Another day, another year...and some say, heralding a new age of human awakening and consciousness.
Showing posts with label Exploration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Exploration. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Monday, 12 December 2011
Monday, 2 May 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
New Online Movie Creation Tool
JJ has been involved in some movie shoot these past few weeks; coming and going at all unearthly hours. He is almost always bombed out when he returns home!
Basically, movie-making is about telling a story so behold this new online tool by Xtranormal! I made the following movie in 10 minutes without using a video camera! And just the same, the story is told.
And my friend Albert made this:
Basically, movie-making is about telling a story so behold this new online tool by Xtranormal! I made the following movie in 10 minutes without using a video camera! And just the same, the story is told.
And my friend Albert made this:
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Message For 1.1.11 And 2011
"...which would you choose?...which do you choose?...and...WHEN?"
Nevermind that this video is 2 years old. The message remains the same.
Nevermind that this video is 2 years old. The message remains the same.
Monday, 7 June 2010
What Truly Happened With MV Mavi Marmara? Is The Truth With Our Own Witnesses? Is It Out There?
I have seen some horrendous Middle East war footages where civilians are the main victims and do not condone atrocities by both sides. Perhaps the hate is so deep the fine line between right and wrong is forever blurred in the region. There is no longer a who is right and who is wrong. In fact, I am as confused as Anwar and Najib which side of the Israeli/Jew/Zionist line I want to stand with.
With the attack of the Gaza Aid Flotilla, my initial reaction was that whoever the Israeli military hawk who ordered the attack, he should be brought to trial. I thought it was some trigger-happy Israeli commander who caused it but at the back of my mind I knew this was unlikely for the well drilled Israeli armed forces.
Then I read this report in the Malaysian Mirror which quoted a Malaysian witness as saying they had initially captured three Israeli soldiers. Hellloooo...who attacked first ar? Now, somebody better tell the truth before we have to send our "best Oxford brains" to take on Israel and save the world!
My curiosity coupled with some e-mails that began to show up made me do a web search. These are some of the things that are glaring:
This first video tries to show the situation in Gaza. Can someone verify what exactly is going down in Gaza? Are the Palestinians really suffering of hunger, medically, etc., etc?
This next video tries to explain what happened on MV Mavi Marmara that fateful day:
Then there is this little musical clip that is a refreshing new propaganda tool. If only conflicts can be settled not through war but through musicals!
With the attack of the Gaza Aid Flotilla, my initial reaction was that whoever the Israeli military hawk who ordered the attack, he should be brought to trial. I thought it was some trigger-happy Israeli commander who caused it but at the back of my mind I knew this was unlikely for the well drilled Israeli armed forces.
Then I read this report in the Malaysian Mirror which quoted a Malaysian witness as saying they had initially captured three Israeli soldiers. Hellloooo...who attacked first ar? Now, somebody better tell the truth before we have to send our "best Oxford brains" to take on Israel and save the world!
My curiosity coupled with some e-mails that began to show up made me do a web search. These are some of the things that are glaring:
This first video tries to show the situation in Gaza. Can someone verify what exactly is going down in Gaza? Are the Palestinians really suffering of hunger, medically, etc., etc?
This next video tries to explain what happened on MV Mavi Marmara that fateful day:
Then there is this little musical clip that is a refreshing new propaganda tool. If only conflicts can be settled not through war but through musicals!
Monday, 10 May 2010
Dr Michael Newton: Spirit Realm Trailblazer Or Fraud?
People who know me well or who read this blog know I am a great advocate of the work and findings of Dr Michael Newton (MN).
Recently, there have been an increasing number of signs around me that seems to validate what MN postulates in his books yet, the skeptic within compels me to scour the www to seek any articles that refutes MN convincingly.
Well, not only has Google not found any "convincing" counters to MN, I do not remember seeing a single article that refutes him. To me, this is pretty amazing considering the power of Google. I am now more convinced that more people must read his two books, "Journey of Souls" and "Destiny of Souls". The books are available free online too but I would suggest getting and keeping personal copies from the bookshop.
The interesting article below is extracted (without permission) from the website of someone named Larry Carter...another skeptic. I found it when Googling for "Michael Newton and fraud". Please read:
The Spirit World
OK, this is something I've never done before. I don't put bumper stickers on my car - I don't even wear t-shirts with messages on them - so this is as close as I've ever come to proselytizing. However, after 50 years of exploring the great and not-so-great religions of the world, I finally found something regarding the afterlife that makes sense to me. (If an afterlife where some souls play harp all day while others are poked by demons with pitchforks sounds to you like a "Saturday Night Live" skit, you know what I mean.) So, I'm taking a chance and sharing what I've learned in hopes that it might be important to someone else as well.
The basics
Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist, meaning his expertise as a therapist is hypnotizing people to help them recall and resolve hidden memories (childhood abuse, for instance) that are resurfacing as adult problems. As he developed a technique for leading people into deeper and deeper trance states, he discovered that with some particularly sensitive people he was able to get beyond their ego bodies and converse with their immortal souls through past life regression. (If you don't think you have an immortal soul that has reincarnated in numerous bodies, you might as well stop reading right now. If, however, you think you do have an immortal soul, why shouldn't it be able to speak for itself when your physical body is placed in a deep enough trance?) As he developed his technique further, instead of focusing on just past lives he began asking them to describe the time between lives - after death but before incarnating in a new body. Through thousands of such sessions over 30 years of work, he pieced together a view of the spirit world that is very specific and revealing.
New Age mumbo-jumbo
I don't generally pay much attention to people who relate near-death or past-life experiences because, frankly, it all sounds like New Age mumbo-jumbo to me. Near-death experiences (lights at the end of tunnels and such) are by definition NEAR death rather than the real thing, so any observations from someone who "came back" might be based on their physical body reacting to trauma. Past-life memories make a certain amount of sense to me since I believe in reincarnation, but they are also susceptible to current-life egos - like all those people who insist they were someone famous like Cleopatra.
This, however, is something different. If Newton is telling the truth, thousands of people from very different spiritual backgrounds - from atheists to religious zealots - all give about the SAME DETAILS under deep hypnosis of what it is like in the spirit world. These details are far, far too specific to be explained as mere ego fantasies or coincidences, and since he claims to ask non-directive open-ended questions during hypnosis, the consistency of what he claims they report is startling. It is the CONSISTENCY OF DETAILS reported by thousands of very different clients that is most persuasive for me.
Fact or fraud?
Since his books include actual transcripts of hypnotherapy sessions where clients are reporting details regarding the spirit world, what it comes down to is that either these transcripts are real or he's just making the whole thing up. If this is all a hoax, it is an extremely elaborate one that he has somehow managed to carry on for decades. His books have sold around half a million copies over the last 13 years, so critics have had plenty of time and reason to expose any fraud. Given the thousands of people he claims to have personally had sessions with since the 1970s, and given that he has trained other hypnotherapists who have used his technique on countless more people, it seems unlikely to me that he would be able to maintain such an elaborate hoax over such a long period of time without someone, somewhere exposing any fraud. Although he certainly has his critics, I haven't been able to find anything that actually debunks his research claims. IF YOU CAN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Until that point, I'm inclined to put my SKEPTICISM (see below) aside and assume that the session transcripts he includes in his books really happened.
It - like - resonates with me, man!
There is an important qualifier: I suspect the spirit world is actually beyond human comprehension (why should the way it REALLY is be limited to what we can comprehend with human brains?), so I suspect any discussion of life after death relates to what REALLY happens in the same way that a kindergarten class in learning to count relates to advanced algebra. Given this limitation, however, this explanation is the first one I've heard that (as they say in California) resonates with me. Further, it seems quite compatible with what I consider to be the underlying assumptions of all peaceful world religions - being kind to others, practicing forgiveness, living a life of service, accepting consequences for decisions that hurt others, requesting spiritual guidance, believing the soul outlives the body, seeing spirit in all matter, striving toward the One, etc.
Leap of faith
Therefore, I'm willing to take the leap of faith and say that, despite some unanswered questions, this is what I believe. If you are interested in knowing what he has to say, a good place to start might be a 30-minute interview with him that someone posted on YouTube.Com. Click HERE or, if that doesn't work, go to www.YouTube.Com and search for "Michael Newton between lives." If the interview appeals to you, you might want to read one of his books - particularly Journey of Souls or Destiny of Souls. They basically amount to transcripts from his hypno-therapy sessions, plus commentary by him. His third book is an instruction handbook for other hypnotherapists interested in learning his technique. Used copies of his books are readily available from places like www.Amazon.Com for under $10.
And there you have it.
Larry, November 2007
***********************************
Postcript #1: My SKEPTICISM is based on the following:
1) As a PhD, Newton is very familiar with the rigors of academic research, so what's with the total lack of substantiation for his claims? If this isn't a hoax, his findings are monumental and deserve academic validation - independent reviews of session tapes, for example. If he can include transcripts in his books, he should be able to make the original tapes available for peer review. Anecdotal evidence is interesting for the casual reader, but doesn't really validate his claims. On the other hand - perhaps he just isn't interested in convincing skeptical academics.
