Michael Cocks, Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr |344|

Has Stephen the Martyr said anything about the goals of humanity? Are were here just to learn, or are we also as a group supposed to try to perfect human society?

Is there a relationship between humanity in the spirit realm and humanity on earth? Or do spirits come and go, to and from different worlds for incarnation, without any special allegiance or responsibility to one world?
 
Gosh Jim, those are questions that I have puzzled over too, perhaps Nate could put them to Michael. Having lost both a husband and a daughter I really want to believe that there is still a relationship between humanity in the spirit world and on earth.
 
I was interested to hear a talk by Father Francis Tiso, a Catholic priest, on the rainbow body, something that was said to have happened to a holy monk in Tibet...Francis Tiso might be a good person to interview for Skeptiko.

I agree. Tiso's book based on his wide-ranging research, from interviews in Tibet to Dzogchen literature to the history of Syriac Christianity mystical theology, is now available: Rainbow Body and Resurrection.
 
I can easily imagine that the afterlife might be something like that. It would be terrifying if we didn't have the option to change our beliefs after death - we could truly get trapped in abusive or isolating communities.
William Buhlman decribes just such a situation in one of his books, Adventures in the Afterlife (based on his many out of body experiences). He uses a fictional character who is originally drawn to his mother's place of living (in the astral), but eventually comes to discover it is a place of limiting beliefs and decides to explore further. The implication is that there are all sorts of places "over there", and, just like here, our experiences of "over there" can be limited according to our belief system.
 
There are also what I call facets of the one diamond. This is the over-soul, the greater individuality, and the facets are aspects of it which incarnate into your world for experiences that will add lustre to the diamond when they return to it.
Seth makes the same observation with regards to the over-soul.
 
I have already ordered it Angels, I have been hoping that Father Tiso would publish more on his research since IONS sponsored his work many years ago.
 
That was fascinating North.

I do hope that Father Tiso can be interviewed on Skeptiko in the future, he is a very warm speaker and, although steeped in Buddhist tradition, he will be able to give an account of his research from a western point of view.
 
I enjoyed this interview very much; I like and admire Michael and his spiritual insights
thank you Alex and Michael

In response to the question Alex teed up about the problems and dangers in channelling...
There are potential problems on both sides of the process; the human and the spiritual. On the human side there are all the fallibilities of human personality and understanding, which can lead to anything from sincere misrepresentations to outright fraud and criminality. On the the spirit side there are the very same potential problems. In my understanding when a person dies their personal mind lives on in the afterlife; which means if they were evil in life they bring that evil mind with them into the afterlife. Evil spirits can and do interfere in this realm in various ways when the opportunity arises. I base this analysis on the widespread testimony throughout all human history of the reality of evil both in this realm and the afterlife realms. So caution is needed when dealing with spirits. Spirits are just dead people; and like living people they may be of widely varying knowledge and understanding and moral and spiritual character. As was mentioned during the interview, some spirits want to offer love and hope and forgiveness, and some spirits want retribution and revenge.
The biggest potential danger ultimately is human stupidity and gullibility. Especially the gullible notions that everything to do with spirits is either all evil or all sweetness and light

At one point Alex refers to psychical research as rubbish, which I find bewildering
Does Alex really hate science so much that he is willing to dismisses all rational or systematic attempts to investigate these matters?
 
I agree. Tiso's book based on his wide-ranging research, from interviews in Tibet to Dzogchen literature to the history of Syriac Christianity mystical theology, is now available: Rainbow Body and Resurrection.


Someone on facebook recently asked about books describing what it is like the afterlife. I replied with links to many free e-books...:

I have a few excerpts from Arthur Conan Doyle and NDErs here: http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-is-it-like-in-afterlife.html
Also:
http://www.spiritwritings.com/library.html
has many free e-books, see the section "Future Life in the Spirit World" in particular but other sections too. I think you will be able decide which are reliable. But I would suggest you look at authors G Vale Owen, Elsa Barker, Charles Drayton Thomas, Geraldine Cummins, Arthur Conan Doyle (History of spiritualism vol II has a section on "THE AFTER-LIFE AS SEEN BY SPIRITUALISTS, http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301061h.html#chap11) and others.

