Distinguished Thinkers

[poliphilo]

The Daily Mail has asked a collection of "distinguished thinkers"- including A.C. Grayling- a man whose hair is even sillier than Donald Trump's (sorry but I couldn't resist the cheap shot) to give us their thoughts on Life after Death- and not one of them so much as glances at the evidence for survival- which annoys me no end. The evidence is copious and comes from multiple sources- from the spiritualists, the parapsychologists, from people who have had NDEs, from visionaries like Swedenborg, from channelers and so on. Surely if your distinguished thinking is going to be anything but superficial you might want to look at the literature of the subject- even if only to debunk and dismiss it?

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Hey! The Donald's hair is yuuuuge, and classy! And it's going to make America great again!

I can only imagine what our short-fingered vulgarian looks like from a distance.

It is weirdly dismissive that they wouldn't so much as nod in the direction of life after death. I used to fear oblivion. Now, I just sort of long for it, fearing that it might not come.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Our culture has resolutely set its face against lending the case for survival any credibility. Conan Doyle was complaining about the same thing 100 years ago. He was saying, "Look, we've got some of the top scientists of the age on our side- men like Crookes and Myers- and you won't even consider what they have to say."

I could deal with oblivion (well, I'd have to wouldn't I?) I just don't believe it's what's on offer.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

There's a guy called Brian Josephson who's a respected physicist who is definitely sceptical about the sceptics - he gets mocked and dismissed a lot but he seems to be talking sense.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Also, hello A N Wilson banging on about selfishness? That insufferable adulterous prig never did a selfless act in his life. He needs to shut his cakehole.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a new name to me. I must look him up.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

His snooty moralising is terribly unattractive.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Crookes was an interesting fellow. I was told he was one of the very few scientists who impressed Tesla, who apparently knew and was also impressed by Swami Vivekananda.

I met my twin, years ago. Strangest thing. His girlfriend had been trying to get us together and being so alike we'd both drug our feet. When she introduced us, we smiled, shook hands, sat down across from each other and began a spirited, thoughtful conversation. But it never felt like a beginning at all. Had one of us just returned with a fresh round of drinks, I can't imagine it being or feeling any different.

We talked for about eleven hours, that first time. When he returned to Germany, a couple of weeks later, I grieved. He even smoked the same cigarettes as I'd done and, the day he left, I started smoking again after over two years without.

I know about large numbers and all, how given enough people the odds that two are nearly identical converges to 100%. He didn't look much like me, but otherwise we were so identical, and so profoundly compatible, that it's haunted me ever since.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's strange- and I really don't know what to make of it. I know that birth twins often have an extraordinary connection- so that if you kick one the other limps- but
people who don't share genes but have that sort of link is something else.

How did you first contact this guy? What first made you think you were "twins"?

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

It was his girlfriend. She and my ex-wife were microbiologists in the same genetics lab at Stanford Medical, so we'd met. Since first spending time with me, Elisa had talked about how much her beau and I were alike. She kept pestering my wife about it, saying she couldn't wait to just put us in the same room together to see what might happen.

I call him my "twin" because I just don't have a better word for it. I've never felt such a strong connection to anyone in my life. It was instantaneous and effortless. In the throws of a crush, or the like, you can feel yourself distorting, turning inside out, if that makes any sense. There was none of that. I was just myself and he was just himself. The fact that both of us, if left to our own devices, would prefer to be social hermits just added another layer of oddity to an already odd situation.

Most of my life has been spent in pursuit of the uncanny, with no small success on occasion. My encounter with Hemmy still ranks as one of the strangest things I've experienced.