2) As a playwright myself who has struggled with writing dialogue, his transcripts don't sound very real. Perhaps that's because the subjects are in deep hypnosis, or because at the soul-level we all sound alike, or because he has edited the transcripts to make them more readable without altering the actual content - or perhaps it's because he's making the transcripts up as he goes.
3) Hypnotism is hardly new - some say it has been commonly practiced by Shamans and healers for thousands of years - so why is he the first person to tell us this specific information? Granted, he claims to have developed hypnosis techniques that allow him to go deeper into the trance state than normal, but even this doesn't sound all that unique. Given how exacting his information is, why haven't these very specific details found their way into numerous tribal mythologies? On the other hand, New Age enthusiasts insist that THIS is the most critical time in human history, and that we should expect spiritual messengers to be among us to lead us into the "new age" of our development.
4) Despite the above reservations, the way he describes the spirit world sounds very convincing to me. Ironically, it is SO convincing that it makes me suspicious. If I were to create a hoax regarding the spirit world, his multi-tiered system of non-judgmental educational development is about how I would have designed it myself. In other words, I am suspicious of being seduced by a vision that is so similar to what I would have created if I had been writing fiction. I realize this is a double-bind, but so be it.
***********************************
Postscript #2 - Here are a couple of interesting REVIEWS I found on Amazon.Com from people who claim to have undergone hypnotherapy from either Newton or someone trained by him. Although plenty of reviewers disagreed with him, I didn't find any that disputed the integrity of his claims.
Review #1 - It is the truth and he is legitimate, January 2, 2002
By Reviewer "draiguisge" (Seattle, WA)
I first read Journey of Souls a few years ago, and had the same feeling of resonance that many reviewers did. But I wasn't convinced and still wanted to know more. I wrote to a reviewer on this site who had visited him, and following her suggestion, wrote to Dr. Newton for an appointment. At the time, he had a three-year waiting list, and was seeing about 2-3 clients a week. I saw him just before Destiny of Souls was completed, and while I did not experience my memories with the same clarity the subjects in his book did, I can say with utter certainty that Dr. Newton is not making it up, and is not manipulating his readers.
From my conversations with him, I have found him to be very intelligent, caring, funny, and honest. My experience in hypnosis was a bit unsettling for me, as much as the skeptic in me wanted to dismiss the truths I had learned about myself, I could not attribute my memories to anything that I had seen in his books or elsewhere. Nor did he plant the ideas in my head. He is absolutely the stubborn investigator he describes in his books and challenged the things I said, questioned me during the session, compared to things I had said earlier to make sure I was still saying the same things. Then, at the end of the session told me where I had said something similar to his other clients that had not been in Journey of Souls (but is now in Destiny), such as my detailed explanation of the medallion worn by one of the "Council" members.
In retrospect, I think the most amazing thing about my session was my casual attitude - as I talked about "unbelievable" things like hybrid souls I might as well have been telling him "the sky is blue" with the nonchalant way I felt. In fact, a few times I did get frustrated with his questioning, the same way someone would if challenged with "No, the sky is GREEN". What I was saying felt then, as it does now, to be nothing but pure and simple truth.
For the further skeptical, my small claim to fame is that one of his "One of my clients said.." comments to illustrate a point about soul names was something I told him after my session. So I know that whenever he says a client said something, they did.
________________________________________
Review #2 - My Experience of Life Between Life, May 26, 2007
By Reviewer "miteyoak" (Sacramento, CA)
I read this book almost 10 years ago, and it totally made sense with the way that I had always believed. I signed up to be on the waiting list for a regression, and I received a letter stating there was an 18 month or so waiting list. I only lived about an hour away from Grass Valley. I never heard anything. Then, about 5 years ago, I had a life between life regression from somebody who was trained by Newton. I had always wondered if I would lose my will and hypnosis would make me cluck like a chicken or if they would plant suggestions, but it isn't like that at all. First, they relax you and then they will ask you a question about what you see. I really saw things -- not always as clear as if I was watching TV -- but, I was able to get images and information and feel real feelings -- it was a very real experience. And, there isn't any way that my conscious mind could have fabricated what I saw. The whole process was mind blowing, and yet it eased my mind. I really went before a council of elders, and the some of the issues I had then are still issues in this life. I wouldn't have been able to make the link at the time -- and even during the process. It is only now -- several years later -- that I can see the pattern and see its relevance. It is hard to process everything all at once.
***********************************
Postscript #3 - Having recently read Newton's 3rd book (basically an instruction manual for how experts already trained in hypnosis and therapy can use his technique) I am even more convinced that he is telling the truth as he sees it. After all, if he had made up all of these session dialogues up as a hoax, it seems highly unlikely that he would start a school to train other hypnotherapists on how to use his technique.
________________________________________
Postscript #4 - I find Newton's research to be compatible with the wide variety of spiritual practices I enjoy exploring. Below are links to some of my personal favorites.
Recently, there have been an increasing number of signs around me that seems to validate what MN postulates in his books yet, the skeptic within compels me to scour the www to seek any articles that refutes MN convincingly.
Well, not only has Google not found any "convincing" counters to MN, I do not remember seeing a single article that refutes him. To me, this is pretty amazing considering the power of Google. I am now more convinced that more people must read his two books, "Journey of Souls" and "Destiny of Souls". The books are available free online too but I would suggest getting and keeping personal copies from the bookshop.
The interesting article below is extracted (without permission) from the website of someone named Larry Carter...another skeptic. I found it when Googling for "Michael Newton and fraud". Please read:
The Spirit World
OK, this is something I've never done before. I don't put bumper stickers on my car - I don't even wear t-shirts with messages on them - so this is as close as I've ever come to proselytizing. However, after 50 years of exploring the great and not-so-great religions of the world, I finally found something regarding the afterlife that makes sense to me. (If an afterlife where some souls play harp all day while others are poked by demons with pitchforks sounds to you like a "Saturday Night Live" skit, you know what I mean.) So, I'm taking a chance and sharing what I've learned in hopes that it might be important to someone else as well.
The basics
Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist, meaning his expertise as a therapist is hypnotizing people to help them recall and resolve hidden memories (childhood abuse, for instance) that are resurfacing as adult problems. As he developed a technique for leading people into deeper and deeper trance states, he discovered that with some particularly sensitive people he was able to get beyond their ego bodies and converse with their immortal souls through past life regression. (If you don't think you have an immortal soul that has reincarnated in numerous bodies, you might as well stop reading right now. If, however, you think you do have an immortal soul, why shouldn't it be able to speak for itself when your physical body is placed in a deep enough trance?) As he developed his technique further, instead of focusing on just past lives he began asking them to describe the time between lives - after death but before incarnating in a new body. Through thousands of such sessions over 30 years of work, he pieced together a view of the spirit world that is very specific and revealing.
New Age mumbo-jumbo
I don't generally pay much attention to people who relate near-death or past-life experiences because, frankly, it all sounds like New Age mumbo-jumbo to me. Near-death experiences (lights at the end of tunnels and such) are by definition NEAR death rather than the real thing, so any observations from someone who "came back" might be based on their physical body reacting to trauma. Past-life memories make a certain amount of sense to me since I believe in reincarnation, but they are also susceptible to current-life egos - like all those people who insist they were someone famous like Cleopatra.
This, however, is something different. If Newton is telling the truth, thousands of people from very different spiritual backgrounds - from atheists to religious zealots - all give about the SAME DETAILS under deep hypnosis of what it is like in the spirit world. These details are far, far too specific to be explained as mere ego fantasies or coincidences, and since he claims to ask non-directive open-ended questions during hypnosis, the consistency of what he claims they report is startling. It is the CONSISTENCY OF DETAILS reported by thousands of very different clients that is most persuasive for me.
Fact or fraud?
Since his books include actual transcripts of hypnotherapy sessions where clients are reporting details regarding the spirit world, what it comes down to is that either these transcripts are real or he's just making the whole thing up. If this is all a hoax, it is an extremely elaborate one that he has somehow managed to carry on for decades. His books have sold around half a million copies over the last 13 years, so critics have had plenty of time and reason to expose any fraud. Given the thousands of people he claims to have personally had sessions with since the 1970s, and given that he has trained other hypnotherapists who have used his technique on countless more people, it seems unlikely to me that he would be able to maintain such an elaborate hoax over such a long period of time without someone, somewhere exposing any fraud. Although he certainly has his critics, I haven't been able to find anything that actually debunks his research claims. IF YOU CAN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Until that point, I'm inclined to put my SKEPTICISM (see below) aside and assume that the session transcripts he includes in his books really happened.
It - like - resonates with me, man!
There is an important qualifier: I suspect the spirit world is actually beyond human comprehension (why should the way it REALLY is be limited to what we can comprehend with human brains?), so I suspect any discussion of life after death relates to what REALLY happens in the same way that a kindergarten class in learning to count relates to advanced algebra. Given this limitation, however, this explanation is the first one I've heard that (as they say in California) resonates with me. Further, it seems quite compatible with what I consider to be the underlying assumptions of all peaceful world religions - being kind to others, practicing forgiveness, living a life of service, accepting consequences for decisions that hurt others, requesting spiritual guidance, believing the soul outlives the body, seeing spirit in all matter, striving toward the One, etc.
