pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Indeed I am
What Great Truth of Life wasn't addressed in ToS ? Usually in the form of a snotty lecture from Capt.Kirk .....
What Will The Afterlife Be Like?
- Thread starter Shadowprophet
- Start date
What Great Truth of Life wasn't addressed in ToS ? Usually in the form of a snotty lecture from Capt.Kirk .....
J Randall Murphy
Trying To Stay Awake
Snotty lecture from Captain Kirk? The same guy who asked, "What does God need with a starship?" ( lol ). When was Kirk ever "Snotty"? I prefer his style to the self-righeous sanctimoniousness of Picard. As irritating as Q was, he at least put Picard in his place. What does any of this have to do with afterlives anyway? I think the closest that Trek ever got to afterlives was in DS9 with the wormhole entities.Indeed I am
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pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Mixing entertainment and Belief is nothing new ........... just ask Tom DeLonge. Seriously, entertainment is just a reflection and I find it unsurprising that our concerns are expressed that way.
Why here in an afterlife thread ? We all have some geekery in us as some level and this incredibly popular show with a multitude of spinoffs dealt with death and life in a way the vast majority don't. For example, I don't recall any episode of Friends as 'The one where Rachel is killed and then comes back to life ...' I thought the first few ToS movies had that great story arc ending with 'the one with the whales' and there is some fantastic dialogue in there between Bones and Spock that never fails to crack me up. That was when they could make a movie without the profligate use of automatic weapons or extreme martial arts and nobody could fly so they would never get made today.
While we're Trekking, Worf's reaction to various incarnations of Data - once that Scottish cartoon coffee cup guy explained it - is interesting. Seems neither Michael Dorn or Worf is keen on that idea and I have to admit he has a point but being revenant is a different topic. Personally, in real life the alive-again Spock would give me the Pet Sematary vibe.
I keep bringing this up but nobody is nibbling at the bait. What do you say to James Leininger? That his parents made it all up? That doesn't answer some sticky questions about the level of detail the kid had and how he could've said anything that convinced some elderly people that he had the memories of someone they all knew. Weird. You think his parents ever wondered exactly who they ere talking to?
Why here in an afterlife thread ? We all have some geekery in us as some level and this incredibly popular show with a multitude of spinoffs dealt with death and life in a way the vast majority don't. For example, I don't recall any episode of Friends as 'The one where Rachel is killed and then comes back to life ...' I thought the first few ToS movies had that great story arc ending with 'the one with the whales' and there is some fantastic dialogue in there between Bones and Spock that never fails to crack me up. That was when they could make a movie without the profligate use of automatic weapons or extreme martial arts and nobody could fly so they would never get made today.
While we're Trekking, Worf's reaction to various incarnations of Data - once that Scottish cartoon coffee cup guy explained it - is interesting. Seems neither Michael Dorn or Worf is keen on that idea and I have to admit he has a point but being revenant is a different topic. Personally, in real life the alive-again Spock would give me the Pet Sematary vibe.
I keep bringing this up but nobody is nibbling at the bait. What do you say to James Leininger? That his parents made it all up? That doesn't answer some sticky questions about the level of detail the kid had and how he could've said anything that convinced some elderly people that he had the memories of someone they all knew. Weird. You think his parents ever wondered exactly who they ere talking to?
J Randall Murphy
Trying To Stay Awake
I forgot about that episode. A good call. Coincidentally ( otherwise ), I was just talking tonight with a spiritual lady who says she helps the departed do their crossing over into their version of a Heaven - Whatever that means.
nivek
As Above So Below
I take that to mean one of two things, either she is facilitating their fantasies in some way by assisting them in setting the conditions by which they can indulge in that delusion or she thinks she is making such efforts, thereby satisfying her own fantasies and gaining a satisfying dopamine fix from that delusion...
...
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
I don't have any idea what the Nice Lady is doing, probably not much. My problem with these sorts of things is that an entire industry has grown that preys upon the grieving. They would counter that they allow them to move forward or whatever - you can do that without charging mortgage payments for sittings.
Slippery slope there. Some don't believe at all. Some think they have the Answer and that others are deluded. I have friends and family with devout faith that would make different arguments. IMO nobody has it exactly 'right' for anyone other than themselves.
