The Amateur's Guide To Life

Trying to catch up on my reading these days. Two excellent articles I highly recommend.

Steve Volk, author of the outstanding book, "Fringeology" wrote a guest blog over at The Daily Grail about Carl Sagan and skepticism:

http://dailygrail.com/blogs/Steve-Volk/2011/7/Sagan-and-True-Fringe-ology-Part-II

It is, at least, possible. There could be something in the NDE that we can use, regardless of our beliefs about it. But that isn't a conversation we're close to having because we're so caught up in debating the source of the experience. This is, to some extent, understandable. After all, whether or not life continues past the point of physical death is of primary concern. But it seems to me that skeptics and believers might find more common ground with one another if we stopped focusing so much on the questions to which we lack the answers - a UFO, for instance, is by definition unidentified - and started regarding these mysteries as opportunities.

This same site also led me over to the always informative and entertaining Reality Sandwich web site which has an insightful review of Simon Powell's new book, "The Psilocybin Solution, The Role of Sacred Mushrooms in the Quest for Meaning".

http://www.realitysandwich.com/mushroom_gnosis

"Whether it be a vivid dream or an entheogenic vision, the normal perception of an object or a psychedelic perception, the underlying structure of such experiences can now be discerned. The common mediating factor is information, and the way that information is transmitted, organized, and substantiated by the neuronal firing activity of the brain. Information, the "currency" of the brain, emerges as the key concept in explaining the normal conscious mind, the entheogenic mind, and the dreaming mind."