Leap of faith
Therefore, I'm willing to take the leap of faith and say that, despite some unanswered questions, this is what I believe. If you are interested in knowing what he has to say, a good place to start might be a 30-minute interview with him that someone posted on YouTube.Com. Click HERE or, if that doesn't work, go to www.YouTube.Com and search for "Michael Newton between lives." If the interview appeals to you, you might want to read one of his books - particularly Journey of Souls or Destiny of Souls. They basically amount to transcripts from his hypno-therapy sessions, plus commentary by him. His third book is an instruction handbook for other hypnotherapists interested in learning his technique. Used copies of his books are readily available from places like www.Amazon.Com for under $10.
And there you have it.
Larry, November 2007
***********************************
Postcript #1: My SKEPTICISM is based on the following:
1) As a PhD, Newton is very familiar with the rigors of academic research, so what's with the total lack of substantiation for his claims? If this isn't a hoax, his findings are monumental and deserve academic validation - independent reviews of session tapes, for example. If he can include transcripts in his books, he should be able to make the original tapes available for peer review. Anecdotal evidence is interesting for the casual reader, but doesn't really validate his claims. On the other hand - perhaps he just isn't interested in convincing skeptical academics.
2) As a playwright myself who has struggled with writing dialogue, his transcripts don't sound very real. Perhaps that's because the subjects are in deep hypnosis, or because at the soul-level we all sound alike, or because he has edited the transcripts to make them more readable without altering the actual content - or perhaps it's because he's making the transcripts up as he goes.
3) Hypnotism is hardly new - some say it has been commonly practiced by Shamans and healers for thousands of years - so why is he the first person to tell us this specific information? Granted, he claims to have developed hypnosis techniques that allow him to go deeper into the trance state than normal, but even this doesn't sound all that unique. Given how exacting his information is, why haven't these very specific details found their way into numerous tribal mythologies? On the other hand, New Age enthusiasts insist that THIS is the most critical time in human history, and that we should expect spiritual messengers to be among us to lead us into the "new age" of our development.
4) Despite the above reservations, the way he describes the spirit world sounds very convincing to me. Ironically, it is SO convincing that it makes me suspicious. If I were to create a hoax regarding the spirit world, his multi-tiered system of non-judgmental educational development is about how I would have designed it myself. In other words, I am suspicious of being seduced by a vision that is so similar to what I would have created if I had been writing fiction. I realize this is a double-bind, but so be it.
***********************************
Postscript #2 - Here are a couple of interesting REVIEWS I found on Amazon.Com from people who claim to have undergone hypnotherapy from either Newton or someone trained by him. Although plenty of reviewers disagreed with him, I didn't find any that disputed the integrity of his claims.
Review #1 - It is the truth and he is legitimate, January 2, 2002
By Reviewer "draiguisge" (Seattle, WA)
I first read Journey of Souls a few years ago, and had the same feeling of resonance that many reviewers did. But I wasn't convinced and still wanted to know more. I wrote to a reviewer on this site who had visited him, and following her suggestion, wrote to Dr. Newton for an appointment. At the time, he had a three-year waiting list, and was seeing about 2-3 clients a week. I saw him just before Destiny of Souls was completed, and while I did not experience my memories with the same clarity the subjects in his book did, I can say with utter certainty that Dr. Newton is not making it up, and is not manipulating his readers.
From my conversations with him, I have found him to be very intelligent, caring, funny, and honest. My experience in hypnosis was a bit unsettling for me, as much as the skeptic in me wanted to dismiss the truths I had learned about myself, I could not attribute my memories to anything that I had seen in his books or elsewhere. Nor did he plant the ideas in my head. He is absolutely the stubborn investigator he describes in his books and challenged the things I said, questioned me during the session, compared to things I had said earlier to make sure I was still saying the same things. Then, at the end of the session told me where I had said something similar to his other clients that had not been in Journey of Souls (but is now in Destiny), such as my detailed explanation of the medallion worn by one of the "Council" members.
In retrospect, I think the most amazing thing about my session was my casual attitude - as I talked about "unbelievable" things like hybrid souls I might as well have been telling him "the sky is blue" with the nonchalant way I felt. In fact, a few times I did get frustrated with his questioning, the same way someone would if challenged with "No, the sky is GREEN". What I was saying felt then, as it does now, to be nothing but pure and simple truth.
For the further skeptical, my small claim to fame is that one of his "One of my clients said.." comments to illustrate a point about soul names was something I told him after my session. So I know that whenever he says a client said something, they did.
________________________________________
Review #2 - My Experience of Life Between Life, May 26, 2007
By Reviewer "miteyoak" (Sacramento, CA)
I read this book almost 10 years ago, and it totally made sense with the way that I had always believed. I signed up to be on the waiting list for a regression, and I received a letter stating there was an 18 month or so waiting list. I only lived about an hour away from Grass Valley. I never heard anything. Then, about 5 years ago, I had a life between life regression from somebody who was trained by Newton. I had always wondered if I would lose my will and hypnosis would make me cluck like a chicken or if they would plant suggestions, but it isn't like that at all. First, they relax you and then they will ask you a question about what you see. I really saw things -- not always as clear as if I was watching TV -- but, I was able to get images and information and feel real feelings -- it was a very real experience. And, there isn't any way that my conscious mind could have fabricated what I saw. The whole process was mind blowing, and yet it eased my mind. I really went before a council of elders, and the some of the issues I had then are still issues in this life. I wouldn't have been able to make the link at the time -- and even during the process. It is only now -- several years later -- that I can see the pattern and see its relevance. It is hard to process everything all at once.
***********************************
Postscript #3 - Having recently read Newton's 3rd book (basically an instruction manual for how experts already trained in hypnosis and therapy can use his technique) I am even more convinced that he is telling the truth as he sees it. After all, if he had made up all of these session dialogues up as a hoax, it seems highly unlikely that he would start a school to train other hypnotherapists on how to use his technique.
________________________________________
Postscript #4 - I find Newton's research to be compatible with the wide variety of spiritual practices I enjoy exploring. Below are links to some of my personal favorites.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Mr Najib Goes To Washington
Go to KL in the day time and you will see hundreds of Middle Eastern nationals thronging the streets and shopping malls. Jalan Bukit Bintang in the late night is transformed into Arab Street with street vendors selling all sorts of ware catered to the taste of Middle Eastern prospects.
The thousands of them can't just be tourists on temporary sojorn in Malaysia can they? A quick survey at the hundreds of condominiums and apartments in KL will confirm that many of them are from Iran and are in Malaysia for the medium to long haul. Thousands are students while many are actually working here. I have met some who say they have run away from Ahmadinejad's Iran yet most are here at the encouragement of their own government and because they find Malaysia conducive and welcomes them with "open arms".
This "open door" policy to Iranians probably caused the kind of confusion amongst our civil servants that one seemingly clueless clown, Mohd Arshad Manzoor Hussain, a 35-year diplomatic veteran got sacked for voting against UN IAEA proposed sanctions on Iran.
Apparently, Malaysia’s IAEA mission had been instructed to vote in line with the position of the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations, which has historically opposed Western-driven international actions to isolate Iran, a fellow member of NAM. When the vote was held, Arshad was said to be surprised to see NAM members Egypt, Pakistan and South Africa abstain, and India vote “yes”. It seemed Arshad had no time to double-check policy with his capital, and so voted against as originally instructed. He probably should have abstained but emotions may have got the better of him. In any case, this speaks wonders for Malaysia's management of its foreign policy.
Still, the bottom line is, Malaysia has good ties with Iran. As recent as 31st March, Bernama reported:
Still, the bottom line is, Malaysia has good ties with Iran. As recent as 31st March, Bernama reported:
"Iranian Envoy Looking Forward To A Stronger Relationship
By Faridah Abd Rashid
KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- Newly-appointed Iranian ambassador to Malaysia Prof Dr Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi is looking forward to a stronger relationship between Iran and Malaysia, which could lead to both countries being more influential in the Islamic world and globally.
Both being Muslim countries, Iran and Malaysia had always worked hand-in-hand in terms of ideas relating to international issues affecting the Muslim world and global issues at large, said the envoy who received his credentials from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last week. Read more here...
Fast forward almost 2 weeks and we find Mr. Najib in Washington. Read the article below from the Bangkok Post today headlined, "US, Malaysia take anti-Iran stance".
Although, the IAEA fiasco already showed Malaysia's official stand why do I still get the feeling that someone's balls is in another person's hands and they are not by any chance being pleasureably fondled? Would we have voluntarily supported the vote to sanction? Bear in mind that Mohd Arshad was a 35-year diplomatic veteran.
This is in today's Bangkok Post:
US, Malaysia take anti-Iran stance
Online news: Breakingnews
WASHINGTON : Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak agreed in talks with US President Barack Obama on Monday that the global community should send a "clear signal" to Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
The United States is leading an effort to toughen sanctions within weeks on Iran over its nuclear programme, which the United States and allies say is aimed at producing weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Obama and Najib met ahead of the start of a landmark 47-nation summit in Washington on Monday aimed at depriving terror groups of nuclear weapons, among other objectives.