Slippery slope there. Some don't believe at all. Some think they have the Answer and that others are deluded. I have friends and family with devout faith that would make different arguments. IMO nobody has it exactly 'right' for anyone other than themselves.
nivek
As Above So Below
Yeah same here, my previous comment was a bit harsh, who knows what she is really doing and to what end...Could be some good things, who knows...
...
J Randall Murphy
Trying To Stay Awake
Those are two possibilities — stated rather irreverently ( but possibilities nevertheless ).
The possibility that I find most interesting is that the phenomena accompanying these experiences sometimes seems to have an objectively real cause.
For example, people experience what they believe to be a haunting of some kind, so they call-in one of these crossing-over specialists to help the departed cross over to their next realm — and then the haunting stops.
In my efforts to gather info on hauntings, I've come to believe that such phenomena exist. However, I also believe that the cause must be something other than the recently departed.
What that cause is I cannot say with any certainty for all cases. I can only say that for some of them, something strange is going on that has no rational mundane explanation.
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pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Last night we went and saw The Theresa Caputo Experience
Mentioning it here for a reason. What can a medium possibly have to offer someone, either a nationally recognized one or a home grown spirit guide ? Entertainment, distraction, a chance to vent emotion. Under the right circumstances its an act of empathy and compassion that seems harmless. When you are grieving this is someone who will most often tell you little white lies, that everything's OK and most often the people hearing that are already more than half convinced or they wouldn't be talking to a medium in the first place.
And then you have something like this. This woman is good - she really is an entertainer that knows how to work an audience and I found myself having fun. Quite the spectacle. To be absolutely clear: do I for on single instant think there was any Afterlife communication going on? Hell no, this was pure showmanship. But, thing is, you'd have to believe at least some of those she interacted with were not plants and the apparently genuine emotion I witnessed made me wonder if I had wandered into some sort of religious revival, not the Long Island Medium. This wasn't belief, this was Faith I was witnessing. In other forms we see the same sort of dogged devotion in the ufological circles.
I see all this as harmless fun, at my most snarkiest I'd call it a tax on stupidity. Call me stupid I had fun.
Why did I go? Well, I'm usually game for an experience. It's one thing to sit on the sidelines and call a show like that silly, it's another to be immersed in a literal ocean of menopausal women who lap this stuff up. I think what gets lost on TV is the feeling, the palpable breath-holding of the entire audience. I have never watched a single episode of her show but know what it is. I'm also familiar with that Long Island schtick and to be honest, my wife is a Queens girl and has an accent about as thick. Water, butter, coffee - three words guaranteed to crack up my Midwest family.
And there's the root of it, silly or not my wife likes the show and you don't have to whack me in the head with a tire tool - if my wife likes that then so do I, whatever it may be.
Mentioning it here for a reason. What can a medium possibly have to offer someone, either a nationally recognized one or a home grown spirit guide ? Entertainment, distraction, a chance to vent emotion. Under the right circumstances its an act of empathy and compassion that seems harmless. When you are grieving this is someone who will most often tell you little white lies, that everything's OK and most often the people hearing that are already more than half convinced or they wouldn't be talking to a medium in the first place.
And then you have something like this. This woman is good - she really is an entertainer that knows how to work an audience and I found myself having fun. Quite the spectacle. To be absolutely clear: do I for on single instant think there was any Afterlife communication going on? Hell no, this was pure showmanship. But, thing is, you'd have to believe at least some of those she interacted with were not plants and the apparently genuine emotion I witnessed made me wonder if I had wandered into some sort of religious revival, not the Long Island Medium. This wasn't belief, this was Faith I was witnessing. In other forms we see the same sort of dogged devotion in the ufological circles.
I see all this as harmless fun, at my most snarkiest I'd call it a tax on stupidity. Call me stupid I had fun.
Why did I go? Well, I'm usually game for an experience. It's one thing to sit on the sidelines and call a show like that silly, it's another to be immersed in a literal ocean of menopausal women who lap this stuff up. I think what gets lost on TV is the feeling, the palpable breath-holding of the entire audience. I have never watched a single episode of her show but know what it is. I'm also familiar with that Long Island schtick and to be honest, my wife is a Queens girl and has an accent about as thick. Water, butter, coffee - three words guaranteed to crack up my Midwest family.
