Books

August

Metanoia
I just bought a book about Louise Brooks, a fairly notorious 1920s - 1930s Flapper. Going to give it to myself for my upcoming birthday. w18

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Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985), known professionally as Louise Brooks, was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as a Jazz Age icon and as a flapper sex symbol due to her bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.
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Toroid

Founding Member
I just bought a book about Louise Brooks, a fairly notorious 1920s - 1930s Flapper. Going to give it to myself for my upcoming birthday. w18

Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985), known professionally as Louise Brooks, was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as a Jazz Age icon and as a flapper sex symbol due to her bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.
I hope you still like it when you give it to yourself. Could the gift damage the relationship you have with yourself? You could always regift it to someone else. :ohmy8:
 

August

Metanoia
I hope you still like it when you give it to yourself. Could the gift damage the relationship you have with yourself? You could always regift it to someone else. :ohmy8:

Not likely that it is going to do that to me I am enamored with that time period and the people who lived it , who knows maybe I was one of them , you never know . :)
 
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Non smoking gun

Honorable
Exempt from Disclosure, Robert M. Collins with Richard C. Doty
2nd Edition 2008
Robert Collins, a retired Air Force Intelligence Officer with the Foreign Technology Division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base gives a very detailed overview of the entire history of the UFO phenomenon from the mid 1940’s to the present based on the revelations of a number of individuals earlier associated with an informal study group known as the ‘Aviary’. The Aviary was a group of former and serving officials, scientists, military personnel and television producers from a number of military services and corporations that began meeting in 1986 to discuss the UFO phenomenon. The Aviary attempted to piece together the most credible available information on the UFO phenomenon into a coherent pattern.
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August

Metanoia
Bought this one for $20 at the markets this morning . On Ebay $235 , hard to find long out of print. Magnificent book covering Egypt from Pre Dynastic to Greco Roman period and beyond.

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Toroid

Founding Member
I just finished Mandala by Jose and Miriam Arguelles. It was published in 1972 and I would give it a 8.4/10. It was very esoteric.

P23. The mandala is fundamentally a visual construct which is easily grasped by the eye. Vedas is a Sanskrit term that relates to vision & wisdom.

P44. Each man is a cosmic unit and that the society in which he lives is a reflection of a map of the cosmos. The magic of the mandala is derived from its attunement to the creative forces. Through the mandala man lives as a cosmic citizen. The process of history is itself is a mandala.

P67. In kabalistic tradition 28 is the number of the whole man which is 1+2+3+4+5+6+7. There’s a pyramid rendering comprised of 28 circles/dots.
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
So Anyway, John Cleese
What produced such a funny man? He comes across not so much as angry but rather frank and compassionate and tells some interesting stories. His old teacher had gone to Oxford hoping to become a scholar and was thrilled to discover one of his tutors was to be a famous philosopher, R G Collingwood.
Hoping to make a good impression, he researched an insightful and original question for their first meeting. Apparently, without pausing, Collingwood told him (without looking round) that if he would go to the bookcase behind him and from the second shelf up, take the sixth book from the left, the one with the red cover, and then turn to page 134, the fourth paragraph would answer his question. It did.
 

wwkirk

Divine
For those who like audiobooks, Audible has released it's first non-fiction Jacques Vallee book, Dimensions, first published in print in 1988.

In DIMENSIONS, the first volume of a trilogy, Dr. Jacques Vallee reexamines the historical record that led to the modern UFO phenomenon and to the belief in alien contact. He then tackles the enigma of abduction reports, which come from various times and various countries, as well as the psychic and spiritual components of the contact experience. In the last portion of the book, he notes the factors that inhibit research into the phenomenon--the triple coverup and political motivations--and concludes that the extraterrestrial theory is simply not strange enough to explain the facts.
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dr wu

Noble
I recommend Dr Vallee's trilogy.....Dimensions, Confrontations , and Revelations.
They are all excellent.
For a look into the weirder side of the ufo area try Messengers of Deception.
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
Near Death in the ICU by Laurin Bellg