"The President and the Prime Minister agreed on the importance of Iran strictly abiding by its obligations under the international nuclear non-proliferation regime," a White House statement said.
"The two Leaders also agreed on the need for the international community to send a clear signal to Iran that while it has the right to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy, Iran should not use this right to develop nuclear weapons capability as stated in UNSC and IAEA resolutions," the statement said.
Iran, which is at loggerheads with the United States over its atomic programme, is not represented at the nuclear summit.
Iran has been under mounting global pressure to abandon its nuclear programme, with Western powers fearing it wants to build an atomic bomb. Tehran says the programme is peaceful and only meant to produce energy.
Ahead of Najib's arrival in Washington, Malaysia passed a law to curb the trafficking of nuclear weapon components after being linked to illegal supply of sensitive technology to countries including Iran and Libya.
The new law follows the government's denial late last year of involvement in the illegal 2008 export of nuclear weapons to Iran although it confirmed the involvement of one of its nationals.
Najib also stated in the talks with Obama that Malaysia was ready to consider "capacity building" in cooperation with Afghanistan through the training of police, military personnel and civilian administrators, the White House said.
Malaysia at present provides training to Afghan teachers and public officials.
Local newspaper The Star sells a different tack. I think we can see why:
Najib and Obama in historic bilateral meeting
By LIM AI LEE
newsdesk@thestar.com
WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and US President Barack Obama met in a historic bilateral meeting here, paving the way for a new era in Malaysian-American ties.
The two leaders looked relaxed as they settled down to their first ever bilateral meeting at 11.30am yesterday (Malaysian time 11.30pm) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Centre where Obama is hosting the inaugural two-day Nuclear Security Summit.
Najib and Obama talked for 40 minutes, longer than their scheduled half-hour meeting, flanked by Acting Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, who is Information Communi-cation and Culture Minister, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
They spoke about trade between their countries, security in the Asian region and Malaysia’s role in the Islamic world.
Najib and Obama: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak meeting US President Barack Obama at the Walter E. Washington Convention Centre ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, sending clear signals of a fresh spring in relations between Malaysia and the United States. The two leaders spoke for 40 minutes. Najib and Chinese President Hu Jintao are the only leaders from Asia to meet Obama on the sidelines of the summit. — Reuter
Also in the Prime Minister’s delegation for the meeting were Foreign Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Rastam Mohd Isa and Malaysian ambassador to the United States Datuk Seri Jamaludin Jarjis.
Najib is among more than 40 world leaders attending the summit but only one of two Asian leaders granted a face-to-face meeting with Obama. The other leader is Chinese President Hu Jintao.
It was a hectic day for the prime minister who began his day with an early morning meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel with US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinburg and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman who paid a courtesy call on him.
The Prime Minister then headed to the convention centre for his meeting with Obama and later was hosted to lunch by US vice-president Joe Biden at the Naval Observatory.
He is slated to hold a bilateral meeting with his New Zealand counterpart John Key at the convention centre in the afternoon before attending a welcoming reception by Obama for all invited heads of government.
In the evening, Najib will attend a Heads of Delegation working dinner chaired by Obama where the discussion topic is “Threat of Nuclear Terrorism”.
At the summit, Najib is expected to stress on Malaysia’s stance that any nuclear programme should be used only for development and peace.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Sunday, 4 April 2010
The NEM: A Comment By M. Bakri Musa
M. Bakri Musa is one of my favorite commentators on Malaysian socio-politics. Here he gives his views on the 1st NEM report by the Najib government and I think it is very fair comment. All Malaysians must read this before the 2nd NEM report comes out.
Bakri Musa on NEM
April 3, 2010
Bakri Musa on NEM (New Economic Model)
Dr. M. Bakri Musa @ Morgan-Hill, Cal
With threatening clouds overhead, there are no prizes for predicting the flood, only for designing or building the ark. The recently-released New Economic Model (NEM) Report draws our attention (not that we need it!) to the darkening Malaysian skies, and then goes on advising us to build an ark.
I hope that in its final report the committee would be more forceful in addressing these contradictions. The committee owes this obligation not only to the Najib Administration but also to all Malaysians. Doing so would also help us design and build a better ark.
Bakri Musa on NEM
April 3, 2010
Bakri Musa on NEM (New Economic Model)
Dr. M. Bakri Musa @ Morgan-Hill, Cal
With threatening clouds overhead, there are no prizes for predicting the flood, only for designing or building the ark. The recently-released New Economic Model (NEM) Report draws our attention (not that we need it!) to the darkening Malaysian skies, and then goes on advising us to build an ark.That is as far as the report goes. There are no hints on whether the clouds would bring a tropical drenching or just a midday sprinkle. There are also no suggestions on the type of vessel we should build. A barge, yacht or a sampan will all keep us afloat, but beyond that they serve vastly different purposes, not to mention their enormously varying costs. And if the forecast calls for only a light sprinkle, then a simple umbrella would do; no need to expend scant resources on an unneeded ark.
We are told that following “public input,” another report will be released by June, in time for its recommendations to be incorporated into the Tenth Malaysia Plan and the 2011 Budget. This second report, we are further assured, will contain specific policy prescriptions – the ark design, as it were.
The current report is silent on how this “public input” would come about. Before deluding ourselves that we could participate in robust public debates, let me intrude a cautionary note. Acknowledging that there will be opposition, the report urges the government to take “prompt action when resistance is encountered.”
You can be assured that those UMNO-Putras and others glutton on the NEP-spawned patronage system would be spared this “prompt action.” They as well as the Perkasa boys can continue with their shrill voices opposing NEM. For Pakatan folks and others, however, be warned!
Major Conceptual Flaws
On a general level, this report suffers from three glaring conceptual flaws. One, it fails to recognize that the bane of past policies is in their implementation. Two, it ignores the major role culture plays in the successful execution of any economic initiative. And three, there is no attempt at learning from the successes and failures of earlier policies.
This last deficiency is surprising as well as disturbing. If NEM were to supplant NEP, then we should know the strengths and weaknesses of that earlier policy. Or if it was basically sound, then what or who perverted it, and where the failures were in its implementation.
No one argues with the twin objectives of NEP: eradicating poverty and eliminating the identification of race with economic function. Those are laudable goals; the second in particular for a racially diverse society like ours. Indeed, the report pays tribute to NEP for reducing poverty and minimizing inter-communal inequities.
Unfortunately, there the report ends. In an earlier chapter, the report duly lists the numerous problems facing Malaysia to day: widening inequities especially among Bumiputras; talented citizens leaving; the rise of a rent-seeking class; entrenched corruption; and the failure of our institutions.
What happened in between? Unless we know, there is little assurance that the laudable goals of NEM would not be similarly derailed. If we are unwilling to acknowledge and learn from the mistakes of the NEP, then we are bound to repeat them.
Thus there should be some critical analysis of the NEP, at least an elaboration of the positive elements and the highlighting of the negatives. The one chapter that should be in the report would be one titled, “How did we get in the mess we are in today?” I reckon that such a chapter would be filled with narratives on the failures of our institutions. It is this that doomed NEP.
On the role of culture, it is surprising that a committee made up of mostly Malaysians and those familiar with Malaysia would come up with a report that is totally oblivious of this reality. This cultural dimension is crucial not only in economics but also in management and health care. Of all people, Malaysians who are daily immersed in a diverse cultural environment, should be well aware of this.
An initiative that would be embraced by urbanite Chinese in Penang would fall flat among Iban rural dwellers of interior Sarawak. The solo entrepreneur model would probably find a fertile ground in Penang, but not in Kenawit. There, the social system would be more supportive of cooperative-like ventures.
Challenges for the urban poor regardless of race are radically different from those in rural areas; race only compounds those differences. The failure to recognize this dooms many an imaginative plan. When that happens, those policymakers would resort to blaming and stereotyping the poor victims. We have heard that many times.
The colonials brought modern schools to Malaysia with the best of intentions. Non-Malays responded to that gesture and benefited immensely. Malays did not, and suffered the consequences in terms of our economic and social development.
It would be wrong as well as cruel to conclude that Malays did not value modern education, as many (and not just the colonials and non-Malays) were wont to. For when those schools were named Tuanku Muhammad School instead of Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, Malay parents readily enrolled their children. The content was still essentially the same but only the packaging was different; it was sensitive to the culture of the clients.
American consumers readily respond to their leaders’ exhortations to increase their spending to pull the country out of recession. For the Japanese however, the more their leaders urge them to spend, the more they save, and hoard. Same economic circumstances and the same economic rationale, but the responses and results are diametrically different. Culture explains that.
“Most of economics,” as Landsburg put it in his The Armchair Economist, “can be summarized in four words: ‘People respond to incentives.’ The rest is commentary.” Alas what are viewed as incentives in one culture can be definite disincentives elsewhere. That is the central challenge. Policymakers ignore this at their own peril.
The British, in an attempt to encourage Malays to save, duly increased the interest rates on Postal Savings Accounts. However, instead of increasing their deposits, Malays withdrew theirs! Malays viewed the increase as an inducement to a life of sin. Those sneaky white devils!