And there's the root of it, silly or not my wife likes the show and you don't have to whack me in the head with a tire tool - if my wife likes that then so do I, whatever it may be.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Belief in an Afterlife of some sort has been ingrained into us across every society that has yet existed, it is a human condition not necessarily a societal one. If we have it it's there for a reason, or was anyway like the appendix. My layman's take on this is it probably served to allow us to function together and thrive in groups. Lacking that we may have gone the way of the Neandertal. Its also part of a well documented natural grief process.
Whether it has any factual basis remains to be seen but certainly there have been untold thousands of accounts that suggest bodily death may not be the end of our existence. I prefer the term consciousness but what the hell is that exactly ? Isn't that a more poignant question lately with the rise of highly sophisticated machines that mimic being self aware? If we can't define that je ne sais quoi for them we can't for ourselves and by extension can't really say what is and is not possible in that regard.
Don't forget, many things have been deemed impossible by mainstream thinking in the past that have become reality. I am not into physics but try beaming back a generation or two in your time machine and start talking about quantum entanglement and I bet you'll get the same reaction from many.
Ufology is largely a collection of anecdotal reports and the existence of inconclusive evidence is rumor, not fact. It is a conglomeration of many different ideas and agendas and opinions just like this topic. I have no trouble believing in extraterrestrial visitation and don't need to come up with theories about how they get here, what their agenda is - I have no way of knowing. What I do know for certain is that much of it is nonsense, just like belief in the afterlife and a lot of other things so I can understand blowing off much of it - if not the majority - until I have good enough reason to change my mind.
In some instances I will say 'no, absolutely not' and there is no room for equivocation. Flat Earth - no, I think we can safely dismiss that one because we have the tools and the language to quantify the topic very thoroughly. In this arena though, What Happens Next, we lack that yet and its so very tangled up in the root of our development that I am unwilling to make clear distinctions at this point. Doing so would make me no different than religious zealots who will tell you in great detail about life after death. Hence the playing card, the horse elevator.
Whether it has any factual basis remains to be seen but certainly there have been untold thousands of accounts that suggest bodily death may not be the end of our existence. I prefer the term consciousness but what the hell is that exactly ? Isn't that a more poignant question lately with the rise of highly sophisticated machines that mimic being self aware? If we can't define that je ne sais quoi for them we can't for ourselves and by extension can't really say what is and is not possible in that regard.
Don't forget, many things have been deemed impossible by mainstream thinking in the past that have become reality. I am not into physics but try beaming back a generation or two in your time machine and start talking about quantum entanglement and I bet you'll get the same reaction from many.
Ufology is largely a collection of anecdotal reports and the existence of inconclusive evidence is rumor, not fact. It is a conglomeration of many different ideas and agendas and opinions just like this topic. I have no trouble believing in extraterrestrial visitation and don't need to come up with theories about how they get here, what their agenda is - I have no way of knowing. What I do know for certain is that much of it is nonsense, just like belief in the afterlife and a lot of other things so I can understand blowing off much of it - if not the majority - until I have good enough reason to change my mind.
In some instances I will say 'no, absolutely not' and there is no room for equivocation. Flat Earth - no, I think we can safely dismiss that one because we have the tools and the language to quantify the topic very thoroughly. In this arena though, What Happens Next, we lack that yet and its so very tangled up in the root of our development that I am unwilling to make clear distinctions at this point. Doing so would make me no different than religious zealots who will tell you in great detail about life after death. Hence the playing card, the horse elevator.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
I didn't think I'd like this podcast as it has a religious bent to it but to my surprise I enjoyed a few episodes. The two hosts flow well and seem to cover their topics very thoroughly but conversationally.
I stuck this in the Afterlife thread because I've had personal experiences very much like described and they described after death communications and deathbed visions extremely well. There are a few things that I had to FF through like old German hymns they felt compelled to play but other than that they are very enjoyable and thought provoking.
The episode about terminal lucidity is really good. You can argue about the possibility of an Afterlife all you want, TL is a real phenomenon that can be fully documented in real time and studied. I had what they would call a category 2 experience.
