story may also be a metaphor for understanding how nonsense is a key for creating new language and thinking re: the afterlife. Perhaps more important, understanding the afterlife may offer key wisdom for living today.

The J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, shared that Neverlands are found in the minds of children, and that though they always seemed to be more or less an island, and they have a similar resemblance, they are not exactly 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 (NDE), the descriptions are similar but not exactly the same.

Barrie further shares that Neverlands are small enough that exciting adventures are never far away and that a map of Neverland would parallel that of a child’s mind with no boundaries at all. This observation also seems to parallel the common NDE in that the place is small enough to navigate but the recall of one’s life and encounters has no boundaries at all.

Barrie further shares that time in Neverland is unclear. He mentions that there are many more suns and moons there than in our world making it difficult to track time. While Peter Pan is the icon of the boy who never grows up, Barrie shares that the children eventually do grow up and then have to leave Neverland. Barrie also shared that the fairies lived relatively short life spans. This is an interesting observation of NDE’s as well in that people who have these experiences all eventually have to leave.

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 your way in flight in dreams (death) til you wake up in the morning (make your passage to the new afterlife realm.)

Barrie describes as the flight as being assisted by fairies. The fairies are primarily the allies to the lost boys, the source of the fairy dust that powers their flight, and they act as guides for persons or parties traveling to Neverland. The fairies are also charged with collecting the abandoned or lost boys from the Mainland to Neverland. The lost boys are the ones who have fallen out of their prams or strollers and thus disconnected from their secure life as they have known it.

This also seems a good metaphor for the NDE’s where people report they leave their bodies in flight and are guided thorough a passage way to a new place, their own unique Neverland if you will.

Barrie says “when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces…..and that was the beginning of the fairies. Barrie goes on to say that the Neverland fairy can be killed by the vocalization of human disbelief. We also later in the story when Tinker Bell is poisoned by Captain Hook, that fairies can come back to life. This happens when both children and adults in both Neverland and the Mainland call out “I do believe in fairies”.

In other words, only when we allow our minds to give up that attachment to solely rationale thinking can we really begin to understand Neverland. To enter the story of Neverland and all its fun adventures, a child must first accept the nonsense directions of “second to the right and straight on til morning” coupled with some fairy assistance. Once the child can accept this nonsense, the way is cleared for the entire story to make rationale sense.

Raymond Moody’s brilliant observation that discussion of the afterlife requires a new language of nonsense to begin real understanding seems to work in much the same way.

Those who have studied the Buddhist sacred book the Bardo Thodol, commonly known as “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, realize that the book is just as much, and perhaps more so, a guide for living as it is for dying. Yet to read the book on the surface with its 49 days of instructions to most seem like nothing more than nonsense.

In his forward to the Evan Wentz translation Carl Jung states: “The Bardo Thödol [Tibetan Book of the Dead] began by being a closed book, and so it has remained, no matter what kind of commentaries may be written upon it. For it is a book that will only open itself to spiritual understanding, and this is a capacity which no man is born with, but which he can only acquire through special training and special experience. It is good that such to all intents and purposes useless books exist. They are meant for those queer folk who no longer set much store by the uses, aims, and meaning of present-day civilisation.” — Carl Jung

In the Christian tradition Jesus states in the Gospel of Matthew “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the realm of heaven.” – Matthew 18:3

Both Jung, and Jesus seem to be confirming Dr. Moody’s conclusions, namely it takes some new nonsensical awareness like that in Barrie’s novel Peter Pan to be able to intelligently converse on a subject like the afterlife.

Perhaps more importantly is the awareness that the ability to learn from the wisdom of nonsense maybe be a key to living more lovingly, peacefully, and sustainably on Earth.

In my doctoral dissertation project studying the health, wellness, and psychological profiles of prisoners in the county jail compared to four other groups, I observed two key differences of the prisoners in their psychological results for the other groups.

The Prisoners consistently scored lower on two sub-scales of the psychological test administered. They were the sub-scales of synergistic awareness and flexibility in the application of their values.

I became interested in what other groups scored low in these two personality traits and researched other groups with similar patterns. I learned that other groups that also scored low in these two sub-scales included: delinquents, psychiatric patients, psychopathic felons, alcoholics, drug addicts, and members of fundamentalist religions.

Synergistic awareness is the ability to see opposites in life as meaningfully related. For example a person with low synergistic awareness would not be able to understand how a person’s work could also be his or her play. It would be even more difficult for people with low synergistic awareness to understand how some people at times act in a way that may appear ruthless out of real kindness. There is certainly a need for a higher level of synergistic awareness to understand the ability to think in the nonsensical or metaphoric language of children. Yet, understanding that such nonsensical thinking might be necessary for beginning on a deeper level a rationale and scientific discussion of the afterlife.