Ungku A. Aziz created Tabung Haji and labeled the investment returns as “dividends.” Malays swarmed to that institution, making it the largest in the region. Essentially the same content, but different packaging! The Ungku understood economics well and fully comprehended its central axiom: People respond to incentives.
An extension to this observation is that the incentives you offer would influence your responders. Offer honey, you get bees; rotten meat, maggots. When the committee decries the economic rent-seekers emerging under the NEP, it should carry the analysis further to find out the incentives offered. Rest assured that if NEM were to offer rotten meat as NEP did, NEM will too get its share of maggots.
On the crucial issue of implementation, the report only tangentially addresses the strengthening of our institutions when that should be the major focus. Our institutions are blighted with bloat, incompetence, and corruption; they simply cannot deliver.
Consider the current initiatives to improve the civil service, of which there are too many to count. First there was PEMUDAH, self-described as “a high-powered task force to address bureaucracy in business-government dealings.” It is chaired by no less than the Chief Secretary. Then there was the appointment of Koh Tsu Koon as the minister in charge of “Performance Management.” He had hardly warmed his seat when yet another minister, Idris Jalla, was made in charge of – you guess it – KPIs!
Who is in charge here? Meanwhile the civil service continues its bloat and ineffectiveness, as exemplified by Najib’s own cabinet. And if you have to get your driver’s license, you would still need the services of runners and touts, as well as some duit kopi.
Corruption will not be dented – much less ended – merely with the report blandly declaring “zero tolerance” for it. Make the Anti Corruption Commission independent, answerable only to Parliament or the King, and appoint a seasoned professional to head it. If you cannot find a native, recruit from the FBI or Scotland Yard. That one move would more effectively curb corruption and improve our institutions than all the KPIs, National Integrity Institutes, and NEM’s and others’ declarations of “zero tolerance.” It would also be considerably cheaper.
Accurate Portrait, But No Revelation
This report is refreshingly different from the usual government publications in that it is highly readable and the content well organized. The chapter headings too are clear and simple; they accurately reflect the contents, with such titles as “Where We Are?” Where Do We Want To Be?” and “How Do We Get There?” An index would have been useful, but the well laid-out and sufficiently detailed “Table of Contents” made up for that deficiency.
This report is remarkably free of gross grammatical gaffes and awkward syntax. The committee staff has also done a credible job with the executive summary. The report was made available online almost immediately. These features are rare with our government publications, and thus merit special commendation.
The full report is available only in English, a glaring omission considering that NEM would supplant NEP. As everyone knows, NEP is dear to most Malays, especially those of the Perkasa persuasion. Any tampering of NEP, even if it involves only one letter of its acronym, risks raising the hackles of those folks. Having the full report in Malay would have been a splendid start at trying to influence them, quite apart from being a politically smart gesture. Malay after all is our national language.
As things stand, those proficient only in Malay would have to be satisfied with the Ringkasan eksekutif (Executive summary). My hunch is that they would find the going rough, what with such phrases as “Menginovasi hari ini untuk hari besok yang cemerlang,” (Innovation today for a glorious tomorrow) and, “Inisiatif Pembaharuan Strategik” (Strategic Renewal Initiatives). I would have said it differently, “Cara baru untuk menjamin masa depan yang cemerlang” (A new way to ensure our bright future).
Dark clouds there are – and many – hovering over Malaysia, from the hundreds of thousands of skilled citizens who have migrated, to the anemic growth in our productivity. The report rightly points out the lack of political will to overcome these myriad problems. Kudos to the committee for this forthrightness!
The report paints a gloomy picture for Malaysia if it were to stay the course. Again, few would disagree with that. I wish those luminaries would help us sketch and build the appropriate ark, one that would meet our unique needs and challenges, instead of merely warning us of the impending flood.
The report does not lack for specifics. For example, it aims for an economic growth of at least 6.5 percent annually. Its target too is specific, the bottom 40 percent of Malaysians.
One specific suggestion on improving the government machinery is the proposal to “corporatize” and rename the Malaysian Industrial Development Agency (MIDA) to Malaysian Investment Development Agency. The committee pats itself for the brilliance of substituting “Investment” for “Industrial,” as then the agency could continue keeping its acronym and logo!
If only they recognize that changing even a single letter in a corporate name would entail changing entire letterheads, advertising plates, and web pages. The exercise would consume as much effort as if you had changed the entire name. It would have been more productive if the committee had recommended changes to MIDA’s mode of operations and strategies. After all, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway did not need to change its name in order to diversify very profitably beyond its initial textile roots.
The Report goes out under the signatures of all but one (Dr. Norma Mansor) of NEAC members. Of the ten who signed and thus responsible for the report, three are non-Malaysians while two are Malaysians (or at least born locally) who have spent their formative careers abroad.
Of the remaining five – the ‘natives’ – only one, the chairman Amirsham Aziz, has substantive private sector experience, having spent his time in banking. He had a brief political career as a cabinet minister, but that was through the appointive senate route rather than through elections. In short, the chairman, like the rest of his committee, is short on political acumen as reflected in the lack of a Malay version of the report.
Again referring to the ‘natives,’ all have formal training in economics except for one. The exception is Dzulkifli Razak, Vice-chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia; he is a pharmacist by training. Two of the ‘natives’ were former academics but now, government bureaucrats. The resumes of the committee members are impressive, with seven having doctorates, all but one in economics.
I have no quarrel with the committee’s assessment of our current dismal state. I concur with its observations. I just wish that the committee members would have been more forceful in pointing out whether the Najib Administration’s many recent moves were in the spirit of or contrary to the committee’s aspirations. For example, the committee wisely noted the need for devolution of authority to lower levels, yet Najib’s recent response to the request for local elections runs counter to that.
Similarly, the committee decries the failure of our educational institutions. Yet it does not address whether the recent rescinding of the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English would accelerate or reverse this decline.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Why?
Why are we here? Why indeed.
"We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience." Anonymous
Our Spiritual Path
excerpt from "Destiny of Souls" by Dr Michael Newton
The concept of our resurrection into beings who belong in a kingdom of eternity goes far back into human antiquity. From our early origins, we have believed that life and afterlife are sustained by divine intelligence as a single, unified whole. These sentiments come from the memories of many people I have regressed to the Stone Age. For ages since then, we thought of the soul world as another state of consciousness rather than an abstract place. The afterlife was considered to be only an extension of our physical life. I believe the world is returning to those concepts, which were beautifully expressed by Spinoza, who said, "All the cosmos is a single substance of which we are a part. God is not an external manifestation, but everything that is."
I consider such legends as Atlantis and Shangri-La as having their origins in the eternal longing we feel for recapturing a Utopia that once existed but is now lost. In the superconscious mind of every person I have ever placed in deep hypnosis lies the memory of a Utopian home. Originally, the concept of Utopia was intended to illustrate ideas, not a society. My subjects see the spirit world as a community of ideas. In this sense, the afterlife involves self-purification of thought. Beings who are still incarnating are far from perfect, as demonstrated by my cases. Nevertheless, we can justifiably think of our existence in the spirit world as Utopian because there is a universal harmony of spirit. Righteousness, honesty, humor and love are the primary foundations of our life after life.
After reading the information contained in this book, I know it must seem cruel that the Utopia of our dreams does exist within all of us but is blocked from conscious memory by amnesia. When some of these blocks are overcome through hypnosis, meditation, prayer, channeling, yoga, imagination and dreams, or a mental state reached through physical exertion, there is a sense of personal empowerment. Some 2,400 years ago, Plato wrote about reincarnation and said that souls must travel over Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness, whose waters produce a loss of memory from our true nature.
The sacred truths of our etheric history can be recovered today because we are able to circumvent the conscious mind and reach the unconscious, which was not immersed in the River of Forgetfulness. Our higher Self remembers our past triumphs and transgressions in a selective way, whispering to us across time and space. Our personal spirit guides endeavor to give us the best from both worlds, the ethereal and material. Each new baby is given a fresh start with an open future. Our spiritual masters wish to produce karmic opportunity without the constraints of our knowing those pitfalls we experienced in former lives. They become more lenient in a selective way with amnesia as we engage in self-discovery. This is our best route to wisdom.
The question has been fairly asked as to why amnesia blocks about our spiritual life have been loosened to permit research into the spirit world. I think about this issue a great deal because now in the twenty-first century I expect younger hypnotherapists to go far beyond what my generation has been able to accomplish in unlocking the spiritual mind. I feel the reasons for our ability to discover more of the mysteries about life on the other side is a direct outgrowth of living in the twentieth century. The advancement of innovative techniques in hypnosis would have to be listed as a consideration. However, I believe there are more compelling reasons why our amnesia has become less constrictive over the last thirty years. Never before has such a variety of drugs been so pervasive in the human population. These mind-altering chemicals imprison the soul within a body encumbered by a mental fog. The soul's essence is unable to express itself through a chemically addicted mind. I feel the planners on the other side have lost patience with this aspect of human society. There are other reasons as well. As the twentieth century draws to a close we live in a frantic, rage-filled, overpopulated, environmentally degraded world. The mass destruction of our planet in the last hundred years from all sources is unequaled in human experience.
