The new company are aiming to “extend and enhance life" by freezing human brains for extended periods of time using cryonics, a deep freezing technology using very low temperatures, and then putting them into artificial bodies.
But Josh claims the company’s ultimate goal is to preserve a human brain BEFORE a person dies.
I went to a viewing last night for a friend.. I will skip the details, they are very personal and I wouldn’t want to exchange thoughts on such an instance to the world at large.. I wish I could write down most of what I am saying but if I do so, it will not be in a public forum. It will be kept private intentionally. There are some parts of the modern age of websites, Tweets, Facebooks, and blogs that I still don’t embrace. One of those parts is the emergence of saying everything and anything for all to read.
I will simply say this.. one of the saddest things to watch is a son stare at his mother in a casket—when that young man is not even of an age to understand what he is seeing.. When a child is so young that he cannot care for himself.. when a boy is just starting to mature and already his father and mother are both gone.. that is remarkably sad..
I cannot get the image out of my mind.. a well-dressed young man.. staring at his now at rest mother.. regardless of what anyone may say about the deceased—tacky as it may be, people don’t stop preachy gossip when someone dies—that young man has still lost a pillar, a rock of strength, and potentially the last remaining vestige of security he had..
You may not find this post much of help in your life.. but I ask you only to stop before you say something cruel. Cease your words before something vile comes from your mouth.. judgmental people abound. Dare to be different. Accept.
Because that grown adult you’re talking to today may have been the boy of yesterday who stared at his mother in a casket as his world changed.
There were two portions that will stick with me.. they are amazingly poignant:
Love and tolerance is the way – the antithesis of teenage culture. As adults, we preach love and tolerance at school, then fail to lead by example. In business, in sports, in entertainment, in personal relationships and in the media … how often do adults place people before profit, a helping hand before blame, caring ahead of winning, others ahead of self?
and
Kids drink this way because they need to escape their own false personalities. They strive to be the best, to be cool, to be popular and successful. Underneath, it’s all about the same old human needs: to feel valued, to feel important and special, to belong, to be loved.
Lectures and platitudes to the young will never change their society. We must all be the agents of change. Our society, as it gets bigger and more global, must evolve just as our species has evolved. Each of us, at work in the office, at home, in the post office, at the grocery store and in the government, must honor and value each person we encounter. How would your day be if, instead of trying to be right, you were trying to help?
…but proceed with caution. He’s a funeral director who is very honest, brutally so, about his profession..
I read this article today titled ‘when embalming is beautiful’ ..
It’s not an easy read, but an important one. In essence, Wilde talks about the death process—post death really—and how he hates embalming children. What results is a horrendous but yet beautiful description of a family’s reaction to a three-year-old’s corpse laid to rest..
Again, it’s brutal .. and quite honestly brought my to immediate tears that flowed for several minutes.
But it’s just so honest..
There is a really interesting documentary on VIMEO I watched called CALLING EARTH.. it’s a rough cut documentary about after death communication with the living.. And it’s worth a watch.
A few takeaway points that I had after seeing it:
And finally…when do we die anyway? We used to do the ole’ feather trick. Then we moved on to when the heart stopped.. now we are at a point where when the brain stops we believe someone is dead—believe. But with each modern discovery, it seems more and more likely that death will continue to be kicked further down the road..
Most scientists don’t believe in an afterlife—but some are beginning to wonder.. question.. And study.
Old paranormal fields that were confined to embarrassed circles of people hiding their investigations are now beginning to see the light of day, and the analysis of science.
Sometimes EVPs are simply what you think you’re hearing.. you may be so desperate for a message that you hear a muffled sound and suddenly think it’s your loved one saying hi from the netherworld. However, some EVPs are without a doubt filled with clear-cut audio that is simple and unforgivingly real.
Even if it’s not real.. it’s real to the person who heard what they heard…
Give the documentary a whirl during your spare moments in life. It may answer questions, bring closure, but even better: Make you wonder, ponder, think and quake at the prospects that there’s something far greater than an monumental accident leading to the creation of matter and all that matters.
I am not certain if I published this before, but I have become addicted over the past few months to a website written by Caleb Wilde, a Philadelphia-based mortician who mocks death and ads humor to the dying process..
He has written a new blog post about dealing with death and grief.. He argues that if you are going through rough straits, seeing your pastor should be secondary to seeing a therapist.
