Saturday, January 24, 2009

Mind/Body Separation

EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES Jan. 24, 2009
By Stephen Ellis

Nobody asked me, but…

I owe my readers an apology. As I said at the start of my last week’s blog, I was unfamiliar with the term “Reiki” until my daughter told me it was the modern word for faith or spiritual healing. It is not. Reiki is a means to relax away the tensions of life by allowing the life energy of the Reiki Therapist to flow through his/her hands into your body. It was started in 1922 by a Japanese man named Mikao Usui and made popular through his daughter Taketa.

While similar, it is definitely not the spiritual healing that has been used for thousands of years. Reiki does not profess to cure scoliosis, rattlesnake bites or inoperable tumors as does spiritual healing.

When we speak of “life energy” we are referring to the electromagnetic field that surrounds every human’s body. I call it the “aura”. Without an aura, a human is a vegetable. As I have said before, the brain is your body’s computer and your aura is at the keyboard. That’s why people with severe brain injuries, cerebral palsy, etc. can still think as clearly as someone with an uninjured brain. The brain (which controls body movement), if damaged, may inhibit your ability to perform the actions your aura would like to see you do, such as walking, talking, etc.

Speaking of the “aura”, we really don’t know too much about it other than that it is the source of life’s energy, that it surrounds our body and that, when we die, it does not. Some people refer to it as our immortal soul and some people call it our “mind”. But it is distinct enough that, clearly, it is separate from our body and can become detached from our body.

Ever hear of astral projection?

Astral projection is another one of those paranormal topics that, formerly, defied explanation. It’s when your mind and your body separate…or, if you prefer, your “aura” and your body separate. This is another one of those things that the skeptics call “impossible”. Yet, it’s been demonstrated and proven thousands of times. Here are a couple of examples:

A friend of mine, Joe W, needed some work done on his teeth. The dental surgeon gave him nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to knock him out while the dentist performed his surgery. While he was being worked on, Joe suddenly felt he was awake…and he felt himself rising towards the ceiling. He looked down and saw the dentist and his nurse below him….working on his mouth…and Joe was above them, looking down.

At first Joe said he was scared…he didn’t understand what was happening and even wondered if he had died. He listened to what the Dentist and his Nurse were saying. The feeling was so comfortable, Joe tried moving about on the ceiling and found he could direct where he wanted to go…so he floated up…through the ceiling…into another office on the floor above. He listened to a conversation that was taking place there, then went back into the room where he was being worked on. He decided to float around the dentist’s office and went through a couple of walls to a waiting room where he saw a woman and her son talking. Again he listened to their conversation. Then, Joe decided it was time to get back to his own body…and so he did.

The next thing Joe remembers is waking up in the recovery room.

Curiosity being what it is, Joe asked the Dentist and the Nurse about the conversation he had heard. The boy and his mother were still in the Dentist’s office, so he confirmed the conversation he had heard them having. Then, when completely recovered, Joe went up one floor to look at the office he had “visited”. It was precisely as he had seen it! Again, he confirmed the conversation he had heard. Joe later told me of the experience and said “I know that’s where I’m going when I die.”

Was it all a dream? Not likely. While under the influence of nitrous oxide, Joe could not possibly have heard the conversation going on in the waiting room, nor could he possibly have visited the office on the floor above.

So, how do we explain this in a rational manner?

If you accept the “aura theory” I keep talking about, no explanation is necessary. Somehow and under certain conditions, your aura can detach itself from your body. There are many people who claim to be able to do this, at will, and have subjected themselves to “scientific testing”:

In the presence of a group of physicians in New York working with a group of other physicians in San Francisco, the San Francisco group was to open an unnamed book and underline one word in that book. They agreed to leave the page with the underlined word open on a table in that room.

In NY, a man named Sasha K. who claimed to be able to astrally project “at will” put himself into an “astral” state. Several minutes later, Sasha opened his eyes and named the word correctly!

There is much more to this experiment: When Sasha had (ostensibly) separated from his body, the physicians began to examine him. Sasha’s physical bodily responses seemed quite normal although, even though the physicians did several things to try and elicit some sort of a vocal response from Sasha, they could not. It was as if Sasha’s body had become a vegetable…until his aura returned. And, when it returned, Sasha was normal again.

There are some other, extremely interesting aspects as to what happened to Sasha K. and Joe W.: Joe said he was able to see clearly and to hear clearly. Certainly Sasha had to be able to see clearly in order to identify the underscored word in San Francisco. But haven’t we learned that we see through our eyes and hear through our ears? The eyes and ears of both Joe and Sasha were either on an operating table or in a city 3,000 miles away from the selected word. How were they able to see and hear when outside of their bodies and far away from their eyes and ears?

