Tag Archives: reincarnation
My Mind Is Not My Brain
My Mind Is Not My Brain How much hangs on that denial – or on its contradictory, that my mind is my brain! If our minds are our brains, as I once thought, and as our educated contemporaries mostly still … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immortality, Institutional Power, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Medieval, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged ambition, anguish, anxiety, attitudes toward death, brain and memory storage, brain death, brain death and consciousness, cardiac arrest and consciousness, cardiac care, computers and brains, conscious state and neural correlates, cruelty, cynicism, dealing with death, death and denial, death as escape, death as the end, despair, Does God make a difference?, EEG, God hypothesis, God question, identity theory, intellectual courage, life review, localizing conscious experience in the brain, manipulativeness, Materialism, mind/body problem, MRI, NDE, NDE research, NDE studies, near death experience, oblivion, paradigm shift, PET, Philosophical Materialism, physicalism, Pim Van Lommel, Pim Van Lommel's Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, placebo effect, prejudice, reductionism and culture, reincarnation, right pathway, search for purpose, success fixation, surviving brain death, surviving death, terminal lucidity, the absurd, verifiable afterlife reports, willful blindness
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Putting Puzzle Pieces Together
Putting Puzzle Pieces Together Suppose you thought that you had a past life in which you perished, by one of the methods in the Nazi repertoire, during the run-up years that culminated in the Holocaust. I mean, suppose you entertained … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Female Power, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Authentic listening, Case histories, Chabad, Chabad rabbi, documentary hypothesis, Emotional fatigue, experimental psychology, False memories, Holocaust non-survivors, Intellectual giants, Jewish mysticism, loving the soul, Memory series, midrash, naturalistic explanations, neshama, ousting a predator, Past and present life, past life memories, past lives, Pastoral care, physicalism, Reform movement, reform rabbi, reincarnation, righteous combat, Spiritual crisis, Spiritual fatigue, Sudden weakness, Suffering of the righteous, The Jewish soul, The missing piece, women’s dignity
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Did My Story Just Get Longer?
Did My Story Just Get Longer? In recent days, I’ve felt that it’s time for philosophy — the discipline, with its history and skills — to step up, as it did in days past. To identify and negotiate the great … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Immortality, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 1930s in Germany, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", author and book, children's Holocaust memories, clues to past life, culture and personal choice, dialectical life, Edith Wyschogrod, evil agent, German Jews, German Jews in hiding, God and the Covenant, God and the Jews, Holocaust non-survivors, intelligence of evil, learning who one is, life adventures, life review, living one’s story, love of wisdom, many lives, narrative continuity, narrative view, out of body experience, past life regression, past-life dislocations, past-life memories, personal identity, philosophy in culture, Plato's dialogues, reincarnation, scope of the Holocaust, sealed trucks in Holocaust, self-congratulation, self-correction, understanding evil, understanding the good life, woman philosopher, zeitgeist and anti-semitism, Zyklon B
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The Meanings of Our Lives
The Meanings of Our Lives People commit suicide when their lives seem to them meaningless. At least, that’s been my experience, which I’ll share with you. I’ve talked two women friends out of killing themselves, which they seemed quite serious … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, books, bureaucracy, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 12-step program, 13-step, a culture's sense of meaning, AA, absolutist solutions, abstract universal, accepting imperfections, Al-Anon, art of compromise, Bolshevik revolution, book contract, book proposals, Communist ideology, Communists and state power, concrete universal, courts and justice, democracy and patriotism, don't fake it, eternal feminine, facing life's challenges, faith and force, fall of Constantinople, Feminine pride, friend in crisis, future of Russia, Greek Orthodox Church, healing despair, human imperfections, ideal self-image, Igor Kliamkin's Demilitarization as a Historical and Cultural Issue, insulting a woman, just be there, learning to compromise, living through the Holocaust, looking for meaning, losing a book contract, meaning in culture, meaning of life, meaninglessness, Modern attitudes, Mother Russia, Nazi death camps, occult lore, pay attention, political compromises, publisher rejections, publisher's priorities, readership, reincarnation, reincarnation and suicide, representative government, respecting the law, Russia and the rule of law, Russian Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century: An Anthology eds. Mikhail Sergeev Alexander Chumakov Mary Theis, Russian politics, seducer's manipulation tactics, slave labor, suicide, suicide watch, suicide's contagion, talking it out, talking out of suicide, the human condition, the people's allegiance, the Russian people, tragedy of Russia, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, wholesome American girl, will to live, women's malice
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Was It A Past Life?