A good read. And something sadly that every human on this planet will face or has faced already: Grief about death and losing someone close..
A little boy identified a man he said killed him in his past life, and even showed where the body and murder weapon were buried. The man admitted to the crime.
This is a fascinating story from the Golan Heights region near the border of Syria and Israel.. If we are to believe what we read, a 3-year-old boy remembered not only how he died (and ax to the head) but also the person who killed him.
We are also led to believe from the article that the boy led his parents to the murder site. There they found an ax and bones of a body. Also when he confronted the man who he said killed his former self, we are told again, the man confessed to murder as his face ‘turned pale.’
This comes from Eli Lasch, a leading German regressionist in the past lives realm.
This is a matter for discernment, I’d suppose.
Belief in reincarnation seemingly can cut across religious background. I know some Muslims and Catholics who are very open to the concept of reincarnation. I also know some atheists that would never entertain the thought.
The part of this whole story I found most doubtful is that we had a story of a ‘boy’ and a ‘man,’ a ‘family’ and a ‘murder site.’ No names are places were revealed..
Even more, if the story is accurate and we have a real life case of a past life matter, how can we be sure the person regressing this boy did not plant false memories? What scientific assurances can we be given?
After all.. a ’3-year-old confronting’ his murderer?
My son is a little over 3. He loves Scooby Doo and the Care Bears. I cannot imagine him confronting any adult about issues of this nature. Of course, every child is different.
I have long wondered before Ayden was 3 and soon to be 4 (next year) if he would relay some moments of his past lives.. So far nothing. I also asked him where heaven was, who God is, and where he came from. He dodged my questions as only an artful toddler could..
But in the Golan Heights we have a miracle child..
The ax marks the spot.
Pop psychology has implied that our grief can one day “heal.” That one day, we’ll come to a place — after going through an extensive emotional process — where we’re back to normal, as if the brokenness we feel has been mended.
This is an amazing article about what happens to people after they lose someone.
I have been following http://www.calebwilde.com for a bit now.. it’s written by a real funeral director from Pennsylvania, his name is Caleb Wilde. His blof is addictive—and honest, brutally and painfully honest.
I suggest you give this linked article a read.. you may get hooked on his site like I did and follow him..
The death of the daughter of musician and campaigner Bob Geldof and late presenter Paula Yates, has so far been described by police as ‘sudden and unexplained’.
I didn’t post anything concerning this yesterday when news broke, but I have been reading as much as I could about it.. The demise of this girl, only 25 years of age and a mother of two beautiful children, is dead.. The death is being said to be “unexplained.” Inconclusive .. all of those mystery words that are somewhat reminiscent of the death of Brittany Murphy.. Drug and alcohol tests are still coming in Geldof’s passing.
The last time I heard any news about Peaches was in November 2013.. She became the subject of an investigation after she Tweeted the names of two mothers in the Ian Watkins case.. The Watkins matter is disturbing.. Lostprophets’ Ian Watkins was sentenced to 35 years for a series of child sex crimes including the rape of a baby.. Watkins said he did not successfully rape the 11-month-old but did admit to attempted rape. That sentencing was in December 2013.
But let’s flash back to November.. Peaches published the names of the mothers involved with Ian Watkins—the mothers who gave their babies to him to be raped. On Twitter, Peaches said that newspapers knowing the names of the women should print them—she then published the names herself but quickly deleted the Tweets .. One Tweet she posted prior to the release of names said that Watkins was a talentless musical hero and that the mothers were “equal in monstrosity.” The release of the names set off a bitter debate online, and people took to defending Geldof for her right to tell. The amazing part—you know how they say ‘nothing ever vanishes from the internet once it’s printed? The tweet naming the two women vanished. Scrubbed.. like a bad page from 1984, there’s really no mention of it.. Nor is there a mention in the post-mortem summaries anything of Geldof’s insistence on naming the women who helped Watkins rape babies..
We fast forward to April 2014: Geldof is dead at 25.
In one her Gelfof’s final tweets before being found dead, she posted a photograph of her as a child being held closely by her mother… It read “me and my mum.”
I find it strange—maybe purely coincidental—that just a few months after this awful story of Tweets and sentencing occurred, with Peaches being directly at the center of the firestorm, she’s not dead.. And dead at 25. And leaving two children behind—something I doubt she would have wanted to do given her love of her own mother and how much she missed her..
But strange things happen. As do coincidences..