The answer to that is that, somehow, the aura can see and can hear. This will tend to explain a déjà vu experience I had when I was still living in New York…and a lot more including communication with the dead. More about that in the next blog.

By the way, the groups of physicians in NY and SF refused to accept the experiment as proof of anything. They concluded that there must have been some conspiracy between one or more of the people in NY and SF because what they saw could not have possibly happened.

I will say it over and over again: If you do not believe something, no amount of proof will convince you. If you do believe something, no proof is necessary.

As I said, nobody asked me.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Reiki

EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES

By Stephen Ellis

LET’S TALK ABOUT REIKI

Nobody asked me, but…

“Reiki” is a term I didn’t know until my daughter explained that it’s the common term for “faith healing”. Most of my life we called it “faith healing”. Many doctors still call it pure “quackery”…that’s what I call most physicians.

What Reiki does is “cure” or “partially cure” illnesses, physical disabilities, mental disabilities, etc. on a non-medical level. It has to be taken seriously as there are thousands of documented records of curing such things as inoperable brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, scoliosis, paralysis, appendicitis, etc. Reiki is normally done by light or non-touching of the infirmed body by someone known as a Reiki therapist. It does not involve the use of drugs or surgery in any manner.

Reiki (or faith healing) has had a tremendous resurgence in the past twenty five years. Numerous physicians now have “certified” Reiki specialists associated with their medical practices.

But the popular explosion of Reiki is a problem!

Historically, almost all faith-healers were women. The faith healers were driven underground by the Spanish Inquisition and the Christian Crusades by deeming that all faith healers were disciples of the Devil and, therefore, guilty of “heresy” (denial of God). Those faith healers who continued to practice were often burned at the stake or tortured to death. Also the British all-male medical society was formed partially so that women would not be allowed to study medicine. This helped keep faith healing underground.

It began to re-emerge when Japan and China became recognized as current cultures and not antique cultures. Reiki was practiced and still is practiced openly in Asia. Then as some Westerners returned to Europe and the USA having undergone “miracle” cures in Asia, Reiki began to show its face in the Western world.

But, like anything that has grown too rapidly in popularity, Reiki has become a “fast-buck” enterprise completely permeated with fraud. Go on-line and you will see hundreds of so-called “schools” to learn Reiki who will, for a fee, certify you as a Reiki therapist.

Unfortunately, the truth about Reiki is that it cannot be taught like Psychology 101. Reiki requires very special people to administer it. Not people trained in Reiki, but people whose Auras are filled with empathetic powers. There are some people who can touch you and make an infirmity disappear. There are others who can be schooled until they have a PhD in Reiki who will still not be able to help anyone.

Personally, I knew a woman with an inoperable brain tumor who was given only a few months to live. She, on a last-ditch chance, traveled to Japan where she was treated with Reiki…a Reiki therapist who waved his hands over her head and repeated it daily for a month…until the tumor had completely healed.

Things like this do happen…and they happen far more often than our medical profession would like to acknowledge.

Is Reiki paranormal? You bet! Any time someone can be cured of a terminal illness by someone else waving their hands near the ill person…this is paranormal…and it fits, like a glove, with my earlier blogs on the human aura.

But before you abandon needed surgery and look-up your nearest Reiki Center, you should be aware that the success rate of Reiki Therapy is slightly less than 25%. Of course, if your physician has written you off as a corpse, you have nothing to lose. But I, emphatically, am not suggesting that Reiki is a cure-all. Each of us, however, should do some simple things to test whether our aura’s contain Reiki powers.

Let’s look at how it really works: Every aura or human spirit is composed of a myriad of experiences, knowledge and energy collected from a lot of previous lives while on Earth and maybe while living in another dimension. Some auras know the secrets of curing things medical science knows nothing about.

As I have explained on numerous other occasions, your brain is your personal computer. Your aura (or mind) is sitting at the keyboard. But it can only insert as much knowledge into your brain as your brain is capable of storing in its RAM.

If we could find a way to expand our brain’s RAM, we could be ten times as smart as we are now.

The beauty of Reiki is that your brain doesn’t have to understand how it works. Your aura will do all the work…if you let it…and, of course, if your aura is one that understands Reiki. By putting your hands close to someone else, your aura can pour out through your fingertips…and maybe help someone medical science cannot help. Sometimes it will work…and sometimes it won’t. There are some people whose knowledge gained from past lives can perform miracle cures that can flow from one person to another through their fingertips. Sometimes touching is necessary…sometimes even placing your hands close to another person is sufficient.

How do you know if your aura has Reiki powers? You’ll have to try it and see if it works. The next time your mate, your significant other…or someone who believes in you has a headache, try waving your hands around his/her head. It may do nothing. But then you may find that you’re a natural Reiki therapist…and this can easily change your life.