I do not have a dark vision of the future, despite my comments. It may be true that to the people who are living in an era, their time seems more decadent than the last. Yet we have made great advancements culturally, politically and economically in the last hundred years. In many ways the world is a far safer place than it was in 1950. Internationally, nations have more social conscience and commitments to work for peace than ever before in our long history of monarchies and dictatorships, which were still very much in evidence at the start of the twentieth century. What we face in the twenty-first century is the eroding of individualism and human dignity in an overcrowded society dominated by materialism. Globalization, urban sprawl and bigness is a formula for loneliness and disassociation. Many people believe in nothing but survival.
I believe the spiritual door has been opened to our immortality because to deny us this knowledge has proven to be counterproductive. In the spirit world of my experience, if something on Earth isn't working it can be changed. Amnesiac blocks were set in place with human beings to prevent preconditioned responses to certain karmic events. However, the benefits of amnesia may no longer outweigh the drawbacks of lives existing within a vacuum of chemically-induced apathy. There are too many people trying to escape from reality because they do not see their identity as having purpose or meaning. Drugs and alcohol aside, in overcrowded, high-tech societies around the world, people have an emptiness of spirit because they are ruled by their body-ego senses. They have little or no connection to their real Self.
Because each of us is a unique being, different from all others, it is incumbent upon those who desire internal peace to find their own spirituality. When we totally align ourselves to belief systems based upon the experience of other people, I feel we lose something of our individuality in the process. The road to self-discovery and shaping a personal philosophy not designed by the doctrines of organizations takes effort but the rewards are great. There are many routes to this goal which begins by trusting in yourself. Camus tells us, "Both the rational and irrational lead to the same understanding. Truly, the path traveled matters little; the will to arrive is enough."
Visions of the afterlife lie within each of us as a sanctuary while we travel the maze of Earth's pathways. The difficulty in uncovering fragments of our eternal home is due in no small part to life's distractions. It is not a bad thing to accept life as it is, asking no questions and assuming that in the end what is supposed to happen will happen. However, for those with a longing to know more, simple acceptance of life is totally unsatisfying. For some travelers, life's mysteries cry out for attention, if being alive is to have any meaning.
In the search for our own path of spirituality it is wise to ask, "What sort of behavioral code do I believe in?" Some theologians suggest that nonreligious people are attempting to cut loose from moral and ethical responsibility dictated to us in scripture from a higher authority. However, we are not evaluated after death by our religious associations but rather by our conduct and values. In the spirit world I am familiar with, we are measured more by what we do for others rather than ourselves. If traditional religious activity serves your purpose and provides you with spiritual sustenance, you are probably motivated by a belief in scripture and perhaps the desire for comradeship in worship. The same attractions are true with people who join metaphysical groups and derive satisfaction from following the ideas of prescribed spiritual texts with like-minded people. While such practices may be comforting and edifying for your spiritual growth, it must be recognized that these pathways do not suit everyone.
If there is no inner peace, it does not matter what sort of spiritual affiliation you have. Disengagement in life arises when we separate ourselves from our inner power by taking the position that we are all alone, without spiritual guidance, because no one upstairs is listening. I have great respect for people with abiding faith in something since for a large part of my life I had no solid foundation of spirituality, despite my searching. There are atheists and agnostics who take the position that since religious and spiritual knowledge cannot be based upon natural or proven evidence, it is unacceptable. Simply having faith is not truly revealed knowledge to the skeptic. I identify with these people because I was one of them. My faith in the hereafter slowly began as an outgrowth of my participation with subjects in hypnosis. This is a discipline I believed in professionally before my research discoveries. Nevertheless, my own spiritual awareness was also the result of years of personal meditation and introspection about this research.
Spiritual perception must be an individual quest or it has no meaning. We are greatly influenced by our own immediate reality, and we can act on that reality one step at a time without the necessity of seeing too far into the distance. Even steps in the wrong direction give us insight into the many paths designed to teach us. To bring the soul Self into harmony with our physical environment, we are given freedom of choice to exercise free will in the search for the reasons why we are here. On the road of life we must take responsibility for all our decisions without blaming other people for life's setbacks that bring unhappiness.
As I mentioned, to be effective in our mission we are expected to help others on their paths whenever possible. By helping others we help ourselves. Reaching out to others is inhibited when we nurture our own uniqueness to such an extent that we become totally self-absorbed. However, being an absentee landlord in your own house makes you ineffective as a person as well. You were not given your body by a chance of nature. It was selected for you by spiritual advisors and after previewing their offerings of other host bodies, you agreed to accept the body you now have. Thus, you are not a victim of circumstance. You are entrusted with your body to be an active participant in life, not a bystander. We must not lose sight of the idea that we accepted this sacred contract of life and this means the roles we play on Earth are actually greater than ourselves.
Our soul energy was created by a higher authority than we can know in our present state of development. Consequently, we must focus on who we are as a person to find that fragment of divinity within us. The only limitations to personal insight are self-imposed. If the spiritual paths of others have no relevance to you, this does not mean the way designed for your needs is nonexistent. The reason for our being who we are is a major truth in life. Where one person may find an aspect of that truth manifested to them, it will not be in the same place for another.
Essentially, we are alone with our soul, yet people who feel lonely haven't quite found themselves. Self-discovery of the soul has to do with self-possession. The capturing of our individual essence is like falling in love. Something within you lying dormant is awakened at a point in your life by a stimulus. The soul flirts with you at first, tempting you to go further with delights that are only seen from a distance. The initial attraction of self-discovery begins with an almost playful touching of the conscious by the unconscious mind. As the intensity of wanting to fully possess our inner Self grows, we are drawn irresistibly into a more intimate connection. Knowing our soul becomes a marriage of fidelity to one's Self. The fascinating aspect about self-discovery is that when you hear that inner voice you instantly recognize it. Based on my practice, I am convinced that everyone on this planet has a personal spiritual guide. Spirit guides speak to our inner mind if we are receptive. While some guides are more easily reached than others, each of us has the ability to call upon and be heard by these guides.
There are no accidents in life, yet people get confused by what they perceive to be randomness. It is this philosophy that works against thoughts of spiritual order. It becomes an easy next step to feel we have no control in our lives and trying to find ourselves is pointless since nothing we do matters anyway. Believing in the randomness of events negatively influences our reaction to situations and allows us to avoid thinking about explanations for them. Having a fatalistic outlook on life by saying "It's God's will" or even "It's my karma" contributes to inaction and lack of purpose.
That which is meaningful in life comes in small pieces or large chunks all at one time. Self-awareness can take us beyond what we thought was our original destination. Karma is the setting in motion of those conditions on our path that foster learning. The concept of a Source orchestrating all of this need not be pretentious. The spiritual externalist waits for reunification with a Creator after death, while the internalist feels part of a Oneness each day. Spiritual insight comes to us in quiet, introspective, subtle moments which are manifested by the power of a single thought.
Life is a matter of constant change toward fulfillment. Our place in the world today may be different tomorrow. We must learn to adapt to these different perspectives in life because that, too, is part of the plan for our development. In so doing, there is a transcendence of Self from the masking process of a temporary outer shell to that which lies deep within our permanent soul mind. To uplift the human mind from feelings of disenchantment, we must expand our consciousness while forgiving ourselves for mistakes. I believe it is vital to our mental health that we laugh at ourselves and the foolish predicaments we get into along the road. Life is full of conflicts and the struggle, pain and happiness we experience are all reasons for our being here. Each day is a new beginning.
I have a final quote that came from a subject who was preparing for another departure from the spirit world into a new incarnation on Earth. I think his statement offers a fitting conclusion to this book:
Coming to Earth is about traveling away from our home to a foreign land. Some things seem familiar but most are strange until we get used to them, especially conditions which are unforgiving. Our real home is a place of absolute peace, total acceptance and complete love. As souls separated from our home we can no longer assume these beautiful features will be present around us. On Earth we must learn to cope with intolerance, anger and sadness while searching for joy and love. We must not lose our integrity along the way, sacrificing goodness for survival and acquiring attitudes either superior or inferior to those around us. We know that living in an imperfect world will help us to appreciate the true meaning of perfection. We ask for courage and humility before our journey into another life. As we grow in awareness so will the quality of our existence. This is how we are tested. Passing this test is our destiny.
"We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience." Anonymous
Our Spiritual Path
excerpt from "Destiny of Souls" by Dr Michael Newton
The concept of our resurrection into beings who belong in a kingdom of eternity goes far back into human antiquity. From our early origins, we have believed that life and afterlife are sustained by divine intelligence as a single, unified whole. These sentiments come from the memories of many people I have regressed to the Stone Age. For ages since then, we thought of the soul world as another state of consciousness rather than an abstract place. The afterlife was considered to be only an extension of our physical life. I believe the world is returning to those concepts, which were beautifully expressed by Spinoza, who said, "All the cosmos is a single substance of which we are a part. God is not an external manifestation, but everything that is."
