The local non-profit for which I serve as Vice President is having a free event tomorrow night featuring a viewing of the 2003 BBC documentary, “God on the Brain” …
Consciousness Connections Meeting
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
6:30p Social, 7:00-9:00p Program
Austin Center for Spiritual Living
4804 Grover
Note – New Location
Visitors are welcome, the meeting is free.
Book donations are welcome.
Documentary and Panel Discussion
“God on the Brain”
From BBC Horizon (2003)
Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy.
Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology.
The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them. 80% of Dr Michael Persinger’s experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of ‘not being alone’. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation.
“…a high probability [Ellen White] had temporal lobe epilepsy” says Prof Gregory Holmes, Dartmouth Medical School. His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given. And temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) could help unlock the mystery.
What side are you on, science or spiritualism?Be prepared to defend your position.
The documentary will be shown followed by a discussion. Is Illumination, cosmic consciousness, Kundalini and various religious sensations a spiritual manifestation, or is it simply the neurological manifestation of the brain? If there are volunteers from the audience, a panel will be selected for a debate and Q & A. Please prepare for a lively debate.
Who’s Pranking Whom? Why Ireland and Why Triangular UFOs?
AUSTIN - It’s like déjà vu all over again … remember back in October 2008 when we broke the story of how someone in Ireland’s media had been convinced that a then recent UFO sighting flap (which featured an apparent triangle ufo with a red laser caught with cellphone video footage) was connected to this amazing footage of a triangle ufo with red laser darting about but which turned out to be reused footage of an award winning model from a UFO hoax contest? Well it appears that someone has yet again pulled the wool over the media’s eyes.
I was just made aware of some “dramatic new triangular ufo footage” and as soon as I saw it I recognized it as something I’d seen just a few months ago in October 2009 when I was researching the ufo videos of Ed Grimsley who claims to witness ufo battles complete with lasers and explosions using only a pair of expensive nightvision goggles. Yet none of his footage is anywhere near as interesting as this “new” triangular footage which happens to apparently use this same type of green-tinting night vision tech
The video I saw in October of last year was allegedly “filmed 12/5/08 in fremont, ca.” and uploaded to YouTube the same day by someone who appears to own a pair of the goggles and/or collects footage of nightvision anomalies. Yet the online news reports and bits of information offerred so far contradict that stating…
A triangular formation of lights was filmed flying at night at “incredible speed”.
Sighting near the River Liffey in Dublin.
One has to wonder, who got this misrepresentation of the footage started? Was it deliberate or could it just be a simple case of a news editor / web manager posting an interesting accompanying video that looks like what was described but which apparently has absolutely nothing to do with the “new” alleged Dublin sighting?
So far a handful of newsites has been taken in by this “hoax” or misidentification / miscommunication. But the list is growing everytime I check:
Liffey on Mars The Sun – Vince Soodin – Jan 21, 2010 EXPERT Nick Pope says it’s vital for our security to log sightings – and he will review yours. Among the most mysterious include a UFO over Parliament in … www.thesun.co.uk
UFO spotted above Ireland (video) Daily Contributor - 11 hours ago A strange triangular formation of lights moving at an “incredible speed” has been filmed flying near the River Liffey in Dublin. … ailycontributor.com
Triangular light formation UFO seen in Dublin NewsLite – 17 hours ago Witnesses say the lights moves at an “incredible speed” as they sped over the River Liffey. In the footage – which seems to have been taken via a night … newslite.tv
Footage of ‘UFO’ taken in Ireland Oneindia – 21 hours ago news.oneindia.in
UFO spotted above Dublin as Ireland turns X-Files Metro – 13 hours ago www.metro.co.uk
Footage of ‘UFO’ taken in Ireland Newstrack India (blog) – 22 hours ago London, Jan 22 (ANI): The footage of a UFO flying near the River Liffey in Dublin has left experts thinking it could either be a secret aircraft or … www.newstrackindia.com
Footage of UFO taken in Ireland Little About (blog) – Jan 21, 2010 London, Jan 22 : The footage of a UFO flying near the River Liffey in Dublin has left experts thinking it could either be a secret aircraft or spacecraft. … www.littleabout.com
We’ll keep you posted with updates as we receive them.