Was It A Past Life? By now there are many cases on record of individuals recalling previous lifetimes. A person under hypnosis will seem to remember incidents that occurred under conditions quite different from those obtaining in that person’s present … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Feminism, Freedom, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Martyrdom, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged AAR president, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", American Academy of Religion, anomalies, anti-semitism, anti-semitism's return, Austrian S.S., breast cancer, Brendan Larvor's Lakatos: An Introduction, children's past lives, covenantal obligation, death experience, death vision, Edith Wyschogrod, emblem and fact, emblematic experience, empirical evidence, excisional biopsy, Germany in the 1930s, Holocaust, hypnotic regression, Imre Lakatos, informers, laws of nature, materialist/mechanist model, medical empathy, medical tatoo, Nazi gas chambers, Nazi killing techniques, out of body experience, paradigm, past life, past life confirmation, past life regression as treatment, radiation treatment, refuting instance, reincarnation, reincarnation evidence, return of the repressed, scientific evidence, scientific theories, sealed trucks, Shoah, theoretical anomalies, Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, trucks in the Shoah, woman GYN, Zyklon B
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Yom HaShoah
Yom HaShoah I really hadn’t wanted to go this time. It’s the night for commemorating/remembering the Shoah, the Holocaust, which my temple observes annually. Christian clergy sit on the raised platform at the front of the sanctuary and read, taking … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, Seduction, self-deception, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a past life, annihilation of the Jews, anti-Jewish imagery, anti-Zionism, Augustine's Jewish problem, Bishop Ambrose, board of trustees, burning synagogues, ceremony, choir, Christian clergy, Christian factions, commemoration, crazy history, David Nirenberg's Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, diaspora, Divine Presence, divine/human partnership, empathy, empathy with victims, enemies of God, Evil, ex-terrorist, factional disputes, genocide, graciousness, Hebrew revival, Hebrew Scriptures, historian, historicity, Holocaust, Kasim Hafeez, mass murder, mass persecution, meditative silence, memory, mercilessness, new Covenant, New Israel, nice guys, normalized history, norms of decency, old Covenant, Old Testament, past life memory, pitilessness, promised land, Reform temple, reincarnation, remembering, resistence songs, saints, sanctuary, school spirit, Shekinah, Shoah, showing the flag, sincere clergy, spiritual victory, St. Augustine, supersessionism, Swedish incarnation, temple, The Bible, The Longest Hatred, theology of contempt, truthful sermon, victims, wandering Jew, warm bodies, witnessing, Yom HaShoah
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Nostalgia and Yearning
Nostalgia and Yearning For most of my life, I’ve lived under a low-hanging cloud of yearning. The Germans call it Sehnsucht. It’s romantic longing for a fog-enshrouded, mystery-enfolded, beckoning future. It’s the kind of longing depicted in the movie, “Wuthering … Continue reading
Posted in Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Propaganda, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, Romanticism, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged acceptance, aestheticism, aesthetics, alchemy, ancient Egypt, ancient Israel, Anya Seton, Anya's Seton's Green Darkness, art as a cultural marker, beautiful art, being centered, belonging, bodice busters, Carnegie Museum, creativity, curators, curators' fads, daydreams, doomed lovers, Egyptian mummies, Egyptian tombs, Egyptian wall paintings, El Al flight, Emily Brontë, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, equilibrium, estrangement, Fine art, Germany in the 1930s, girlhood, girlhood fancies, Goethe, Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, gothic romance, Hollywood films, Holocaust, home sickness, homecoming, hypnotic regression, idealization, idealized future, idealized past, imagination, Lawrence Olivier, life balance, living in the now, Merle Oberon, Metropolitan Museum, modern Israel, museum goers, Native American art, Nazi period, nostalgia, Old Hollywood films, ordinary life, past life regressions, Peace, place in history, present world, projection, recognition, reincarnation, relics, repetition, retrospection, return, reunion, romantic suicide, Sehnsucht, Shoah, star-crossed lovers, stately homes, Stefan Zweig's "The World of Yesterday", suicide cult, the moors, The Romantic Movement, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, time travel, Tudor times, Turner Classics, typee, world of tomorrow, yearning
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“Tenderness”
“Tenderness” There is a southern black woman, about two generations after slavery, who figures as the heroine in a novel by Zora Neale Hurston. In the scene from which the lines below are taken, she has met a man who … Continue reading
Posted in Action, Alienation, Art, Autonomy, Chivalry, Contemplation, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, nineteenth-century, non-violence, Ontology, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Race, relationships, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, Violence, War, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Five Variations on the Theme of Japanese Painting", "Leo's Orphans: A Survivor's Musings on the Power of Protective Tenderness", "Their Eyes Were Watching God", 613 mitzvot, Abigail L. Rosenthal, American novel, awareness, black women, Christian clergy, Christianity, commandments, conflict resolution, conformism, evidence, Exodus, heroine, injuries, interfaith, Israelites, Japan, Jewish observance, judgementalism, Leo Bronstein, living the moment, Maimonides, marital relations, mindfulness, Nazi genocide, novel, Passover, past lives, peer pressure, Rabbi, Reform Judaism, reincarnation, Shoah, shunning, slavery, Terror, The South, unleavened bread, Yom ha Shoah, zen, Zora Neale Hurston
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“Beyond Recovery”
“Beyond Recovery” I’ve been reading a book with the rather haunting title, Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust. The author, Yonassan Gershom, is a rabbi who is well versed in the kabbalistic, mystical strain within Judaism. His … Continue reading
Posted in Action, Alienation, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Guilt and Innocence, Health, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Male Power, master, Memoir, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, Power, Race, relationships, Roles, slave, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Time, twentieth century, Violence, War, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 1930's, archetypes, Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust, cancer, concentration camp tattoos, gang rape, gas chambers, genocide, Jews and Gentiles, Kabbalah, memory, mystical, past life, philosophers, post-traumatic stress, Rabbi, radiation treatment, recovery, reincarnation, safety, Shoah, the new anti-Semitism, theologians, therapy, trauma, treatment for trauma, universal consciousness, World War II, Yonassan Gershom, Zeitgeist, Zyklon B
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