Flexibility in the application of values is not with about whether our values tend to be traditional or conforming to the cultural, or whether they are more independent and self-actualized. It has more to do with how we apply whatever value system we have for the different situations that life presents. A good example of this is the person who told me that they would never participate in a Native American spiritual ceremony because they saw Native Americans foolish to be smoking tobacco as part of the ceremony. By allowing that one value to be so rigid this person lost the opportunity to learn and experience a whole new way of thinking and being that they could have learned and grown from. In the same way people who believe that their particular religious belief is the only way to think or act, limit themselves from ever discovering new insights, truths, and wisdom for living that their particular tradition may not offer. Furthermore this rigid form of applying values can lean to conflict and even war for what can become a dehumanized other.

When people score low in both synergistic awareness and flexibility in value application, they may be described as people with very black and white world views coupled with a very rigid way of responding to the inevitable conflict that their world view presents them.

Dr. Moody’s brilliant case for understanding wisdom and new language through nonsense is also a way to assist people in increasing their synergistic awareness and flexibility in applying their values to life situations. This in turn is a path for reducing war and conflict and moving toward a more loving and sustainable path.

Years ago my good friend and mentor Bob Samples published a book titled “The Metaphoric Mind”. The book makes the argument that we have become to overly dependent on the left brain and lost touch with the deeper more creative parts of ourselves. In the book Bob states: “For centuries astronomers have searched the heavens looking for light. When they stopped, then they discovered such phenomena as neutron stars and black holes in space. The Metaphor of light and darkness have for centuries been considered opposites, yet only a moment’s reflection will reveal they are so mutually interdependent that they are one. As a culture we often look for answers and write our rules merely on the basis of where there is more light.” — Bob Samples

Dr. Moody has now provided a roadmap to look and explore places beyond the rules. His work has given us tools to increase our synergistic awareness. He has helped open the new doors of nonsense so that we can obtain greater understanding and wisdom for living and loving ourselves, others, and the planet.

Citation
Randle, D. (2013). Neverland, Nonsense, the Afterlife, and Wisdom for Living. Retrieved from http://www.trunity.net/katiefoundation/view/article/51db2a7d0cf2b3d06e25977f

Rush – The Garden

A song about life in one of many possible worlds

Video: Tom Campbell and Bruce Lipton Talk About Life and the Cosmos

Time to Start Writing Again/Tom Campbell and his T.O.E.

I wrote a lot in this blog back in March and April. Then…life got in the way. You keep telling yourself “I’ll get back to it soon” but, like happens so many times, you just can’t quite get around to it. So now I feel inspired. Time to write.

The biggest thing that has happened to me spiritually the past six months has been discovering the work of Thomas Campbell. Tom wrote a trilogy called “My Big Toe (Theory of Everything)” and to say its been mind blowing would be an understatement. But…the more I read, and the more I watched his videos on You Tube, the more it all made sense. Not totally though. Still pretty out there, yet very interesting.

Tom Campbell is the real deal, meaning he isn’t some dude who did a lot of reasearch into other people’s work then wrote a book and called it his own. He was a NASA Physicist, and was an early pioneer into the research carried out at the Monroe Institute in Virginia. He is an honest man who only wishes to pass his knowlege to help other souls advance onward and upward. He has visited other dimensions. A lot. He has been to where we go when we die. He can astral travel at will. He can put himself in a meditative state instantly. He combines these experiences and more with his considerable knowledge (the man is absolutely brilliant…a true genious) to form a very comprehensive, sometimes hard to understand, sometimes truly mind blowing “theory of everything” that takes three large books to explain.

In short, Thomas Campbell sees this three dimensional world we live in much like a virtual reality. The people in the virtual reality are here playing characters, and a soul comes into this “video game” many times as many different “characters” in order to advance in the grand scheme of things. When someone dies, they are still very much alive in spirit, and the memory of their past life fades as if it were a dream. By the time they come back it’s all but forgotten. Kinda puts a whole new spin on and old nursery rhyme:

“Row row row your boat, gently down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream.”

What souls accomplished here will be important, as will be things they did to hamper their advancement And/or harm others. Everything is in the data bank, and the data bank can be accessed and used. But “good ‘ol Uncle Fred” you knew many years ago and who died many years ago is long gone. The soul who played the part of Uncle Fred is of course still alive and well, either back in this reality as another character or somewhere else. But what about when people have visions of loved ones who passed on long ago? Well that’s all a virtual reality also! Mind blowing to say the least. Or just plain nuts. I know a lot of people who would say the latter. I choose to be open minded. Maybe I’m crazy.

