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Will you go towards the light or the dark?

Started by jazmunda, October 30, 2012, 12:37:29 AM

jazmunda

Remember this conundrum brought up by John Lear? I think he said that going to the light was a trick and that you have to go towards the dark. I'm not sure if he ever explained his reason why; whether it was religious or had something to do with his alien soul catching machine on the moon (incidently this is what totally turned me off this guy even though my BS meter was always beeping when he was on the air but he was always entertaining, it's just that my BS meter exploded with the soul catching machine business but I digress).

Anyway I remember that this scernario used to freak Art the @#$% out and gave him sleepless nights. I always used to try to dismiss this but it was always there in the back of my mind. What will I do if I die and I have this choice? Do I go towards the light like we have always been told (in movies and tv and not just in religion) or does stupid John Lear (and I think even Whitley Streiber) get into my frigging head and mess with me and make we go towards the dark? And what if they were wrong and I was meant to go towards the light? Anyway luckily I don't believe in that BS or do I?

So what will you do when your numbers up? Forget any religious aspects or beliefs if that isn't your thing but if you happened to be faced with the light or dark dilemma which way will you go and why?

Sardondi

One thing I will not do is spend a millisecond worrying about anything John Lear has said. I could say, "Think about it: that goofball, alone in all humanity, is somehow a worthy receptacle for the secrets of the universe, including life and death?" But I think all I need say is this: massive soul-reconditioning cube on the moon.

ziznak

Awesome topic Jazmunda.  I don't think Mr Lear came up with this on his own though.  Wasn't it the Gnostics who claimed there was some sort of crazy ass journey of the soul after death? It was depicted as some sort of battle for possession of ones soul where both light and dark spirits participated.  I just recently listened to an older distressing NDE show as well as the more recent one a few weeks back. I find the idea that life after death isn't all harps and clouds very "riveting" as George might say.

Eddie Coyle

 
          I'm a Cancer(a crab who lives under rocks) who is photophobic, heliophobic and burns easily. I'm an insomniac who hates the sun more than Johnny Winter and the guy in "The Eiger Sanction"

           Merely using that as a baseline...not including my agnosticism,cynicism,skepticism...It's likely I'm headed on a Downbound Train into an abyss.

i've put Dante's Divine Comedy to memory.... and Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's version of Inferno.... just in case being a smart ass in Hell comes in handy.... prolly C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters.... in case it isn't...

Benito, is that you?  8)

BobGrau

I'll be floating around the hospital, checking out nurses.

ItsOver

I'll be going in the direction away from Noory's voice.

OldTimeRadio

Not really to answer the question but to touch on that "soul in a box for 20,000 years".  One of the very first times I heart Art Bell, maybe pre 1990, I remember hearing the soul in the box story but the way I recall it, after Lear (or somebody) brought it up, after a while (and for a short period of time) Art claimed to have had his soul placed in box like this as the result of either an NDE or an abduction experience.

Which kind of doesn't make much sense because AFAIK, Art never claimed to have been abducted and the only NDE he ever had was more of an OBE in Paris/France- the whole floating above the bed thing when he and Ramona were there.

Anyway, I could be mis-remembering it, but I could have sworn that for a while (2-3 months?) Art was sketched out and claimed stuff he later...well, not "backed away from"...but more like dropped, stopped talking about.

Does any of that ring a bell with you?  I actually posted about this on Usenet a decade ago, trying to find more information, but even then nobody knew what I was talking about.

Sardondi

Quote from: OldTimeRadio on November 04, 2012, 01:59:12 AM
Not really to answer the question but to touch on that "soul in a box for 20,000 years".  One of the very first times I heart Art Bell, maybe pre 1990, I remember hearing the soul in the box story but the way I recall it, after Lear (or somebody) brought it up, after a while (and for a short period of time) Art claimed to have had his soul placed in box like this as the result of either an NDE or an abduction experience.