(The National Counter Terrorism Center has) “access to all the databases of all the agencies. There is total sharing. But I’m concerned that they don’t have the easy ability to draw linkages between the various databases…
It’snot clear to me that at the National Counter Terrorism Center today… (the computer system) will automatically cross search all the intelligence and law enforcement databases it has. I want to find out whether that exist and I’m afraid that it doesn’t.”
– Senator Joe Lieberman on NPR Morning Edition with Renee Montagne this morning, doing a heck of a job beating the dead scare-monger horse before he’s bothered to gather the facts. (Italicized emphasis is Senator Lieberman’s emphasis, bold is mine.)
Of course CNN talks about the applications suggested in big budget sci-fi movies like Avatar and the Matrix, and the perfunctory various medical applications.
But to be honest, if it follows the course of other technologies, I see the first practical commercial applications of the technology being applied to porn or games (or porn games, likethese, because I’m betting the Japanese will be the first to make it work anyway). In fact,the manufacturers of the Emotiv Epoc claim to already have a device that allows the user to control games with their mind. How well this device actually works though hasn’t quite been established yet, with those viewing demos of the tech often less than impressed. But this is how the technology will end up being developed; by selling high-priced, low value toys and gimmicks to those eager early adopters.
Then, after enough people have telepathically pawed their digital harem of anime girls or bought the expensive peripheral with the Men Who Stare at Goats video game and want to do something else with it, it will filter down to other games, the controls will be refined, and then the technology will finally be cheap and reliable enough for it to be viable for giving the average amputee without unlimited funds the ability to scratch his or her own ass make their own pot of coffee in the morning.
In the third DVD of the “UFO Hypotheses” series, Andromedan contactee Alex Collier describes his face-to-face contacts with blue-skinned human ETs from the Andromeda constellation and the Andromeda galaxy, which have included multiple visits aboard their tremendous motherships and decades of telepathic contact. In this truly incredible interview, Mr. Collier describes how the contacts began, and then goes into great detail describing the Andromedan civilization and their Council to which the Pleiadian ETs appealed for assistance in dealing with a dangerous, malevolent ET confederation plaguing humanity and much of the galaxy. Mr. Collier goes on to explain the details of the “Earth dilemna” and describes in detail the members of this malevolent ET confederation consisting of reptilian ETs from Alpha Draconis, the Orion Group, and the grey ETs from Zeta Reticuli 2. Mr. Collier does not hold anything back in demonstrating how the Alpha Draconan reptilian ETs have manipulated humanity into a nearly invisble system of servitude for aeons, feeding off of our labor and our bodies through the wars that they instigate and the hostile belief systems which they foster in the form of religious and social instituions.
I know that I’ve been out of the loop for the last couple of weeks. After my trip back home to visit family, I needed some time to recuperate. Then I threw myself into some writing about some family experiences and ghost stories that I hoped would be my next Thursday column. Unfortunately another Thursday came and went without my being able to complete a very personal segment of the story about my own experiences, at a very young age, coming to terms with the unexpected, and still unexplained, death of a beloved uncle.
Then I remembered, the Thursday blog post isn’t supposed to be about that! Thursday posts are supposed to be low pressure posts. Something fun to pass the time with while taking a break at the end of a long work week.
So, with that in mind, no in-depth post this week. No recollections of soul searching five-year-olds and their troubled lucid dreams.
Instead, we’ll take the opportunity to welcome one of my favorite time-wasters back to Hulu. That’s right kids. Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International are back on Hulu with new episodes. If you like to relive your favorite moments from the SyFy series at your desk during your lunch break; or if, like me, you don’t have cable and only watch the show online, you’ve probably been watching, waiting, and already got yourself caught up on the last couple of episodes. If you aren’t familiar, now is a good time to browse on over to Hulu and check them out. The last couple of episodes have featured some remarkable stories, including an inexplicable FLIR image of what appears to be a “hunched” figure in a cape or cover (no invisibility cloak jokes from the Harry Potter fans, please) shuffling quickly by, just feet from the investigators.