I don’t believe any one person has all the answers. I believe Tom Campbell is sincere and is passing on, the best he knows how, what he has experienced and learned. A lot of it makes perfect sense to me, and some of it I have a tough time with. What he does drive home is the fact that we are a very, very small part of the Universe, and there are likely many universes with many different dimensions. There is not only life on other planets and in other dimensions, there is a LOT of life out there. More than we could ever imagine. Again, we are just a tiny part of the whole. And what about God, or a higher power? Yes, he has a theory there too, although he does’t say just exactly what God is. Undelying everything though is love. Love. Love is the goal. Everything in this life should be done with and in a spirit of love. Love is the great Law. And this is the nicest thing about Tom’s work. He’s not trying to be a celebrity and he’s not trying to get into debates. He is doing what he’s doing out of love for his fellow people and he believes in what he is doing. And that’s pretty damn cool.

Forgiveness, Gratitude and Attitude

So Hard to Find In My Cosmic Mind

Forgiving someone of a wrong done against us, especially if that wrong has left scars, is not always the easiest thing in the world to do. Sometimes we can forgive freely and without much thought after the fact, but other times, because of emotional and/or physical harm done, forgiveness can in some cases be almost impossible. But, we must forgive. Forgiveness is not an option. It is absolutely essential to our well-being that we not carry grudges and emotional wounds around for long or they will wreak havoc in our lives in ways we generally do not think about.

Non-forgiveness causes resentment, and resentment is mental poison. Resentment causes anger, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and all the resulting physical conditions that go along with the bad feelings. Resentments over time can only do long-term damage to a persons psyche and physical well-being. So how do we forgive is we can’t forgive?

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Be Patient, the Answer Always Comes

In the past month, having been done with school and needing to find a good job, I’ve sent out more resumes than I could count. Resumes for this kind of job, for that kind of job, for anything. For jobs I’d had experience that should have qualified me, to jobs that my schooling should have helped with, to sales jobs. Nothing was happening. I was trying, but nothing was happening. All this time I was praying and meditating, as I usually do, for good things to happen, to be guided in all I do, and for God’s will to be done. I know through experience that God’s will is many times different from mine, yet it always seems to be better than anything I could have done or thought of myself. I have to admit though, I was getting impatient. Things on the home front were getting troublesome also. I can steer other people in the right direction but, as the saying goes, you can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink. All the prayer and meditation in the world can’t change the fact that I’m human and not the most patient person ever put on this planet.

Then….it happened. It always does.

A friend told me they’d seen that a healthcare company in Cincinnati was hiring for exactly what I was qualified for. I applied online, got called in, interviewed with two people I very much liked, and I got hired. This looks like the best job I’ve ever been hired into. Time will tell. All those resumes, letters, worrying, getting stressed over how much money was being spent and what was left, wondering if anyone would ever hire me, and right out of the blue a good job falls right into my lap. Why should I be surprised?

This is yet another case of God having the right thing waiting for me, but the timing had to be right. Certain events had to play out before this could happen. I see that now in retrospect, I couldn’t at the time. Just like that, I had the job I was looking for but never found myself, and wouldn’t have had my friend not seen it and told me. God (the Universe, whatever name you use, it’s all the same) made me sweat it out once again, but once again, my prayers were answered and answered in a way better than I ever could have expected.

It’s human nature, and especially my nature, to doubt and worry when things aren’t happening, but I can just hear that still small voice saying “I had you covered all along. Trust me.”

Good Vibrations

Most of us, regardless of our beliefs, either pray for other people or, as some say, send good vibes other people’s way. This can be when someone is ill, when they are facing tough times or an important decision, or if we just have someone’s general well being in mind. By doing this we are practicing the Golden Rule, showing God, the Universe. or whatever you call it, that we really do love and care for other people. After all, this is the number one reason we are here anyway. So just how do we pray for others?

Jesus taught the importance of faith and believing when we pray. Time and time again in the New Testament, he correctly taught that if we believe our prayer is already answered, our prayer will be answered, especially when we pray unselfishly. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or whatever, it’s the same God, the same Power at work when we pray. So, we pray believing.