Which kind of doesn't make much sense because AFAIK, Art never claimed to have been abducted and the only NDE he ever had was more of an OBE in Paris/France- the whole floating above the bed thing when he and Ramona were there.

Anyway, I could be mis-remembering it, but I could have sworn that for a while (2-3 months?) Art was sketched out and claimed stuff he later...well, not "backed away from"...but more like dropped, stopped talking about.

Does any of that ring a bell with you?  I actually posted about this on Usenet a decade ago, trying to find more information, but even then nobody knew what I was talking about.

I think it is interesting that both Art and George many times seemed troubled about what happens to our consciousness on death, with both focusing on a fear of being "trapped" or lost somewhere. Maybe it's just an occupational hazard of being a radio host for a paranormal show and hearing a zillion loony ideas. But it seems to me that anyone who spends a second listening to what John Lear says about what happens to the soul at death is asking for trouble. Lear is just a couple of missed doses of Thorazine from walking around totally encased in aluminum foil, pushing a shopping cart of his earthly possessions.

McPhallus

Quote from: Sardondi on November 04, 2012, 07:02:11 AM
I think it is interesting that both Art and George many times seemed troubled about what happens to our consciousness on death, with both focusing on a fear of being "trapped" or lost somewhere. Maybe it's just an occupational hazard of being a radio host for a paranormal show and hearing a zillion loony ideas. But it seems to me that anyone who spends a second listening to what John Lear says about what happens to the soul at death is asking for trouble. Lear is just a couple of missed doses of Thorazine from walking around totally encased in aluminum foil, pushing a shopping cart of his earthly possessions.

As I recall, he also believes souls are stored in a box on the moon.  Maybe some of us will end up in a closet in Mike Bara's lunar beach house.

I'll be heading to the Waffle House, which makes about as much sense as John Lear's Box o' Souls.

The General

Quote from: UnscreenedCaller on November 04, 2012, 10:49:25 AM
I'll be heading to the Waffle House, which makes about as much sense as John Lear's Box o' Souls.
Make it Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles.

ChandlersDad

I'll head for the light, as any other guy who likes to be the center of attention would do, saying "God, I am ready for my close-up". Seriously, I agree that John Lear is the least person to give advice about the afterlife. He is entertaining, in the same way my ditzy uncle Fred is when he tells stories about how he personally won WW2 for the allies (Uncle Fred is 100 years old, by the way). I think Uncle Fred is living so long because he is afraid of the afterlife. After his wife died 24 years ago, he's been quite a dirty old man, and I suspect he is afraid of what his wife will say when she gets her chance!  ;D


MV/Liberace!

if it's zero-g and everything feels groovy, i'll just float around and go toward neither.

ChewMouse

I'm going for the light, but if it starts to feel iffy or if I smell cat, I'm going to stop someone and ask for directions.

Mulvaney

When I heard John say this, I thought of an old twilight zone episode where someone who had died walked by an inviting garden with fountains, but they did not allow dogs so he kept walking until he came to a more welcoming place.   Apparently dogs weren't allowed in the first place because they could smell the brimstone.   "You see Mr. Simpson, a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!"   So I have always thought the best solution was to take my dog with me and see if she goes to the light.

But for some reason I thought that John has more recently said he will go to the light. 

ziznak

Quote from: Mulvaney on November 10, 2012, 11:27:35 PM
When I heard John say this, I thought of an old twilight zone episode where someone who had died walked by an inviting garden with fountains, but they did not allow dogs so he kept walking until he came to a more welcoming place.   Apparently dogs weren't allowed in the first place because they could smell the brimstone.   "You see Mr. Simpson, a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!"   So I have always thought the best solution was to take my dog with me and see if she goes to the light.

But for some reason I thought that John has more recently said he will go to the light. 
Nancy??? is that you?

stevesh

Quote from: Mulvaney on November 10, 2012, 11:27:35 PM
When I heard John say this, I thought of an old twilight zone episode where someone who had died walked by an inviting garden with fountains, but they did not allow dogs so he kept walking until he came to a more welcoming place.   Apparently dogs weren't allowed in the first place because they could smell the brimstone.   "You see Mr. Simpson, a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!"   So I have always thought the best solution was to take my dog with me and see if she goes to the light.

