M.J. Rose

For a very intelligent listening experience tune in to skeptiko.com’s podcasts. Skeptiko explores controversial science with leading researchers and their critics. The following is the introduction for a particularly germane interview with Dr. Neal Grossman, associate professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in which he discusses how people of both scientific and religious mindsets are often threatened by research into near-death experience –

Dr. Neal Grossman explores near-death experience research, consciousness, academic paradigms and why many religious groups are unfriendly toward near-death experience research: “Both the scientistic type and the devote religious person have something in common, they both think belief in a spiritual reality is a matter of faith… To the religious person the very idea that some of their religious beliefs might be capable of being investigated by science to determine whether they are true or false is threatening… This is the kind of mindset that’s deeply threatened by near-death experience research because the concept of God, and the afterlife and how it works is very, very different from what they want to believe…

Listen.

For more of Grossman’s ideas, read his article from IONS Review – Who’s Afraid of Life After Death?

I read a line recently in a wonderful book about a young woman’s spiritual quest (EAT, PRAY, LOVE) that said something like “if God is infinite, than the world’s religions ought to be infinite too” – and that includes, as far as I am concerned, infinite tolerance for the beliefs of other religions. And yet, here is a prime example of the finite coming to us straight from the Vatican this week…

6 Nuns in Ark. Excommunicated for Heresy

By ANDREW DeMILLO

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.

The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.

The Vatican has declared all members of the Army of Mary excommunicated. Hebert said the excommunication was the first in the diocese’s 165-year history […]

Click here to read the complete article from The Guardian UK.

A camp for those who see dead people?

Locals call it Spook Hill: Wisconsin’s Wonewoc is one of 13 spiritualism camps in U.S. –

(from CNN.com)

“They’re walking around the grounds, sitting in the dining hall and in the pews at the abandoned church. Kids, heard by visitors but usually only seen by those trained to see into the spirit world, play outside the rustic and run-down cabins.

“Oh yeah, they’re all over the place,” says Judy Ulch, a jovial 60-year-old who claims not only to see dead people but also receive messages from them that she passes on to their loved ones who pay $40 per half hour for her services.

…Mediums, clairvoyants and healers are housed in the camp — known to the locals as “Spook Hill” — either for all or part of the season. There are workshops and classes, not on typical summer camp fare like basket weaving and swimming, but rather past life regressions and how to see auras in 60 seconds.”[…]

Read the complete article and see more photos of the camp here.