Think about it. Let’s say a family member or friend is seriously ill. How effective is a prayer for that person if we are begging a far off, judgemental, moody God for this favor and wondering, if it’s His will, if our prayer will be answered. Maybe if He’s in an exceptionally good mood that day, and if we bargain enough and say we will do such and such if our request is granted, maybe He will listen. Is this really believing the person will be healed and our prayer answered, or are we hoping that some miracle might just happen if we’re really lucky? Do we pray thinking “I’ve been such a sinner and bad person that my prayer will never be answered” whether we are praying for others or ourselves? Do we think ourselves unworthy of having prayers answered, or do we pray knowing already that our prayer is in vain?  Is this what Jesus taught? Did Jesus teach that our prayers will have a better chance of being answered if we’ve given money to the church or followed the Catechism better than the next person, or only if we are in a certain state of grace? Is this the kind of God you want to believe in and rely on? Not me. No.

Try this: When praying for a physical healing for someone see that person as already healed. When praying for someone’s protection see a circle of Divine light surrounding that person. When praying for someone’s behavior to be better, or for someone to overcome a bad habit, see that person as they would be after they’ve been healed of whatever problem. When praying for anything for anyone, see the person and whatever you are praying for as if it has already happened. Have no doubt whatsoever that your prayer is answered.

The same applies, of course, when we ask for ourselves. The key here is that our prayer not be selfish. For instance, if we are praying for money or wealth, we pray with the intention that others, as well as ourselves, will benefit.  Again, we see ourselves as already having whatever it is we are praying for. This is following the teaching of the greatest teacher about God who ever lived, Jesus. He could not have said it any clearer, and he said it multiple times. Whatever you believe, it will be done unto you. This applies to specific prayer requests but it also applies to how we think all through the day every day. If we are constantly dwelling on our problems we will continue to have problems. If we constantly think about being well and happy we will be well and happy. If we think thoughts of wealth we will have wealth. This is a fundamental law of the Universe. It applies to the person in New York the same as it does the person in Madrid. It applies to the Christian the same as it applies to the Buddhist. God does not discriminate.

Whether praying for someone else, yourself, or whatever, always send out “good vibrations.” Wish good things for people, think good thoughts. Send out thoughts of peace and love and harmony. See prayers and wishes as already being fulfilled, and make sure your requests are non selfish and for the greater good of all involved. Do this consistently and you will learn that “according to your faith it is done.”

Why Did I Do That?

A woman is finally getting out of an abusive relationship that she tried, it seems, forever to make better but the pattern of arguments, abuse and making up never changed. On the surface, she wanted things to change but nothing worked. She swears that she will never be in an abusive relationship again, that next time she will meet Mr. Right and she will live happily ever after. Some months pass and she meets a man, a good man it seems. He has a good job, nice friends, is well thought of in the community. They get along well for a while as the relationship deepens, then…..one night after he has had a long day at work, she starts talking and out of nowhere, he has a temper tantrum. Later the tantrum becomes physical. This starts to become a pattern. The good times are still there but there are very bad times as well. But why? Why did she attract another abusive man? On the surface he seemed like anything but a man who would strike a woman, yet here she is in another abusive relationship.

An alcoholic man (or woman) has just been on a binge that has stretched into several days. He’s sick, depressed, out of money, and his family is heartbroken. He only went out for a couple of drinks one day when he was particularly stressed out. But, once he started drinking he couldn’t stop. He’s been through this same scenario many times. “I’ll only have a couple this time.” Yet, every time he goes out for just one or two drinks, he winds up on a disastrous binge that leaves destruction of all kinds in its wake. But why? Why can’t he just quit after a couple of drinks?

A housewife goes out shopping, with one thing to buy in mind. She needs a new dress for an upcoming dinner, She strolls down the mall looking at all the dresses in shop windows, but that’s not all she likes. She sees purses, jewelry, shoes, hats, and accessories of all kinds. She decides she has to have a new hat, a new coat, a new pair of shoes, some nice new jewelry, on top of the two new dresses she bought, in case she didn’t like the first choice. Our housewife, who is a dedicated, loving wife and mom, just spent a thousand bucks when she set out to spend maybe a hundred. Her husband looks in disbelief at the receipt and the items she bought, asking her why she needed all these things and how was he going to pay for it? The real problem is this is not an isolated incident. This has happened many times before. Our housewife, once she gets a credit card in hand and get out in the stores, cannot control her spending. But why is this?