A doctor dying recounted how he had died before:
His next conscious memory was that of floating above his body in the
operating room, watching as blood rushed in and pooled in the crevices of his
open abdomen as quickly as they could clear it away. He knew all of the doctors
and nurses as friends and colleagues and he found it incredibly strange to be
watching them in such a detached manner as they fought intensely to save him.
“I can’t find the damn bleeder!” he heard the surgeon say in frustration.“Keep the blood coming. If you can’t get it fast enough, then I want plasma.
Now!” The surgeon’s panic was only barely veiled by his intense determination
not to lose this battle.
Dr. John heard it all; he saw it all. He was astonished at how aware he was as
he looked on. Then a sound distracted him and his attention was drawn to the
slowing of his heartbeat on the monitor near his head. At the same time, he felt
himself drifting farther away from the drama of his surgery. The last thing he
recalled of that scene was the surgeon cursing and yelling out that they were
losing him – and his own solitary thought: “I must be dying.”
His next awareness found him completely and peacefully enveloped in what
he could only describe as a soft shroud of mist with tiny points of light blinking
in and out, as they darted quickly back and forth all around him. He felt
completely weightless and peaceful, void of any fear. The feeling of love was
immense, almost unbearable, and recalling it now, Dr. John’s voice became
fragile as he paused to fight back tears.
Regaining his composure, after a few moments he continued. He described
floating in such a beautiful and bright place of total peace that he lost all
thoughts and concerns related to anything connected to his physical existence.
He was aware of nothing except how good it felt to be there where he was –
wherever that was. How long he lingered in this space he could not say because
time had immediately lost meaning for him.
Suddenly, though, he heard a very distinct voice say gently but firmly, “You
can’t stay, John. It’s not your time to die.” Whether the voice was male or
female he couldn’t determine, but it was commanding and he did not protest its
directive. Instinctively, he knew it would be pointless to argue.
Still feeling peaceful and detached, he felt himself descending and slowly his
body came back into view as the mist surrounding him dissipated and he could
once more hear the clamor and tension of the operating room. Hovering above
the scene, he watched the weak representation of his pulse on the monitor
slowly gain strength as the resuscitation efforts of the surgical team reclaimed
their hold on Dr. John’s physical body.
“Thank God,” he heard the surgeon whisper to himself as he stepped back
and let an attendant wipe sweat from his brow. He seemed relieved and
exhausted.
A patient refused an operation as he had watched the previous one
Laying out the details of his new diagnosis and what needed to be done, I
was pretty straightforward. I explained how it was likely an unfortunate
combination of calcified arteries and scar tissue from his previous surgery during
the Korean War some forty-plus years earlier. Turning down the corners of his
mouth, he nodded knowingly. I doubted, though, that there was any way he
could know. It seemed more of a gesture of processing the information than truly
understanding it. He remained quiet.
“You’ll need abdominal surgery to fix the problem,” I went on, then added,
probably a bit too cheerfully, “but I have the best team available lined up for
you.” Tapping his fist in a light rhythm on the bed, he continued nodding his
head slowly, his frown deepening. Then shifting his head and his mood, he
suddenly stared at me with narrowed eyes. If I was reading him correctly, his
gaze contained a look of barely concealed fear.
“Doc, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I won’t be having
surgery,” Samuel said. He then lowered his head and began fingering the folds
of his blanket nervously, avoiding further eye contact with me. This was so
different from the man I had met earlier. All the eloquence of his conversational
style that had charmed me that morning was gone, replaced by a voice that was
tremulous and soft. He was shutting me out. He was afraid.
“I understand that this is different from what we thought was going on
initially, Samuel,” I said, leaning into him and speaking softly. “But if you don’t
have this surgery, you’ll likely die.” He shook his head no.
“Why, Samuel?” I pleaded. “Can you help me understand why you won’t
have surgery?”
He took a deep, sucking breath, and jabbing the bed with his finger for
emphasis, still looking down, he told me: “I will never have surgery again.” His
voice started to crack. “Because the last time they did that to me, I saw
everything! I saw them open me up and cut inside my belly. I tried to scream.”
With the sudden appearance of tears, his voice fell to a whisper. “I tried to tellthem I wasn’t asleep – but they wouldn’t listen to me. They just kept right on
cutting. Right on cutting.” I was stunned. Shocked and horrified by what Samuel
had just shared with me, I didn’t know what to say, so for a while we sat in
silence and I said nothing.
Finally, afraid to ask but wanting to know, I inquired, “Did you feel any
pain?”
“No, I didn’t feel pain, but I could see my guts all laid out. I could see what
they were doing when I looked down and it freaked me out!”
He was clearly distressed, but I was confused. I knew that under general
anesthesia he should not have been conscious for the procedure, let alone able
to feel it. I had heard of rare cases where patients appeared to be unconscious
during surgery and later reported feeling pain, but Samuel had seen his surgery
in detail and felt nothing. I also knew there would have been a drape extending
up from the sterile surgical field separating his head and upper chest from the
abdomen where they were working, preventing him from being able to see what
the surgeons were doing, even if he had been awake.
Finally, I spoke. “I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been.”
Not knowing how to respond exactly, I did my best to reassure him – but at the
same time, I was stumped. In that moment, words failing me, I reached out and
took his hand, gave it a gentle squeeze and then released it. We sat in silence.
Both of us were absorbed in that moment for different reasons – Samuel
unexpectedly reliving his trauma, me trying to sort it all out – when my pager
suddenly rang out, startling us both.
 