But for some reason I thought that John has more recently said he will go to the light.

You're going to kill your dog because of a Twilight Zone episode ? Noory, is that you ?

Zircon

Light or dark? ... hmmm ... depends upon what time of day it was. If late evening I'd probably like the lights off.

onan

If I had to choose, probably the light. Dark beers are more often heavier. Although that does produce a richer taste it is almost always too much so.

Falkie2013

Quote from: BobGrau on October 31, 2012, 11:35:11 AM
I'll be floating around the hospital, checking out nurses.

funny you should say that.

when I was very ill and was near death as a child and they couldn't find a pulse or respiration, that's exactly what I did. I saw myself floating above everyone in the hospital room and headed towards the light in a tunnel but when I got there something made me go back. I was in a coma for 3 days or something because my temperature had gotten so high everything had stopped. I still wonder what was on the other side of the light.

I would go to the light, but I hope its not like one of those angler fish things.
What if there are demons out there with little light "fishing poles" to attract newly passed souls?


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Guess you offer no in between?
Hmmm, I’m afraid of the dark. Especially being alone in the dark.
Actually, I would rather remain amongst the living, both presently and in death.
Since we are speaking sort of theoretically, I would remain to look after/protect those of the living that I love, and terrorize those I dislike. Those who are mean and cruel. Give them a taste of their own medicine. Kind of like the ghost of Christmas yet to come. Show them the error of their ways and turn them, spin them right round, baby, right round.

Seriously, though, my Grams clinically died on the operating table but was revived/resurrected, and said everything was dark save for a shimmering, white line that she was being drawn towards, then she heard the voice of her mother (deceased) telling her to go back, it wasn’t her time yet.
Gram said her surgeon was very interested in her experience.
(and no, she did not become a zombie.)

CrabbyOld Bat

Shouldn't the question be, will you go towards the light or stay in the dark? That is, wouldn't you have to already be in the dark in order to see the light?

Sigh. I suppose I'll stay wherever I land initially since my overthinking will paralyze me.


There are many forms of both light (e.g. infrared, ultra violet) and dark (matter, but is it really dark in our sense of the word?), literally (as in factual), theoretically and metaphorically.
And there are probably more we aren't even aware of.

and before anyone else gets to say it, I know, picky, picky, picky (one for each- literal, theoretical and metaphorical :-)
I'd still go towards the light because I am still afraid of the dark.

I’ve been thinking about this, whatever brought us to where we are now as a species, whether it is/was what we consider a god, or just evolution, it has played a mean trick on us if there is no afterlife.
Why even make us sentient, why make us love, why make us care, why make us conscious of our own eventual death?
How cruel is that?

CrabbyOld Bat

Quote from: Rachael Nexusei on January 23, 2013, 01:47:36 PM
I’ve been thinking about this, whatever brought us to where we are now as a species, whether it is/was what we consider a god, or just evolution, it has played a mean trick on us if there is no afterlife.
Why even make us sentient, why make us love, why make us care, why make us conscious of our own eventual death?
How cruel is that?

I suppose it depends in part on what the experience of loving, caring, etc is worth to us. If the experience only has value if it lasts forever, then it does seem cruel since we know we're going to die. But if the experience has value in and of itself, with time not being a factor, then how can it be considered cruel? And if we weren't aware of death, would we think and act the way we do? Would we care about anything? The experience would be so much different if we were immortal it might seem cruel not to die.

Then again, I'm not sure about anything except that your question reminds me a little of of the ol' "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it...." and I've yet to hear a 100% certain and clear answer to that one.

FWIW, I'm a pantheist, which is sometimes tough enough to explain; maybe I shouldn't tackle the really tough questions. Now my head hurts. 

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