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Jobs, Hitchens, faith and near death experiences
I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of the “near death experience” – known by the acronym NDE. Perhaps it is my belief in an after-life – even though I am not sure what form it takes – which accounts for this interest. After all, for someone who believes in an after life the reports of what happens in NDEs’ seems to offer some sort of affirmation of what happens after death. There are also scientific explanations that seek to debunk the spiritual explanations of such experiences. Scientists suggest that NDEs’ are attributable to physical causes such as brain chemistry (neural noise, hypoxia, etc.), psychological states (wish fulfillment or…
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East is east and west is west ………. when it comes to mourning
It was Rudyard Kipling who said that east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet. Kipling was referring to India which was then the jewel in the British empire and Kipling, like other colonial apologists, maintained that the cultural bridge between Indians and the British could never be bridged. This came to mind a few days ago when Kim Jong Il, the president of North Korea, died and there was a sense of shock and surprise in the US media over the public expressions of grief. There was much speculation that the grief was, at least in part, contrived and although that cannot be ruled…
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David Carroll, United Airlines and social media at its best!
I love You Tube and its endless variety of offerings. I also cordially dislike flying – everything about it infuriates me ranging from the security hassles at the airport, the less than customer friendly airline service, the cramped seating, the full flights and just about every thing that one associates with flying nowadays. I did not always feel this way about flying – there was a time in the eighties when I flew several days a week as part of my job. It was a different era then and many of the frustrations associated with flying today were not there then or to the extent they were, it was relatively…