I consider such legends as Atlantis and Shangri-La as having their origins in the eternal longing we feel for recapturing a Utopia that once existed but is now lost. In the superconscious mind of every person I have ever placed in deep hypnosis lies the memory of a Utopian home. Originally, the concept of Utopia was intended to illustrate ideas, not a society. My subjects see the spirit world as a community of ideas. In this sense, the afterlife involves self-purification of thought. Beings who are still incarnating are far from perfect, as demonstrated by my cases. Nevertheless, we can justifiably think of our existence in the spirit world as Utopian because there is a universal harmony of spirit. Righteousness, honesty, humor and love are the primary foundations of our life after life.
After reading the information contained in this book, I know it must seem cruel that the Utopia of our dreams does exist within all of us but is blocked from conscious memory by amnesia. When some of these blocks are overcome through hypnosis, meditation, prayer, channeling, yoga, imagination and dreams, or a mental state reached through physical exertion, there is a sense of personal empowerment. Some 2,400 years ago, Plato wrote about reincarnation and said that souls must travel over Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness, whose waters produce a loss of memory from our true nature.
The sacred truths of our etheric history can be recovered today because we are able to circumvent the conscious mind and reach the unconscious, which was not immersed in the River of Forgetfulness. Our higher Self remembers our past triumphs and transgressions in a selective way, whispering to us across time and space. Our personal spirit guides endeavor to give us the best from both worlds, the ethereal and material. Each new baby is given a fresh start with an open future. Our spiritual masters wish to produce karmic opportunity without the constraints of our knowing those pitfalls we experienced in former lives. They become more lenient in a selective way with amnesia as we engage in self-discovery. This is our best route to wisdom.
The question has been fairly asked as to why amnesia blocks about our spiritual life have been loosened to permit research into the spirit world. I think about this issue a great deal because now in the twenty-first century I expect younger hypnotherapists to go far beyond what my generation has been able to accomplish in unlocking the spiritual mind. I feel the reasons for our ability to discover more of the mysteries about life on the other side is a direct outgrowth of living in the twentieth century. The advancement of innovative techniques in hypnosis would have to be listed as a consideration. However, I believe there are more compelling reasons why our amnesia has become less constrictive over the last thirty years. Never before has such a variety of drugs been so pervasive in the human population. These mind-altering chemicals imprison the soul within a body encumbered by a mental fog. The soul's essence is unable to express itself through a chemically addicted mind. I feel the planners on the other side have lost patience with this aspect of human society. There are other reasons as well. As the twentieth century draws to a close we live in a frantic, rage-filled, overpopulated, environmentally degraded world. The mass destruction of our planet in the last hundred years from all sources is unequaled in human experience.
I do not have a dark vision of the future, despite my comments. It may be true that to the people who are living in an era, their time seems more decadent than the last. Yet we have made great advancements culturally, politically and economically in the last hundred years. In many ways the world is a far safer place than it was in 1950. Internationally, nations have more social conscience and commitments to work for peace than ever before in our long history of monarchies and dictatorships, which were still very much in evidence at the start of the twentieth century. What we face in the twenty-first century is the eroding of individualism and human dignity in an overcrowded society dominated by materialism. Globalization, urban sprawl and bigness is a formula for loneliness and disassociation. Many people believe in nothing but survival.
I believe the spiritual door has been opened to our immortality because to deny us this knowledge has proven to be counterproductive. In the spirit world of my experience, if something on Earth isn't working it can be changed. Amnesiac blocks were set in place with human beings to prevent preconditioned responses to certain karmic events. However, the benefits of amnesia may no longer outweigh the drawbacks of lives existing within a vacuum of chemically-induced apathy. There are too many people trying to escape from reality because they do not see their identity as having purpose or meaning. Drugs and alcohol aside, in overcrowded, high-tech societies around the world, people have an emptiness of spirit because they are ruled by their body-ego senses. They have little or no connection to their real Self.
Because each of us is a unique being, different from all others, it is incumbent upon those who desire internal peace to find their own spirituality. When we totally align ourselves to belief systems based upon the experience of other people, I feel we lose something of our individuality in the process. The road to self-discovery and shaping a personal philosophy not designed by the doctrines of organizations takes effort but the rewards are great. There are many routes to this goal which begins by trusting in yourself. Camus tells us, "Both the rational and irrational lead to the same understanding. Truly, the path traveled matters little; the will to arrive is enough."
Visions of the afterlife lie within each of us as a sanctuary while we travel the maze of Earth's pathways. The difficulty in uncovering fragments of our eternal home is due in no small part to life's distractions. It is not a bad thing to accept life as it is, asking no questions and assuming that in the end what is supposed to happen will happen. However, for those with a longing to know more, simple acceptance of life is totally unsatisfying. For some travelers, life's mysteries cry out for attention, if being alive is to have any meaning.
In the search for our own path of spirituality it is wise to ask, "What sort of behavioral code do I believe in?" Some theologians suggest that nonreligious people are attempting to cut loose from moral and ethical responsibility dictated to us in scripture from a higher authority. However, we are not evaluated after death by our religious associations but rather by our conduct and values. In the spirit world I am familiar with, we are measured more by what we do for others rather than ourselves. If traditional religious activity serves your purpose and provides you with spiritual sustenance, you are probably motivated by a belief in scripture and perhaps the desire for comradeship in worship. The same attractions are true with people who join metaphysical groups and derive satisfaction from following the ideas of prescribed spiritual texts with like-minded people. While such practices may be comforting and edifying for your spiritual growth, it must be recognized that these pathways do not suit everyone.
If there is no inner peace, it does not matter what sort of spiritual affiliation you have. Disengagement in life arises when we separate ourselves from our inner power by taking the position that we are all alone, without spiritual guidance, because no one upstairs is listening. I have great respect for people with abiding faith in something since for a large part of my life I had no solid foundation of spirituality, despite my searching. There are atheists and agnostics who take the position that since religious and spiritual knowledge cannot be based upon natural or proven evidence, it is unacceptable. Simply having faith is not truly revealed knowledge to the skeptic. I identify with these people because I was one of them. My faith in the hereafter slowly began as an outgrowth of my participation with subjects in hypnosis. This is a discipline I believed in professionally before my research discoveries. Nevertheless, my own spiritual awareness was also the result of years of personal meditation and introspection about this research.
Spiritual perception must be an individual quest or it has no meaning. We are greatly influenced by our own immediate reality, and we can act on that reality one step at a time without the necessity of seeing too far into the distance. Even steps in the wrong direction give us insight into the many paths designed to teach us. To bring the soul Self into harmony with our physical environment, we are given freedom of choice to exercise free will in the search for the reasons why we are here. On the road of life we must take responsibility for all our decisions without blaming other people for life's setbacks that bring unhappiness.
As I mentioned, to be effective in our mission we are expected to help others on their paths whenever possible. By helping others we help ourselves. Reaching out to others is inhibited when we nurture our own uniqueness to such an extent that we become totally self-absorbed. However, being an absentee landlord in your own house makes you ineffective as a person as well. You were not given your body by a chance of nature. It was selected for you by spiritual advisors and after previewing their offerings of other host bodies, you agreed to accept the body you now have. Thus, you are not a victim of circumstance. You are entrusted with your body to be an active participant in life, not a bystander. We must not lose sight of the idea that we accepted this sacred contract of life and this means the roles we play on Earth are actually greater than ourselves.
Our soul energy was created by a higher authority than we can know in our present state of development. Consequently, we must focus on who we are as a person to find that fragment of divinity within us. The only limitations to personal insight are self-imposed. If the spiritual paths of others have no relevance to you, this does not mean the way designed for your needs is nonexistent. The reason for our being who we are is a major truth in life. Where one person may find an aspect of that truth manifested to them, it will not be in the same place for another.
Essentially, we are alone with our soul, yet people who feel lonely haven't quite found themselves. Self-discovery of the soul has to do with self-possession. The capturing of our individual essence is like falling in love. Something within you lying dormant is awakened at a point in your life by a stimulus. The soul flirts with you at first, tempting you to go further with delights that are only seen from a distance. The initial attraction of self-discovery begins with an almost playful touching of the conscious by the unconscious mind. As the intensity of wanting to fully possess our inner Self grows, we are drawn irresistibly into a more intimate connection. Knowing our soul becomes a marriage of fidelity to one's Self. The fascinating aspect about self-discovery is that when you hear that inner voice you instantly recognize it. Based on my practice, I am convinced that everyone on this planet has a personal spiritual guide. Spirit guides speak to our inner mind if we are receptive. While some guides are more easily reached than others, each of us has the ability to call upon and be heard by these guides.
There are no accidents in life, yet people get confused by what they perceive to be randomness. It is this philosophy that works against thoughts of spiritual order. It becomes an easy next step to feel we have no control in our lives and trying to find ourselves is pointless since nothing we do matters anyway. Believing in the randomness of events negatively influences our reaction to situations and allows us to avoid thinking about explanations for them. Having a fatalistic outlook on life by saying "It's God's will" or even "It's my karma" contributes to inaction and lack of purpose.
That which is meaningful in life comes in small pieces or large chunks all at one time. Self-awareness can take us beyond what we thought was our original destination. Karma is the setting in motion of those conditions on our path that foster learning. The concept of a Source orchestrating all of this need not be pretentious. The spiritual externalist waits for reunification with a Creator after death, while the internalist feels part of a Oneness each day. Spiritual insight comes to us in quiet, introspective, subtle moments which are manifested by the power of a single thought.