It’s not just waving your hands…it’s using as much concentration as you can muster. It may take several minutes…and if the illness is severe, it may take days or weeks or months…with a physician nearby.

If you’ve got Reiki power, volunteer your services to a nearby Reiki clinic. They will welcome you with open arms.

As I said…nobody asked me.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Paranormal - More About Past Lives

EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES

By Stephen Ellis

MORE ABOUT PAST LIVES

Nobody asked me, but…

A very interesting e-mail was received from a lady called “Silk”. It concerned her daughter who, when her daughter was far too young to understand what she was saying, her daughter talked about her “before” mommy”: a woman who had been her mommy many years before she was born to Silk. The very young child described where she was living, what life was like, etc…all before she was born. If you have any interest in “past lives” I strongly recommend you read the blog at

http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2009/01/2204-before-mommy.html

I have had some brief correspondence with “Silk” in the past. She impressed me as a completely honest person and an excellent writer. I do not believe anyone can read this blog without seriously questioning whether or not we have lived before…and will live again.

The concept of past lives is not a new one to my blog nor to my paranormal research.
A few months ago I wrote about a girl I hypnotized (she was about 17 years old at the time) at a party. Having been a recent reader of “The Search for Bridey Murphy” (detailed in another of my blogs), I thought I would try to regress her to a previous life. Hypnotists often regress their subjects back to their second or third birthday party and almost always get the names of the other children who attended, the presents they received, etc. Occasionally I would regress an older person back to their first grade in school and get them to talk about and describe their teacher and classmates. .As a hypnotist, I have always felt that these events are stored in our computer-like brains and that hypnosis helps to bring these memories forward. One of the amazing characteristics of doing this is how the subject’s voice raises in pitch and tries to emulate a child’s voice often having difficulty pronouncing words as a young child may do.

Prior to this party, however, I had never tried to regress someone’s memory to a time before they were born. I was a little apprehensive and a little excited to see what would happen. As I regressed her back into her mother’s womb, the girl immediately assumed a fetal position with her arms wrapped around her legs. Then, as I regressed her further, she changed her position to that of an adult and smiled. In a voice quite unlike the one she had been speaking in earlier, she started speaking French!

She not only started speaking French (which I recognize from the few French phrases I know and that unmistakable French accent), but spoke it with such rapidity and fluency as to be quite proficient in the language. Fortunately, there was a woman at the party who said she spoke French fluently, but when I asked her to translate what the girl was saying, the woman told me there were too many words she did not understand because they were in an archaic form. Words that may have been used hundreds of years ago, but were no longer in common usage.

I carefully brought the girl forward to the present day and awakened her. She did not know what I was talking about when I asked where she learned to speak French. She was still in high school and the language she had been studying in school was Spanish!. Neither of her parents were French, nor had she, or her parents, ever been to France or any French-speaking countries…and she had no French-speaking friends or relatives. The young man that had brought her to the party became very nervous and upset and took her home. Unfortunately, I was never able to contact her to repeat the experiment or delve further into the situation. I did try the same experiment on a couple of other people, but got absolutely nowhere.

Of course, there was the classical case of Bridey Murphy where, under hypnosis a 100%American young woman from Madison, Wisconsin suddenly became an old Irish woman describing, in detail, where she lived near Cork, Ireland; what her house was like in Ireland, who her husband was…and even of witnessing her own funeral. Of course, the woman had never been to Ireland. If you haven’t read my blog about Bridey Murphy, I suggest you do. I believe you will find it fascinating.

Past lives being revealed are not a new thing. There have been thousands of cases that appear to be strongly documented. I don’t mean to be repetitious, but there will never be…can never be…the kind of scientific proof concerning past lives that I would like to see. How does someone prove what a life was like a hundred or two hundred years ago? How does one prove what the furnishings in a home were like when the home was destroyed hundreds of years ago? How does one prove that the language a person is speaking is the correct version of a language that became obsolete hundreds of years ago?

Of course it is difficult to know how a child of three or four could know about having to go outside to the yard to pump water to bring back into the house…or how people spoke and dressed hundreds of years ago…or how it is that she had to go to the “waiting place” before she was selected to be re-born. I’ll grant you that some children are precocious, but I believe memories of this kind go far beyond just being precocious and are “cracks” in the walls between different dimensions that allow some things to slip through. As my own research has shown, these “cracks” usually close quickly.

If we read the original writings of Thomas Paine or Benjamin Franklin, we would have an extremely difficult time understanding it…language changes, meanings of words change. Situations and circumstances that may be referred to and gave certain words particular meanings have changed. It is not surprising when someone, in describing a past life, uses words and phrases we no longer understand.

As I have often said. If you do not believe something, no amount of proof will convince you. If you do believe something, no proof is necessary.