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-death-communications-adcs/id1423288932?i=1000651535834
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terminal-lucidity-sudden-awakenings-dementia-alzheimers/id1423288932?i=1000655913608
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deathbed-visions-afterlife-research/id1423288932?i=1000660543337
I stuck this in the Afterlife thread because I've had personal experiences very much like described and they described after death communications and deathbed visions extremely well. There are a few things that I had to FF through like old German hymns they felt compelled to play but other than that they are very enjoyable and thought provoking.
The episode about terminal lucidity is really good. You can argue about the possibility of an Afterlife all you want, TL is a real phenomenon that can be fully documented in real time and studied. I had what they would call a category 2 experience.
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-death-communications-adcs/id1423288932?i=1000651535834
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/terminal-lucidity-sudden-awakenings-dementia-alzheimers/id1423288932?i=1000655913608
View: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deathbed-visions-afterlife-research/id1423288932?i=1000660543337
Todd Feinman
Dogs are angels that poop in your yard.
Dogs get TL too. Can communicate some after death too. All of the same stuff reported in humans. Could you describe what you experienced, Pigfarmer?
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Sure. Two instances. It's a long one and I am making an effort not to create that wall of text.
My mom died of lung cancer in 1999. She weighed maybe 70lbs at the time and looked like a concentration camp survivor but for whatever reason always had a tolerance for pain that Navy SEALS don't have. The pain became overwhelming and the amount of morphine she required exceeded the capacity of the Hospice facility and they had to make special arrangements to get it for her.
She lost consciousness after about two weeks and had been raving incoherently before that. When I leaned in close I caught snippets of things I recognized and it sounded like she was having a life review. She had no teeth and even when she was conscious and could talk it was hard to understand what she was saying. Eventually they had to tie her arms and legs to the bed because that amount of morphine causes all sorts of uncontrollable muscle spasms and she was flopping around like a fish out of water. She was totally out of it and had been a while and was literally swimming in morphine. Not easy to watch.
My aunt and I were there one day maybe a day or two before she passed when she suddenly just woke up and could speak with perfect clarity. She saw 'daddy .... daddy's here...' Her eyes actually focused on a empty corner of the room and she had a joyful smile on her face. My aunt heard this and literally shoved me in front of her and told me to tell her that daddy was here. Jesus, I didn't want to do that but I did. She looked at me without recognition and said 'that's not daddy.... you have a beard ....'. Then she refocused on the corner and said 'daddy's here' She gave the appearance that someone was talking to her - she nodded her head and said 'daddy' a couple more times and then that was that. Never spoke or woke up again. Talk about a shock. My aunt was totally rattled and would never discuss it.
Terminal Lucidity refers to people who should be physiologically incapable of communication of any sort but somehow dial in with clarity right at the end. Mom's experience definitely fell into that category. I'm sure someone who wasn't there could ascribe something more prosaic to explain it but having witnessed it personally no goddamned way. In fact, the prior year she had been in a coma for several weeks due to another medical condition and turns out she was very aware f what was going on around her and when she spoke up it took a while for her to be able to speak clearly again. How she just flipped a switch at then end and did that I have no clue other than maybe it was just what it looked like
Second instance I wrote about here on AE somewhere in more detail. After Death Communication via a lucid dream. I was extremely close to my friend Rob and his passing was rough, very very hard on everyone. At the time I took notes to record the experience and have it somewhere, but basically I had the most vivid dream of my life with the most fantastic sense of taste and smell. I saw him clearly and asked him where he was and he said he was in his apartment. He seemed as if I was asking him a silly question like, where else would he be? I told him he'd been dead over a year and he said he was very confused when he was in the hospital. I could see bright sunshine streaming through the windows at him, almost ethereal and the most vivid sense was that I could smell rain. Fresh rain. I kept telling him I have to get my wife, I have to get my wife and then I was sitting up in bed calling for her out loud awake with tears streaming down my face.
I am not a crier and when she saw that she knew something unusual had happened. I got the very clear impression he had to go through a cleansing or healing process to get to where he was and was about to go through another one but we had that once chance to speak while he was in transition. Like somehow I was the one to have to tell him he died because he didn't seem to know. That was the purpose and I was the one to do it. Sounds like a dream but I know it wasn't - not even close and I don't have to convince anyone of that because I know that I literally did communicate with him.