Life is a matter of constant change toward fulfillment. Our place in the world today may be different tomorrow. We must learn to adapt to these different perspectives in life because that, too, is part of the plan for our development. In so doing, there is a transcendence of Self from the masking process of a temporary outer shell to that which lies deep within our permanent soul mind. To uplift the human mind from feelings of disenchantment, we must expand our consciousness while forgiving ourselves for mistakes. I believe it is vital to our mental health that we laugh at ourselves and the foolish predicaments we get into along the road. Life is full of conflicts and the struggle, pain and happiness we experience are all reasons for our being here. Each day is a new beginning.
I have a final quote that came from a subject who was preparing for another departure from the spirit world into a new incarnation on Earth. I think his statement offers a fitting conclusion to this book:
Coming to Earth is about traveling away from our home to a foreign land. Some things seem familiar but most are strange until we get used to them, especially conditions which are unforgiving. Our real home is a place of absolute peace, total acceptance and complete love. As souls separated from our home we can no longer assume these beautiful features will be present around us. On Earth we must learn to cope with intolerance, anger and sadness while searching for joy and love. We must not lose our integrity along the way, sacrificing goodness for survival and acquiring attitudes either superior or inferior to those around us. We know that living in an imperfect world will help us to appreciate the true meaning of perfection. We ask for courage and humility before our journey into another life. As we grow in awareness so will the quality of our existence. This is how we are tested. Passing this test is our destiny.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Follow Your Heart...
"Follow Your Heart" was one of Jeannie's favorite songs and when it was first released by Mario Frangoulis I remember looking for the CD in so many shops till we found it. Enjoy...
Follow Your Heart by Mario Frangoulis
Every little tear you cry
Leaves your heart so heavy
Every time you hear goodbye
You wonder will it ever end
There's nothing I can tell you
The word moves on and on
But I still believe
In love
Follow your heart
Wherever it takes you
Nobody knows
Where the wind blows
No one can say
Follow your dreams
Wherever they find you
Lost and alone
The light in the storm
Will always be with you
If you follow your heart
When the world's a little crazy
The truth's so hard to find
But I still believe in love
Follow your heart
Wherever it takes you
Nobody knows
Where the wind blows
No one can say
Follow your heart
Wherever they find you
Lovers and friends
They fade in the end
But the love that's inside you
Grows stronger inside you
Will always be with you
Follow your heart
Follow Your Heart by Mario Frangoulis
Every little tear you cry
Leaves your heart so heavy
Every time you hear goodbye
You wonder will it ever end
There's nothing I can tell you
The word moves on and on
But I still believe
In love
Follow your heart
Wherever it takes you
Nobody knows
Where the wind blows
No one can say
Follow your dreams
Wherever they find you
Lost and alone
The light in the storm
Will always be with you
If you follow your heart
When the world's a little crazy
The truth's so hard to find
But I still believe in love
Follow your heart
Wherever it takes you
Nobody knows
Where the wind blows
No one can say
Follow your heart
Wherever they find you
Lovers and friends
They fade in the end
But the love that's inside you
Grows stronger inside you
Will always be with you
Follow your heart
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Menteri Penerangan Ketinggalan Zaman? Repartee From Rembau.
Oi! What is this from Rembau? Breaking ranks? Whacking Father-In-Law's old friend? Trying to avoid the putrid smell of decaying mentality? Malaysiakini reported these twitters, apparently from Khairi Jamaluddin and directed at that twit of a twerp, Minister of Information who is better off dealing in air time. Next thing the twerp will tell Malaysians to avoid China because he thinks "Yellow Culture" is a chinky chink import. Please read :
Khairy delivers Twitter smackdown on Rais
Information Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has made a fair amount of controversial statements but his latest views have made him a Twitter celebrity.
Rais was recently quoted in a Bernama piece, 'Muslims must avoid being totally immersed in Facebook, Twitter' exhorting Malaysians to be wary of the popular Internet services.
His comments have gotten Malaysian Twitter users up in arms, with reactions ranging from ridicule to incredulity. Among Rais' critics is Rembau parliamentarian Khairy Jamaluddin.
Twitter users looked on in amusement as Khairy made snide fun of Rais' comments that urged Malaysians to be wary of compromising their culture to Twitterand Facebook's'Western' influence.
Khairy first made a big show of taking a break from Twitterby Tweeting: “Thanks for your views. As a responsible party man, I shall listen to party elders. This will be my last tweet for a very, very long time.”
Not 24 hours later, he posted: “Tried hard to resist the evils of social media as per someone's advice but clearly I'm easy meat forpenjajahan minda (mind colonisation) by dunia luar (the outside world).
In a post to a fellow Barisan rep in Kota Belud, Sabah, Khairy again made allusions to Rais' statement: “Shout out to @mpkotabelud who's (in) kawasan dilanda banjir (flood-affected area). Hope you're on the ground & not immersing yourself in the Satanic WesternTwitter.”
One final rejoinder so far has been this post on Jan 17: “Long day in Rembau. Now going to eat burgers & pizzas. Allowing self to be colonised by evil food. Ya, not letting this go yet, Mr Minister.”
Malaysian Twitter on fire
Rais also became a talking point on Twitter last night when news of a fire in downtown Kuala Lumpur broke first on Twitter. Twitterusers were reporting the blaze before major news services had gotten word.
Twitter users were the first to know, sharing pictures via the service of the blaze and relaying the location to fellow users.
The Twitter posts about the blaze were labelled with the tag #KLfire, creating a thread of sorts where Malaysians posted news and views about the event.
Somehow the thread devolved into a discussion about Twitter'susefulness and Rais' statement about the 'dangers' of Twitter.
One Malaysian tweeted, “Twitterprobably saved lives today by alerting fire dept and media and public quickly. Rais Yatim, saving lives = western influence?”
Another user also directed his Tweetto Rais, saying “Pakcik Rais, you see how fast and effective Twitter is?”
“Thanks to Twitter that Malaysians (are) being informed about #KLfire. I bet Rais still doesn't know about (the) news.”
According to the site TwitDir there are about 3,574 users who registered Malaysia as their location.
Blogger Zhiq, a social media commentator, put the actual amountof Twitter users in the country for 2009 at 21,657 with a likelihood of that quadrupling to over 80,000 in 2010.
What is certain, however, is that Malaysians are embracing Twitterand Facebook, whatever a certain minister has to say about it.
Rais was recently quoted in a Bernama piece, 'Muslims must avoid being totally immersed in Facebook, Twitter' exhorting Malaysians to be wary of the popular Internet services.
His comments have gotten Malaysian Twitter users up in arms, with reactions ranging from ridicule to incredulity. Among Rais' critics is Rembau parliamentarian Khairy Jamaluddin.
Twitter users looked on in amusement as Khairy made snide fun of Rais' comments that urged Malaysians to be wary of compromising their culture to Twitterand Facebook's'Western' influence.Khairy first made a big show of taking a break from Twitterby Tweeting: “Thanks for your views. As a responsible party man, I shall listen to party elders. This will be my last tweet for a very, very long time.”
Not 24 hours later, he posted: “Tried hard to resist the evils of social media as per someone's advice but clearly I'm easy meat forpenjajahan minda (mind colonisation) by dunia luar (the outside world).
In a post to a fellow Barisan rep in Kota Belud, Sabah, Khairy again made allusions to Rais' statement: “Shout out to @mpkotabelud who's (in) kawasan dilanda banjir (flood-affected area). Hope you're on the ground & not immersing yourself in the Satanic WesternTwitter.”
One final rejoinder so far has been this post on Jan 17: “Long day in Rembau. Now going to eat burgers & pizzas. Allowing self to be colonised by evil food. Ya, not letting this go yet, Mr Minister.”
Malaysian Twitter on fire
Rais also became a talking point on Twitter last night when news of a fire in downtown Kuala Lumpur broke first on Twitter. Twitterusers were reporting the blaze before major news services had gotten word.
Twitter users were the first to know, sharing pictures via the service of the blaze and relaying the location to fellow users.
The Twitter posts about the blaze were labelled with the tag #KLfire, creating a thread of sorts where Malaysians posted news and views about the event.
Somehow the thread devolved into a discussion about Twitter'susefulness and Rais' statement about the 'dangers' of Twitter.
One Malaysian tweeted, “Twitterprobably saved lives today by alerting fire dept and media and public quickly. Rais Yatim, saving lives = western influence?”Another user also directed his Tweetto Rais, saying “Pakcik Rais, you see how fast and effective Twitter is?”
“Thanks to Twitter that Malaysians (are) being informed about #KLfire. I bet Rais still doesn't know about (the) news.”
According to the site TwitDir there are about 3,574 users who registered Malaysia as their location.
Blogger Zhiq, a social media commentator, put the actual amountof Twitter users in the country for 2009 at 21,657 with a likelihood of that quadrupling to over 80,000 in 2010.
What is certain, however, is that Malaysians are embracing Twitterand Facebook, whatever a certain minister has to say about it.
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