In all these cases, and in countless others like them, somewhere along the way a pattern was established in the subconscious of these people, and once something is established in our unconscious mind, it will come to pass, no matter what our conscious resolve. Will power is no match for what is established in the subconscious. The only way to change the pattern is a complete reprogramming of the subconscious. This doesn’t happen (normally) in a hypnosis session or a religious revival or by getting on our knees and begging that the problem be taken away, or the pattern reversed. The good news is change, real change, can happen  when we understand the inner workings of the mind. Understanding, however, isn’t enough. We must take concrete action based on this knowledge we have.

Alcoholics Anonymous and other similar twelve step programs have a great formula for reprogramming the mind, but what they stress is one must believe “in a power greater than ourselves.” The founders of A.A. were friends and followers of Emmet Fox and a few other high minded people who knew how the mind, and this “power greater than ourselves” worked. First, you admit you have no control over whatever the situation is. Nest you believe that there is an answer if you will just believe in a Higher Power, and then you turn your life over to the care of “God as you understand Him.” Then come a series of action steps to make amends for wrongs committed while in the old way of life, and finally maintenance steps to ensure the person stays on track,grows, and eventually shares his/her knowledge and change in their lives with others having the same problems.

Many of the patterns we establish in our subconscious minds are made through no fault of our own. Most times we have no idea a pattern is being established. Once this pattern is dominant, if it’s a negative pattern, belief in a “Higher Power” is essential to recovery. The natural inclination of the subconscious, and likewise the nature of God, is always upward, always wanting and preserving life in it’s truest form. God’s nature is health, harmony, abundance, expression, growth, faith and, above all, love. Man, the Bible says, was made in God’s image. Therefore, the natural aim of the subconscious is the same as the nature of God. However, the subconscious is much like a garden. If we plant the right things, they will grow and flourish. If we plant weeds, we get weeds. At some point we have to dig out the weeds and start planting the right things, and, with nourishment, the newly planted seeds will grow into a beautiful landscape.

There are a number of ways to do this. Meditation, affirmations, scientific prayer, participation in a twelve step program, and saturating our minds with inspired writings by people who express the Truth. What Ernest Homes said is basically the same thing Joel Osteen says today. What Emmet Fox said is basically the same thing Wayne Dyer says today. Much of what Jesus taught is the same thing Joseph Murphy, Napoleon Hill, and Louise Hay have been teaching over the years. There is only one God. One Creator of all things, one Universal Source. Whatever you call God, there in only One and He (It) is the same everywhere. What heals you is the same power that healed the blind man Jesus encountered. Jesus taught the truth about God and told his followers that they could do all he did, and more. He taught that according to your faith it is done to you. Simple, universal truths. We all have that power within us, waiting for us to take action.

HWHB

HWHB.

Forgiveness, Gratitude and Attitude

Forgiving someone of a wrong done against us, especially if that wrong has left scars, is not always the easiest thing in the world to do. Sometimes we can forgive freely and without much thought after the fact, but other times, because of emotional and/or physical harm done, forgiveness can in some cases be almost impossible. But, we must forgive. Forgiveness is not an option. It is absolutely essential to our well-being that we not carry grudges and emotional wounds around for long or they will wreak havoc in our lives in ways we generally do not think about.

Non-forgiveness causes resentment, and resentment is mental poison. Resentment causes anger, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and all the resulting physical conditions that go along with the bad feelings. Resentments over time can only do long-term damage to a persons psyche and physical well-being. So how do we forgive is we can’t forgive?

We ask for help. The Creator of all is all about forgiveness and harmony. Now you may look around and see a whole lot of disharmony around you, but that is man-made. God doesn’t send people bad situations. We are plenty good enough at making them ourselves. But we must be willing to accept that help. Then we have to believe. Give God credit, either He can or He can’t. So just ask…be willing…and maybe forgiveness will find its way into your heart. We forgive others ultimately to help ourselves.

Another key player in the making of a beautiful life is gratitude. I cannot say it enough. Gratitude is essential. Real gratitude. In this world and life it’s very easy to forget just how blessed we are at times. Always give thanks for the basic necessities of life. Give thanks for good health and the well-being of friends and loved ones. And give thanks for what it is you are seeking. “What you are seeking is also seeking you.” To give thanks in advance for something we hope and pray for is an act of faith, and faith of course is “the evidence of things unseen.”

To greet any new day with a thankful heart and free from emotional bondage means that day has all the better chance to be a really good one. Attitude, it’s been said, is 90% of success. That’s just about right. It’s what you really believe, your ongoing attitude. A good attitude, combined with confidence, faith and true love of life will only make life better. We are only here for a relatively short time. To waste any of it away in bitterness, resentment, or loneliness is truly sad and not the will of God. God’s will is always upward, and for us to be free and happy.