If you have trouble with broken links use https://archive.org/web/ to look up archived versions of anything that used to be on the web.

The books in the section on "Channeled Teachings" might have information on the afterlife. I recommend authors Stewart White, and Darby and Joan, Margaret Cameron, William Stanton Moses, and others - use your judgement on which are reliable.

More libraries of on-line spiritual e-books here:
https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/elibs

Also I recommend books by John Edward ("One Last Time" has a chapter "Sneaking Peeks"), and George Anderson ("Lessons from the Light" has chapters "What is the Hereafter Like" and "Animals - Here and Hereafter"). If you check the publisher descriptions of their books on-line you might find more books by them specifically on what it is like in the afterlife.
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If you click on the links in my previous comment above and click through to the references, they explains why "simulation in consciousness" is the best explanation for the current scientific description of reality - using the language of current technology. If you don't agree, perhaps you could provide a better explanation for the same data? Why is the speed of light constant? Why does gravity bend space-time? Why does "quantum" mechanics seem to be digitized?

Here are the main references:

This explains why the simulation hypothesis is the best explanation for the data: it explains things about, for example, relativity and quantum mechanics, that mainstream science cannot explain.
The Physical World as a Virtual Reality by Brian Whitworth
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0801/0801.0337.pdf

This explains why consciousness is the best explanation of what is running the simulation:
Digital Physics Argument for God's Existence

How could the big bang come from nothing? It didn't. It happened when God thought, "Hmm what whould happen if this and this and this happened" ... and he kept thinking and calculating, "what would happen next" etc etc. Physical "reality" isn't physical, it is all and only thought. Since our consciousness is part of God's consciousness (see where I mentioned panentheism above), we perceive the "simulation" too.

Hello Jim
I am interested in some of the scientific conundrums your points raise and I had quick look at one of the links (Whitworth)
The first conundrum Whitworth states in his paper is this....

"Gravity slows time: An atomic clock on a tall building “ticks” faster than one on the ground."

In my opinion this statement highlights one of the fundamental errors of many who investigate these matters. I believe there is a profound misunderstand built into and expressed in the wording of the sentence.
It is a misunderstanding of what we call time. The claim that gravity slows time; as if there is a natural entity or thing called time that has a speed or rate which is affected by gravity. This is wrong.

What has a speed or rate which is affected by gravity is the process of atomic decay. In other words, a physical force (gravity) has an effect on a physical process (atomic decay).
There is nothing mysterious about this. It would rather be mysterious if gravity did not affect physical processes.
The conundrum only arises when we forget that a 'clock' is a physical mechanism - not some metaphysical thing called 'time'.

Time is a derived mental notion; it is not a self-existing thing or medium or anything at all, other that a mental concept and schema which is useful and practical to use; but is not something existing in nature.
What is in nature are physical processes; which we can measure relative to other physical processes, and then derive our notions of time from the calculation
A lot of philosophical confusions arise from the natural propensity to confuse our derived mental concepts with objective natural existences or physical things or forces
A lot of modern buzzy philosophical notions of quantum this and that and weird reality hypotheses are based on these kinds of misunderstandings of fundamental concepts
Using those misunderstandings to support the simulation hypothesis is not useful imo
 
"What are the pitfalls and opportunities regarding channeled material and to what extent has Michael distinguished himself above the crowd and delivered to us something significant?"

The channeler should routinely bring through material that he would have no ordinary way of knowing but which can be verified.

However, when an incarnated human philosopher writes, his statements are judged by whether they stand up to scrutiny. Are they logically valid, does he provide references to back up his statements? If channeled material stands on its own in this way, the source - spirit or human - is irrelevant.

You should use the same caution when you meet a spirit for the first time as you do when you meet an incarnated person for the first time.

The simulation hypothesis is not crazy, it is correct. However, the "simulation" is not running on a computer, it is running in consciousness.
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/p/occasionally-i-post-something-to.html#misc_universe_sim_god

This is exactly what Michael Cocks is talking about when he says, "I think together we are God" and "...the higher we go, the more we are each other ..."