My mom died of lung cancer in 1999. She weighed maybe 70lbs at the time and looked like a concentration camp survivor but for whatever reason always had a tolerance for pain that Navy SEALS don't have. The pain became overwhelming and the amount of morphine she required exceeded the capacity of the Hospice facility and they had to make special arrangements to get it for her.
She lost consciousness after about two weeks and had been raving incoherently before that. When I leaned in close I caught snippets of things I recognized and it sounded like she was having a life review. She had no teeth and even when she was conscious and could talk it was hard to understand what she was saying. Eventually they had to tie her arms and legs to the bed because that amount of morphine causes all sorts of uncontrollable muscle spasms and she was flopping around like a fish out of water. She was totally out of it and had been a while and was literally swimming in morphine. Not easy to watch.
My aunt and I were there one day maybe a day or two before she passed when she suddenly just woke up and could speak with perfect clarity. She saw 'daddy .... daddy's here...' Her eyes actually focused on a empty corner of the room and she had a joyful smile on her face. My aunt heard this and literally shoved me in front of her and told me to tell her that daddy was here. Jesus, I didn't want to do that but I did. She looked at me without recognition and said 'that's not daddy.... you have a beard ....'. Then she refocused on the corner and said 'daddy's here' She gave the appearance that someone was talking to her - she nodded her head and said 'daddy' a couple more times and then that was that. Never spoke or woke up again. Talk about a shock. My aunt was totally rattled and would never discuss it.
Terminal Lucidity refers to people who should be physiologically incapable of communication of any sort but somehow dial in with clarity right at the end. Mom's experience definitely fell into that category. I'm sure someone who wasn't there could ascribe something more prosaic to explain it but having witnessed it personally no goddamned way. In fact, the prior year she had been in a coma for several weeks due to another medical condition and turns out she was very aware f what was going on around her and when she spoke up it took a while for her to be able to speak clearly again. How she just flipped a switch at then end and did that I have no clue other than maybe it was just what it looked like
Second instance I wrote about here on AE somewhere in more detail. After Death Communication via a lucid dream. I was extremely close to my friend Rob and his passing was rough, very very hard on everyone. At the time I took notes to record the experience and have it somewhere, but basically I had the most vivid dream of my life with the most fantastic sense of taste and smell. I saw him clearly and asked him where he was and he said he was in his apartment. He seemed as if I was asking him a silly question like, where else would he be? I told him he'd been dead over a year and he said he was very confused when he was in the hospital. I could see bright sunshine streaming through the windows at him, almost ethereal and the most vivid sense was that I could smell rain. Fresh rain. I kept telling him I have to get my wife, I have to get my wife and then I was sitting up in bed calling for her out loud awake with tears streaming down my face.
I am not a crier and when she saw that she knew something unusual had happened. I got the very clear impression he had to go through a cleansing or healing process to get to where he was and was about to go through another one but we had that once chance to speak while he was in transition. Like somehow I was the one to have to tell him he died because he didn't seem to know. That was the purpose and I was the one to do it. Sounds like a dream but I know it wasn't - not even close and I don't have to convince anyone of that because I know that I literally did communicate with him.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
OK, here's the unedited doc I created at the time. The account I relayed above is accurate but this gives more detail and my frame of mind at the time. "very very upset" = crying my guts out like a little girl, I just didn't want to write that at the time.
**********************
October 20 2022 0600
Writing this to document a lucid dream I had Monday October 17th at approximately 0200.
Normal wakeup time is 0300 but I had been tossing and turning since midnight, in and out of a fitful sleep. Not unusual. I believe the dream occurred in the last hour before I got out of bed as I commented at the time that I finally managed to really zonk out right before I have to get up.
Not sure of all of the imagery but I was somewhere at home with my wife. Phone rings and it’s my friend Rob just calling to chat. I have a clear image of him – and this is weird – looking fresh and pink and clean, not wearing any shirt with very long loose hair. His voice sounds slightly tremulous, almost underwater.
I am shocked and shaking and remember yelling at my wife to pick up the phone – which I think she does but doesn’t say anything. I asked him where he was right now and he said ‘at his apartment’ as if, where else would he be? I said ‘your apartment??!!’ ‘Where have you been?’