Rikki

High Priestess
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Could everyone on Titanic been saved? what 2 ships were most responsible for the loss of life? was Captain smith speeding? What role did Ismay have in the sinking?
My husband got this book for his Titanic collection and I fell in love with it!
Blessed be
Rikki
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
Near Death in the ICU by Laurin Bellg
Thanks - a topic I'm very interested in. Just got the Kindle and will have a look.
A question I'd like to ask experiencers is how sensorially similar these events are to their normal perceptions. A relative (now passed) described it as looking down at himself on the operating table, listening to events and being annoyed when he had to return to his body.
It sounded identical to normal perception, but how so with no 'apparatus'?
I find the similarity to our normal perception quite strange.

Do people who are say deaf or blind also experience sound and sight?
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Near Death in the ICU by Laurin Bellg

A question I'd like to ask experiencers is how sensorially similar these events are to their normal perceptions. A relative (now passed) described it as looking down at himself on the operating table, listening to events and being annoyed when he had to return to his body.
It sounded identical to normal perception, but how so with no 'apparatus'?
I find the similarity to our normal perception quite strange.

Do people who are say deaf or blind also experience sound and sight?

This topic probably rates it's own thread. I had some insomnia so I started reading Bellg's book and must say that two anecdotes in and she writes well, explains herself with complete clarity and is believable. Zero woo-woo, no chatter about vibrational energies or levels or any of that. So far I prefer it to other similar books I've read. She's just relating the accounts and dos it well.

Purely from my disjointed memory I'd say that the majority of experiences themselves are perceived as extraordinary at the time and the reports often speak of vastly enhanced perceptions, including from people who have lost various senses. Or never had them. How anyone winkles all that out I don't understand. Something I never thought about.

I recently had a long talk with a shrink. Not from anyone's urging mind you ....... a friend :) She worked in two of NYC's major cancer hospitals and treated dying people for over twenty years. This woman is a coldly practical clinician, but when asked had no problem kicking back and telling me what she really thought. In her experience it's common for those near death to interact with others that only they can see - my own mother did that to me. Also common for those nearby to experience some sensation, a flash of light for example.

I've had a couple of surgeries that took time. I remember nothing. But if I were the man in the second anecdote - the vet who died rather than have a treatable bowel problem fixed - who actually saw the repair of his combat wounds and thought he was not properly anesthetized at the time I can't say as I blame him. That would freak me out too, although he didn't feel any pain at the time. The author said she dug up the paper records that still existed in his VA file including those of the anesthesiologist and as far as anyone present could tell he was out like a light and in no pain at all. Generally speaking we like to dismiss these things but damn, the man certainly had the courage of his conviction. Something profound happened to him. If it were an isolated incident it could be dismissed, but that isn't the case.

I've heard of studies where objects and signs have been placed in odd spots in ICUs and operating theaters - can't cite any specifically. Sounds logical to me. If you're looking for some verification that would be a damned good start, but so far as I know no one has ever described anything like that of any significance.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
It sounded identical to normal perception, but how so with no 'apparatus'?
I find the similarity to our normal perception quite strange.
Its registered through the individual similarly to normal perception because that's what the individual is accustomed to, however its actually a bit different...

Do people who are say deaf or blind also experience sound and sight?
Yes, but it is different than sight and sound through our physical eyes and ear and unlike seeing things through the mind's eye...

...
 
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