Peaches is gone too soon. Judging from the honest and fiery tweets I read, she seemed to be a grounded and good person.
And it’s those honest and grounded people who so often don’t live a full life these days.
…and I was not too forgiving of the killer—I suspended by disagreement with the death penalty because of Sells’ crimes and didn’t introduce the notion to my mind to feel bad for him,
It brings up the bigger question: What should we do with people on death row or any criminal who has exhausted the forgiveness of society?
In America, we seem to become agitated any time we hear that prisoners get basic rights such as food, water, and books.. We get infuriated when we think about how they drain the tax dollars of money.. (of course we seldom care that pot offenders get hard time and that death row inmates often languish for years even though DNA evidence now may prove them innocent of the crimes)..
How should a dignified nation treat its criminals? With dignity.. I am good with that.
Maybe except with Sells…
It has been about a year and a month since I lost a friend to cancer. She was a brave soul who endured agony before she passed away.. She was young—at least I look at her that way since she graduated the same year as me from high school, and I’m not old, right?
It is somewhat weird that Facebook pages never die .. We can pass from this existence, but the words and ‘likes’ we had will remain so as long as Mark Zuckerberg and the NSA permit it..
My friend’s name was Lori.. I visited her Facebook page the other night and realized that people were still actively posting messages to her.. sending love .. actively asking for her to help them. Grieving never stops, perhaps.. And maybe with technology it is evolving. Does it help or hurt to be able to constantly go back to someone’s Facebook, or Twitter, or blog? After all, a visit to the page could make it seem like they’re still here, somewhere.
And maybe they are.
Alexander Graham Bell often visited seances. Some think his invention of the telephone was meant to help the deaf.. others wonder if Bell, like all of us, were searching for a way to speak to the dead and ponder an afterlife. The mystery of EVPs has been around for centuries.. are they recordings of ghostly apparitions, wandering the earth? Or are they just a recording of the endless loop of life—a recording of what we say that replays over and over again? We are told by paranormal ‘experts’ that Bell had those questions. He didn’t find an answer—but his invention led us to years of creepy stories of the dead calling their loved ones after they left the earth.
I wonder how long until we hear from people who claim that the dead updated their Facebook accounts.. I wonder how long until the dead do it—if the dead are powerful enough to do such things.. And that takes into consideration the fact that an afterlife would be existent. And if there was one, it would have to have a few dull moments that people would rather update a Facebook status as opposed to playing musical instruments with angelic figures…
I don’t say this in mocking. As a matter of fact, I am quite surprised that there are no movies or scary stories to tell in the dark regarding Facebook, or Twitter.
It is a little eerie to me to visit Lori’s Facebook page a year and some time later after she lost her battle to cancer.. The photos of her struggles remain.. her hometown remains, as though she’s still there. Her profile picture remains.. as though it’s still current. And the messages to her are continuous, as though she is still alive.
It’s the new way we deal with grief and pain. And there is nothing wrong with it. Any way we try to cope is healthy—it shows we are actively trying to get a hold on our emotions and become mentally stable with the tragedy that life can be..
Alexander Graham Bell was quoted once as saying this,
I have been thinking for some time of a machine or apparatus which could be operated by personalities who have passed on to another existence or sphere. I believe that if we are to make any real progress in psychic investigation, we must do it with scientific apparatus and in a scientific manner.
Maybe one day that apparatus will be Facebook….when a lost soul responds to friends who miss them. Just imagine that premise next time you post a message on a deceased friend’s wall…
I’m not judging. We all handle grief in a different manner..
The photo you’re looking at is an example of Victorian post-mortem photography.
Our modern world may call this creepy and weird. But think of the times it happened in.. kids weren’t living very long due to disease and other issues. A big family of 10 could be taken down to much less due to some type of medical ailment. The photos, though taken so long ago, still reverberate with some bit of ‘strange’ quality.. but I find it to be just an example of how we, the living, deal with death. Maybe this does not happen now, but for it’s time, it was a touching tradition that was meant to honor the people taken too soon from life. Perhaps these photos are not for the squeamish..
Those who know me or follow this site will vouch for me: I love paranormal radio. Art Bell, Clyde Lewis.. sometimes George Noory.. seldom John Wells. Nonetheless, my mind is just blown away by the nightly prospects of flipping back and forth from Clyde to Art over and over..