Explaining the “how” and “why” of past lives is one of the things I will go over many times in my blog. If any of my readers have had similar experiences, I will really appreciate you writing to me directly at stebre@aol.com.

As I said…nobody asked me.

Monday, January 5, 2009

More on Communicating With the Dead

EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES

By Stephen Ellis

MORE ABOUT COMMUNICATING WITH THE DEAD

Nobody asked me, but…

My last blog on communicating with the dead received an unexpectedly heavy response. One of the problems with the Blogspot site is that it is extremely difficult to make comments without first setting up a detailed history on who you are, why you want to make a comment, etc. I suggest and welcome comments sent directly to my e-mail address: stebrel@aol.com

Communicating with the dead is not easy. One of the biggest difficulties in communicating with dead people is that their “time” may be far different to them than it is to us. We live in a world where time is broken into seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. Everything we call “time” is based on the rotation and revolutions of the Earth.

But the time constraints of your aura (if any) may be far different: For example, if you lived on the planet Jupiter one day would take only ten hours (as measured here on Earth) and one year would take 5,652 Earth days. In fact, if you lived on any other planet or in any other dimension, time would be totally different than it is here on Earth. Being the egocentric people we are, we always tend to think of time as it relates to us. But, if you lived in another dimension or anywhere else in our universe, time, as measured here on Earth, would make no sense whatsoever.
The great Albert Einstein, in his Space-Time-Continuum theory, tried to explain to the world that time is relative to where and how you live:

Einstein explained that the speed of light, as measured here on Earth, is approximately 186,000 miles per second. But, if you were a single beam of light, it would seem to you that traveling from one end of our universe to the other would be instantaneous. It’s just that all the planets, galaxies, etc would seem to be moving faster; much the same as it might appear to us viewing the world of atoms through a microscope. It’s a little difficult to understand, but, according to Einstein, travel into the future is entirely possible, but returning to the past is not possible. So, if the aura of a dead person wanted take a peek at the future, it could do so…but it could never return to the present. I know it sounds complicated and it is difficult to explain, but time is relative to your surroundings and communicating with the aura of a dead person has to be done at times when you are both present at the same time. This may explain unusually long gaps in communicating with a deceased loved one.

I am reasonably confident that the dead do not wear wrist watches or care about when the sun rises or sets. Assuming Einstein was correct, and that travel to the future is possible, but returning to the past is not, it would actually explain some things about why there are only certain times when you can communicate with the dead.

Inasmuch as our auras are not physical things (although we can photograph them with infra-red film) they do, sometimes, appear as a living person. I have been told by numerous people that a dead loved one has appeared to them as a live person…and then disappeared. A ghost may want to stay around his/her loved ones for a period of time and stay in their thoughts and try to communicate with them. Sooner or later, that ghost, aura or immortal soul is going to want to discover new things and new places…perhaps even adopt another body to live again on Earth.

It becomes logical that attempts by deceased persons to communicate with the living will reduce over time, and that attempts of the living to communicate with the dead will become far more difficult once the dead person’s aura has moved into a different time frame.

I know it’s complicated and difficult to explain, but nobody ever said that communicating with the dead was “easy”. That’s one of the reasons I do not believe the showmen who claim to be able to communicate with the dead, at will. I also believe strongly that communicating with the dead is best immediately following someone’s death when the aura is still around their body or close to their loved ones. Some auras want to stay close to their loved ones for long periods of time, while others want to explore their new status and move one…and some want another shot at the physical life they experienced on Earth.

Let’s digress for a moment and look at the last possibility…finding another body to inhabit:

Have you ever noticed that someone (in a family) born right around the time someone else in the family dies seems to acquire and develop many of the characteristics of the person who died? It’s not uncommon. Of course, the newborn will not be able to recall the memories of the dead person because, when born, the brain is not developed…and no matter how much the aura remembers, it cannot feed a million gigabytes into a computer with a 64K capability. As the brain develops, more characteristics and memories will be accepted into it and blended with the circumstances of the new life’s surroundings and physical limitations.

I’m not suggesting that every aura opts to do this or that every aura wants to take another crack at life right away or even that every aura wants to remain in the same family or locale. Some may wait hundreds of years before doing this and some may prefer the ethereal existence to another life on Earth. I guess I won’t really know until it’s my turn.

It seems to me that ghosts are merely auras that may have become lost in the new time dimensions or, for some reason I do not understand, have become stuck in this time dimension and are unable to move on or inhabit a new body. I’ve never heard of a ghost hurting anyone (except in Stephen King novels) so it seems reasonable to accept that, although we can sometimes see and hear them, they are living in a different dimension that cannot harm us. It opens the doors to a lot of possibilities that I would like to explore.

At this time, however, I’m merely trying to explain why communicating with the dead is difficult.

As I said, nobody asked me.