You can find the newest episodes here (Ghost Hunters) and here (GHI).
With most full episodes of Monster Quest now removed from History.com (the most recent two episodes seem to remain available, with older episodes being removed as the latest episode is added), UFO Hunters still a ridiculous ETH circle jerk, and the latest season of the delightfully campy Destination Truth yet to show up on Hulu, the latest episodes of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International are just what the doctor ordered for wiling away these final days of summer. It may be too hot to fish, and too hot to golf, but its never too hot to plop down in front of the monitor, crank the A/C, and waste an afternoon with two of the best paranormal investigative series currently in production.
This is what we think of your "community service", Buckeyes!
So, we missed the “because it’s Thursday” feature last week. Sorry about that. I had a whole thing on weird law enforcement planned, but I read Mack’s articles on the tasering of grandmothers and thought to myself “this is too serious an issue to dilute with frivolous arrest stories.”
But this week we’re back, and leading off with the neatest free, educational game I’ve seen in a while; Wolf Quest. I mean, where else are you going to find a game that encourages kids to “harass grizzly bears with your mate” and pee on things?
Now, on to the pre-empted police insanity; it seems that cops in Ohio really have too much time on their hands. I mean you’d think that with a failing economy, rising unemployment, and a prescription drug problem that had reached epidemic levels BEFORE the recession put everyone in crisis and desperation mode, they’d have bigger fish to fry. But not so. No, Ohio is intent on excercising all due dilligence to ensure that responsible citizens learn to stay in their place! And that place is apparently NOT contributing to the good of their communities.
First, we have the 81 year old Akron man, a retired construction worker, who dared share his experience with road crews and even give them a hand prepping a pothole in front of his house for patching. His reward? A charge for criminal damaging.
In the southern Ohio town of Reading, for example, the police are earning the citizen’s tax dollars by harassing business people over their decorations. Specifically a bikini clad mannequin that has the prudish elements of this Cincinnatti area enclave fuming. I suppose when you’re bitter that your gerrymandering to get rid of a popular Democrat Congressman not only doesn’t work, but that same Congressman leaves the House of Representatives and takes over the Governor’s seat, you got to get your kicks where you can*. Good on you Cincinnatti. Now you can be known for something besides your racism and disappointing sports franchises.
Finally, wrapping up our Ohio weirdness, we have a 90 year old widow from the Columbus area causing a stir when she attempted to donate a WWII artillery shell to the Motts Military Museum in Groveport. Although her husband had held it in their home as a souvenir, without incident, for over 60 years after receiving it in appreciation for his service during the war; her donation led to the bomb squad being called out until it was confirmed that the shell was safe.
Luckily for her, Ohio broke its pattern of punishing a sense of community and history and didn’t arrest her.
*For those from outside the state or region, there have been several attempts to kill the working class Democratic hold on the southeastern portion of the otherwise red state, usually from redistricting to dillute the strongly Democratic portions of the state by placing small swathes of them in largely Republican districts, as occured when the western part of Scioto County, where Strickland’s ancestral home stands, was moved from his Sixth District into the strongly Republican Second District of then Congressman Rob Portman.
I defy anyone to watch this video (above) and give me one good reason why Travis County Deputy Chris Bieze was justified in Tasering a 72-year-old grandmother during a traffic stop.
Yes, she was argumentative. Yes, she failed to comply with the officer’s order. But does this justify use of the Taser?
Originally, Tasers were intended to be used by police only in situations where a gun might otherwise be used–that is, in situations where lives might be in danger. Rule of thumb: If a situation doesn’t require a gun, it shouldn’t require a Taser.
And yet, increasingly, police are using the Taser not in dangerous situations, but simply to enforce compliance.
Posted March 8, 2010 
Comments(0) 
AUSTIN - It’s like déjà vu all over again … remember back in 
(The National Counter Terrorism Center has) “access to all the databases of all the agencies. There is total sharing. But I’m concerned that they don’t have the easy ability to draw linkages between the various databases… 