Last night Art Bell had a guest, Whitley Strieber, who seemed to confirm something that John Lear said many years back on an Art Bell show when he was hosting Coast to Coast AM: Don’t go into the light.
Some context is in order.
John Lear, yes, a family member in the famed Lear family, told Art Bell that when you die, the ‘light’ is a trick.. the light is a mirage.. it’s the devil himself trying to trick us to enter the gates off hell with him.. The light.
Last night, years after that Lear show, Whitley Strieber confirmed to Art what Lear said, that the light was not goodness at all.. he said not to embrace the light. Turn away from the light.
I am with Art Bell on this. It makes me angry that the one thing that people say they see when they have NDEs may be a fraud!
I am sure many will debate me on the existence of an afterlife to begin with.. but travel down a road with me for a minute, and envision an afterlife being real. You’d certainly think ‘the light’ was a sure bet! Go to it.. there is peace and serenity in the light, right?
Maybe not..
Something for you to think about, until you meet your ultimate demise and actually find out if an afterlife, a light, and a devil exists..
… the only way out is a crash: Death.
I think that sums up the gravity of the situation we are all in.
Please don’t consider this a negative posting about life. Life is actually quite fun for me right now.
I have a 17-month-old little man who is the joy of life.. My wife and I have been forever changed by his existence in our world. I have a wonderful family. Friends I cherish. We have jobs. We have a roof over our heads.. we have food when we are hungry. And I have an iPhone, and all the other technology that comes with life these days, too.
In the past two weeks I have been to two funerals. I will keep the overly personal information out, and just say that one was for someone who was 95 and a World War II POW. Another was for an uncle who lived to the truly ripe old age of 94. Both were pushing 100 when they met their respective final resting places. They both had long lives and lots of memories.. they both had stories.. both had a memories.. both had loved ones, cherished friends.. We all have stories, too. No matter the person.. From the richest to the poorest. From the oldest in the world to the child that dies at birth. There IS A MEANING to life.. right?
After contemplation, I have determined that we have become overly busy with our selfish pleasures of newsfeeds and campaign stats and sports stats and bla bla bla bla bla. At least I have.
I have neglected so much in the real world because of the online world. The internet and technology have become habits instead of pleasures. It went from being a novelty to a way of life. We all have been touched by the net bug. We are addicted!! Addicted to virtual reality. Addicted to virtual everything……virtually nothing.
But back to life for a second. REAL LIFE, not virtual.
What is the purpose to all this? Why ask! you know there is no answer. Lots claim to know the truth. Many others ponder it forever. In the end we don’t have a clue. What happens when we do die!? Again, here.. no word from anyone who did perish. We are left to wonder if near death experiences are really experiences of truth or just brain waves going awry. We are left to question tenets of religion.. question all things.
In the net age we have oodles of knowledge at our fingertips. All we have to do is Google or Bing it or MetaFilter it.. or whatever it. Do people even ask Jeeves anymore? Or AltaVista? .. Asta La Vista ..
Search results would amount to tons of data if you printed it on paper. But in our paperless society paper doesn’t exist anymore… right? Even though a paper-stack of bills sits next to me, that snail mail sent me, that was licked by some underpaid secretary in a cubicle maybe even AGHAST! with a typewriter…somewhere in the world.
There are bits and bytes of data flying around the world at a record pace.
And with all this knowledge you’d think by now someone would have found the meaning of life! The closest I know that found something was John Clease in MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE. The death penalty introduced to us in that show was, well, one many men wouldn’t mind having.
The information superhighway.. that is what it was once dubbed. Now it’s filled with potholes and dead sites that have dead ends.
Where does it all go in the end, though?
No where.. bits and bytes go bye bye for us.
Our bodies were dust and to dust they return. Despite the big plans we have to strive for big goals, we are cut down by something..whether it’s fate, God, time.. science. Whatever you believe. You can be five months, 15, 35, or 95. All dust.
So after this week, with two funerals (and a wedding, congrats bro), one can only leave the day with a renewed perspective on this strange place called earth.
A new lease on life!?
Not a chance…
A constantly expiring lease?
Now that is more like it..
But if you did you would have heard Dr. Gregg Korbon share the story of how his 9 year old son, Brian, predicted his own death with remarkable accuracy.. It was moving, amazing.. and mysterious. Despite critics’ comments of George Noory many have, last night’s show why Coast to Coast AM could still matter.
