Yesterday afternoon I spent most of my time formulating in my head, a narrative for my talk. It was too fluid to be put on paper and I find that this freezes the process at too early a stage. I need to be able to shuffling the ideas until the line up in a flowing narrative that has the stages of engagement in it; one that has a story thread to put it succinctly.

In the evening I joined the others at the Palliser for Herman’s last class on the topic ‘The Power of Passion’. Most of Herman’s presentation and the ensuing discussion related to extra sensory experiences in this life by him and others, related research and some relating comments of the six participants.

I awoke at around four thirty this morning with a headache. It was the type I would experience as a high school youth when concentrating extensively while studying. This headache is in the forehead, where the neo-cortex brain lobes are located. Once I discerned this, I started formulating the ideas that were broached in last night’s discussion, combining and acknowledging them, the ideas that is.

From this emerged the realisation that during the apparently loose banter of the discussion ideas and experiences had surfaced, that were not only related, but were also in support of one another. That is one reported experience, serving as an illustration of earlier idea offered as possible explanation and the other way around. That is, an offered explanation calling forth supporting examples.
After this exercise in formulation the headache cum forehead tension, subsided and I slept until about seven am, knowing that this was to be written about in the writings of this morning; see below.

Starting at the table head and going around clockwise, I will assign numbers from one to six for the six participants in the discussion. A striking example about mourning elephants was reported by Two. These elephants walked single file for several days to the hut where their now dead caregiver lay in repose. The animals stayed for three days and then left.

This story was offered as an example that animals mourn, but is also raised the question as to how they were aware of their caregiver having passed on. Four suggested that since all mammals share the limbic system, it may be the basis for this common sense awareness. In the humans this awareness is overridden by our conscious awareness, as enforced by the functioning of the neo-cortex. Four suggested this was similar to the way sun’s daylight overpowers the star’s light in the daytime hours, which shine nevertheless. This suggestion was well accepted.

One reported being overwhelmed by feelings of suffocation when visiting the site of sunken war ships in Hawaii. One had to leave and when escorted away was told that a number of other visitors to this memorial site have similar experiences. One was further told that sailor’s bodies never had been recovered and been left in the sunken war ships as a burial site.

Three reported never to have such experiences or sense awareness and wondered why not? To this four suggested that it may be a matter of talent or ability, referring to some people having musical talents, mathematical or other such exceptional abilities. There was not much acceptance of this idea.

Five offered that the travel through the tunnel experience in the cases of near death experiences, may be a construct, meaning that this would be so reported because it is learned from other such reports.

Six offered a story of a woman who had gone through horrific social and personal experiences as a mother, drug user and dealer in order to raise her children. She was now engaged in volunteer work as a profession.

The presenter had many stories of personal experiences and reported instances, the latter both journalistic as well as scientific, as evidence that the human’s life experience is not limited to the material and touchable part of existence. This left us all with the knowledge, if not the conviction that much remains to be explored about human life, as was the passion of our presenter to so do!
<9:30am.

Expansion on the discussion:

Here is a possible model that emerges from last night’s discussion, which was much more elaborate than reported here and is combined with my early morning mullings and re-combinations. Such a model will no doubt only be partially correct, but as all models do it will provide a standard against which to test and make comparisons. This in turn can lead to modifications to the model, which will enhance hopefully our understanding.

It moves us beyond the stage of mere cataloguing of instances and examples. That these phenomenon do exist has been proven beyond a doubt, the question now is to determine their functioning and significance to us humans.

…it is best to remain open to other abilities of human beings to be conscious and that conscious awareness has potentials well beyond the present one.

Starting with the limbic brain as our basis - [Ref: ‘The Dragons of Eden’ by Carl Sagan.] - shared among mammals, we find in the human the unique neo-cortex, which communicates with the amygdala of the limbic brain regulating - but not fully controlling - emotions. To this I add here the ‘sense awareness’, which is not documented in the research, because no one tests for extrasensory perception. Yet, we certainly could do so and maybe it is done, but not reported.

One function of the neo-cortex is to overrule this extra sensitivity as it is distracting, leading to confusion, which is dangerous. If you have extrasensory abilities, then you must also learn how to differentiate those from the other senses and set them on a different shelve.

So, in order to prevent confusion in sense perception, the human neo-cortex suppresses what we call the sixth sense’s perceptions. This happens in most people’s brains, but not in all and neither to the same extent. For example, a recent internet report - BBC on synaesthesia - informs us that brains can be wired differently. This may be true as well in many other cases of varying abilities between humans.

I suspect that just like no Elm tree is exactly the same as the next Elm tree, but remains an Elm tree nevertheless, so we all have slightly or more differing brains. This will result in different abilities, some of which are extrasensory. We also must keep in mind that we modify our brains continuously as we live until we die.

An other aspect of the model is that some people are more susceptible to extra sensory influences that they can detect, but without having the ability to block or ignore them. This relates to one’s ability to concentrate and keep the attention focussed. This is a learned ability, acquired during childhood and youth and is typical to Western society from its start at the time of the Renaissance.

Consciousness, attention and awareness of feelings are all learned skills like reading, spelling and working with numbers. Paying attention is the skill to keep out other sense and thought associations and to stay focussed on the object or idea of intention. Keeping your attention focussed is tiring too and can only be sustained for a certain limited duration, which is not the same for every one.

Now that we have the outline of a rough model, we can look at how one would become more aware of this extra sensing ability. This can be done through training, as was demonstrated to me at my request, one time back in Apeldoorn NL in 2001.

I was made to feel the impact of a thrust ball to my chest, except that this knowledge was conveyed to me after the experiment. It was the ‘sense thrust ball’ which impact I felt. I did not pursue this demonstrated ability, because I am more interested in finding the explanations of these processes.

To close this expansion, I would say that it is best to remain open to other abilities of human beings to be conscious and that conscious awareness has potentials well beyond the present one. However, their availability will depend on our ability to manage such abilities in a beneficial and responsible manner. This implies a certain level of maturity to serve not only one’s own interests, but also those of society and our place in the realm of humanity, as that in turn is within Existence Divine.
<10:42am~