M.J. Rose

“We cannot assume from the fact that electrical stimulation of the brain can induce OBE-like illusions that all OBEs are therefore illusions.”
University of Virginia neurologist Dr. Bruce Greyson

(CBS) The oft-reported sensation of leaving the body during a brush with death may have a simple explanation in the body itself. The findings were published in the journal NATURE. However, Neurologist Dr. Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia notes that the experiment does not necessarily prove that all out-of-body experiences are illusions. As Professor of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia – the department founded by the late Dr. Ian Stevenson – Dr. Bruce Greyson is one of the foremost researchers of this compelling subject. His research includes studies done of NDEs during cardiac procedures.

Read the CBS news article.

For more on Dr. Greyson, “The Father of NDE Research”, click here.

To read and interview with the doctor click here.

From the NYT,

A Very Old Zen Master and His Art of Tough Love

What would Buddha do?

Every spring and fall, enlightenment-seekers from all over come here to find out, converging for arduous weeklong retreats at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in a red rock canyon among the thermal springs and Indian pueblos west of Santa Fe.

Dressed in black robes, they strive to live in the moment and awaken to the oneness of everything by rising at 3 a.m. for 18-hour sessions sitting lotus-style in the zendo, or meditation hall, eating communal vegan meals in silence, chanting and taking restorative dips in the hot pools.

But mostly they come to practice with an impish, smooth-faced Japanese monk, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a 100-year-old Rinzai Zen master, one of the oldest in the world, who tells followers, “Excuse me for not dying.”…(Perhaps his most prominent student has been the songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen)…

Please click here for the rest.

Things are suspiciously Orwellian on our modern world…one wonders if the man was a writer or a prophet.

The Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

Orwell’s ‘domestic’ diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his ‘political’ diaries (which are further categorised as ‘Morocco’, ‘Pre-war’ and ‘Wartime’) begin on 7th September 1938/2008.

To read the Orwell Diaries click here.