I may be getting this out of sequence but I told him that he died a year and a half earlier and that I cleaned out his apartment myself, and that I couldn’t believe it was him. I was very, very upset. He didn't react much, just seemed confused.
His response was that ’he was very confused when he was in the hospital’
Well, with a brain tumor the size of a golf ball in the middle of your skull who wouldn't be?
…………. and that’s all I remember from it. It was positive but he seemed disoriented, like he just woke up. Extremely vivid, very odd to have a two way exchange in a dream like that, seemed very different and real to me. Thought I had better record my thoughts on this before too long. I honestly believe I am relaying it accurately and not putting any hindsight related spin on anything.
General impression after a couple of days thinking about it is that he only just now got to wherever he is and that he has been sequestered, maybe going through a process. The word that came to me was ‘reborn’ because he looked vibrantly clean and healthy, much more so than when I saw him last. Impression as of a recent rain shower, sunshine. Cleanliness. The lack of a shirt and long hair were not unusual for him although he always wore it in a ponytail not loose. But toward the end his hygiene was not the best and it was a relief to see him like that.
So did I talk to him or not? Sure felt like it but it could easily be my imagination, or just a simple dream. Doesn't feel like it though.
**********************
October 20 2022 0600
Writing this to document a lucid dream I had Monday October 17th at approximately 0200.
Normal wakeup time is 0300 but I had been tossing and turning since midnight, in and out of a fitful sleep. Not unusual. I believe the dream occurred in the last hour before I got out of bed as I commented at the time that I finally managed to really zonk out right before I have to get up.
Not sure of all of the imagery but I was somewhere at home with my wife. Phone rings and it’s my friend Rob just calling to chat. I have a clear image of him – and this is weird – looking fresh and pink and clean, not wearing any shirt with very long loose hair. His voice sounds slightly tremulous, almost underwater.
I am shocked and shaking and remember yelling at my wife to pick up the phone – which I think she does but doesn’t say anything. I asked him where he was right now and he said ‘at his apartment’ as if, where else would he be? I said ‘your apartment??!!’ ‘Where have you been?’
I may be getting this out of sequence but I told him that he died a year and a half earlier and that I cleaned out his apartment myself, and that I couldn’t believe it was him. I was very, very upset. He didn't react much, just seemed confused.
His response was that ’he was very confused when he was in the hospital’
Well, with a brain tumor the size of a golf ball in the middle of your skull who wouldn't be?
…………. and that’s all I remember from it. It was positive but he seemed disoriented, like he just woke up. Extremely vivid, very odd to have a two way exchange in a dream like that, seemed very different and real to me. Thought I had better record my thoughts on this before too long. I honestly believe I am relaying it accurately and not putting any hindsight related spin on anything.
General impression after a couple of days thinking about it is that he only just now got to wherever he is and that he has been sequestered, maybe going through a process. The word that came to me was ‘reborn’ because he looked vibrantly clean and healthy, much more so than when I saw him last. Impression as of a recent rain shower, sunshine. Cleanliness. The lack of a shirt and long hair were not unusual for him although he always wore it in a ponytail not loose. But toward the end his hygiene was not the best and it was a relief to see him like that.
So did I talk to him or not? Sure felt like it but it could easily be my imagination, or just a simple dream. Doesn't feel like it though.
Todd Feinman
Dogs are angels that poop in your yard.
Thanks, Pigfarmer, very interesting. My condolences on the death of your mother and also your good friend. Sebastian Junger just wrote a book about his near death experience.
Non smoking gun
Honorable
Recently read Consciousness Beyond Life, The Science of the Near-Death Experience by Pim van Lommel MD
Very interesting, although by a doctor much of the book is about the possible explanations for consciousness using quantum physics.
Very interesting, although by a doctor much of the book is about the possible explanations for consciousness using quantum physics.
Non smoking gun
Honorable
The similarities he mentions between consciousness and aspects of quantum physics are tantalizing - pity our physics is not quite there yet.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
The intro to that book was very good and I thought I'd stick it up here maybe to chew the fat a little. From Kindle the text quote was a big block and hard to read, I just broke it up a little to make it easier. The breaks may not make sense as they are random - not laid out like they are in the book.