If you want to crack open the mind of a materialist atheist about the possibility of psi, the simulation hypothesis is a good place to start because it provides a theoretical explanation for psi. I would not ridicule it. I would point out that quantum mechanics provides evidence that the "simulation" is running in consciousness.


http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/03/realizing-ultimate.html
According to wikipedia

Panentheism (meaning "all-in-God"...) is a belief system which posits that the divine ... interpenetrates every part of the universe and extends, timelessly (and, presumably, spacelessly) beyond it.
Palamite Panentheism is explained in the video Christianity and Panentheism on youtube. This philosophy is a form of monism or idealism that holds that consciousness is fundamental. Here are some quotes from the video that support this view:

Acts 17:28: "'In him we live and move and have our being.'"

Colossians 1:17: "And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

John 14:20: "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."

Athanasius the Great (writing about Jesus): "In creation He is present everywhere, yet is distinct in being from it; ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all, yet is He Himself the Uncontained, existing solely in His Father. As with the whole, so also is it with the part. Existing in a human body, to which He Himself gives life, He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and He is revealed both through the works of His body and through His activity in the world." On the Incarnation, 3.17

Martin Luther: "God must be present in every single creature in its innermost and outermost being, on all sides, through and through, below and above, before and behind, so that nothing can be truly present and within all creature than God himself with his power." Weimarer Ausgabe 32.134.34-136.36

Larry L. Rasmussen: Nature could not exist if the spirit of God was removed.​
I am most grateful for the very kind comments that have been made so far. I also appreciate their depth.
In the interview Alex mentioned the idea that physical reality was a simulation, and I responded that it was a crazy idea, because I had in mind simulation theories that did not accept the fact that the Materialist hypothesis is false. But I agree with Jim Smith that what we see as physical reality, can quite legitimately be seen as a simulation brought into being by a deeper and more real level of Mind/Spirit. In my book Into the Wider Dream I explore experiences that demand that we see our physical lives in this light
 
Alex's question at the end of the podcast:

What are the pitfalls and opportunities regarding channelled material and to what extent has Michael distinguished himself above the crowd and delivered to us something significant here?
To answer Michael Larkin: If you go to pages 251-283 in my Stephen book you can find discussion of Stephen's Celtic version of Koine Greek of 2000 years ago, how it confirms what Stephen said in English, is consistent with known historical facts, and with information only known through Dead Sea Scroll documents. Mr research was vetted by two professors from two universities, who would confirm that the Greek is genuinely from Thrace and Macedonia around CE 30.
 
Someone on facebook recently asked about books describing what it is like the afterlife. I replied with links to many free e-books...:
Don't forget "Astral City", which is a dvd made in Brazil based on channeled writings. It used to be free on youtube...now I notice they are charging for rental.
 
Are they logically valid, does he provide references to back up his statements? If channeled material stands on its own in this way, the source - spirit or human - is irrelevant

I really like what you have been writing. Responding to your point about philosophers incarnate and discarnate needing to the checked: I do agree. With regard to Stephen: He did invite us to check his words, since error can creep into channeled commnications. Nevertheless his teachings are self-consistent, in line with the universe as described by quantum mechanics, and if you think Richard Rohr's Franciscan theology sound, then you will like Stephen's. In the last two chapters of my Stephen book, I investigate some strange dialectical Greek that Stephen uttered on one occasion. This led to the discovery of a multitude of cross correspondences in which every one of those strange words linked to what Stephen had said on other occasions, and to known historical fact. I had to go to the Dead Sea Scrolls for some of the information. Nor could the medium, Tom Ashman, without tertiary education, have "found" or constructed such a strange communication.
 
Please forgive, if I have answered before... I have had strife learning how to navigate this forum. But could I refer you to what I have just posted as a reply to Jim Smith's first contribution to the discussion. But I would also refer you to the last two chapters of Afterlife Teaching from Stephen the Martyr, where the implications of Stephen's dialectical Greek are explored. Apart from Stephen's teaching being self-evidently sound (I would maintain) I think that last discussion raises this work above some others
 
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