Is déjà vu a form of epilepsy?

MANY who are skeptical about supernatural and paranormal things and who will not even bother to read on those subjects will suddenly reverse their opinion when they personally encounter something quite out of the ordinary. Some of these extraordinary experiences may be trivial, but others are of a profound nature.

Take the case of reader Sara Jane, a nurse from Bacolod. Since childhood, she had been experiencing a lot of psychic stuff. In high school, she noticed that people she quarreled with would get hurt or seriously ill.

Unseen protectors
She seems to be protected by unseen creatures. Once, she started to cross the street then wanted to go back when she reached the middle. But she couldn’t move her feet. Just then a speeding car passed her. Had she taken one step forward, she would have been run over.

When Sara was in college, she would visualize a particular guy and imagine him to be her boyfriend, the two of them going out on dates. Soon he would indeed become her boyfriend. And this happened more than once.

Another strange experience she had: “As a kid, I accidentally broke the door knob. The lock was stuck. I didn’t know what to do, worried that my mom would get mad at me when she learned what happened. I fell asleep and dreamed of a man’s hand teaching me how to fix the door knob. When I woke up the next morning and saw the door knob, I remembered my dream very clearly. I did what my dream taught me. I simply pushed the button while turning the door knob and it was fixed.”

In another dream, she was being taught by a guy how to use roller blades. She was then in elementary school. The guy told her how to maintain her balance by forming a V pattern. When she used roller blades for the first time, her friends were amazed that she knew what to do.

“I thought I was just a fast learner,” she said. The same thing happened when she enrolled in karatedo (a form of martial arts). The instructor was surprised at how fast she learned compared with others who had been studying longer than her.
She wanted to know how to harness or develop her psychic powers to help other people better. She also wanted my explanation for déjà vu because, according to her, medical science explained it as a form of epilepsy connected to a disturbance in the temporal lobe of the brain. “Do you have another explanation?”

Already seen
Let me answer this last question first. I don’t agree that déjà vu is a form of epilepsy or hallucination, as some people claim. For me, déjà vu or “already seen” is caused by any of the following: A person dreams of a future event but soon forgets it. When s/he is in the actual situation s/he saw in his/her dream, s/he would recall that s/he had already seen the situation/event because it had been registered in his/her nervous system. Or s/he might have had a spontaneous precognitive or prophetic vision, but forgot it.

When s/he is in the actual situation, s/he remembers having experienced or seen the event before, because s/he dreamed it.
Déjà vu could also be due to a memory of an event in a past life. A person may go to an old cathedral or building that s/he had been to in a past life. The visit triggers his/her soul memory to remember the place. This has actually happened to several people I know, and even to me. When I was in France and Egypt, I felt I had been in those countries before. I saw things familiar to me although I’d never seen them before in this life.

Sara’s childhood and college experiences show she has invisible spirit protectors or guides that protect her from physical harm and from her enemies. It is they who hurt or retaliate against her enemies. She is able to get what she wants through visualization because she has a strong mind.She’s really a psychic. Her psychic abilities manifest both in the waking state as well as in the dream state. She is able to psychically communicate with others, without her knowing it.

Because her rational mind is very strong, being in a medical profession, she has to suppress her intuitive and imaginative nature most of the time.

If she learns how to control, develop and manage her psychic gifts, she can use them for psychic or intuitive diagnosis of illness, healing and counseling. She will be able to help her patients much more than any other nurse whose third eye is not open.

Sara should read more books on the subject and attend professionally run seminars so she can be guided properly toward a safe development of her inner faculties. If interested, she can inquire at 8107245 or 8926806 about inner mind development courses and other services.

source: http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=73585&col=3

Do dogs go to heaven?

READER Jo Fucio (e-mail: jofucio@yahoo.com) sent the following letter with interesting questions about dogs and the afterlife:

“I had a 3-month-old pup that died of viral infection [recently]. I miss him already... I hope you’ll be able to help me understand things, because I want to know if our pup still exists or not. Of course, I want him to be happy in heaven with God.

“1. Do dogs have a soul? (I believe every living creature God created has soul but do dogs really have a soul?)

“2. Do they get to heaven?

“3. Do they have memories of their owners when they are already in heaven? Do they miss their owners?

“4. When our pup died, its eyes were open. The vets couldn’t close them. When my father arrived after a few minutes, he was able to close them. Could it be that our pup didn’t want to go? Or did he want to see us before he went? (Maybe there is a scientific basis for this. I don’t know.)

“5. I remember when our pup died, I turned on the lights in our garage. His food container fell to the ground. I thought it could be him. He’s letting me know he’s just around. Could it be him?

“6. Do they watch over their owners? Could he be around the house visiting us? Or in the car? Because we used to bring him on our trips.

“7. We miss our pup a lot. We always mention his name, look for him and we hold his toy when we miss him. Could he sense that we miss him? Does it make him sad?

“8. Can we meet in heaven someday? (I’m aware all of us will die.)

“I hope I didn’t make you laugh with my questions. I believe we communicate in some ways.”

Answers
Here are my answers to your questions:

1. According to one school of philosophy, all living things have a soul because the soul is defined as the “principle of life.” However, souls differ in terms of function or powers.

For example, the soul of a plant is vegetative. It can only reproduce and grow. It has no sensation. (However, this last statement was challenged by the findings of polygraph expert Cleve Backster, who proved that plants had emotions or feelings.)

Animals have what is called a sentient soul. It can reproduce, grow, move and have sensations.
Human beings have a rational soul. In addition to the above powers, they can think and reason, although most don’t.
Another distinction made among different types of souls is that a plant soul simply dissolves when the plant dies. Animal soul has no individuality. When an animal dies, the soul goes back to a “group soul.” There are group souls of cats, dogs, chickens.Only human souls have individuality. When a human being dies, it retains its individual character in the afterlife. That’s the theory. There are, of course, other views regarding this that I am not very familiar with.

2. I do not know whether dogs go to what Christians call “heaven.” You must realize that the concept of heaven is not held by other religions.

3. Some domesticated animals, because of their closeness to their human masters, acquire a certain degree of individuation. And when they die, they can be seen or felt by the owner. Clairvoyants have seen dogs who have already died for several years inside the house of their masters. So it is possible that when the master dies, he or she will meet the same dog.

4. I will not give any other meaning to your dog’s eyes being open when it died. Some people die with eyes open, too.

5. Yes, it is possible the consciousness of your dog is still there in the place where he used to stay. As I pointed out, some people had seen spirits of their dogs in their homes. One was even photographed. The image of the dead dog appeared on the wall behind its master whose picture was taken. See my book “Ghosts in Photos” (Anvil).

6. This question is already answered. In one case, I was told, the feces of the dead dog was found outside the kitchen door after he died. That’s where the dog used to defecate when it was alive. It happened twice. Then no more.

7. It is possible your dog senses your concern if it has acquired a high degree of individuation. You will most likely meet again in the afterlife.

By the way, this column comes out in the Lifestyle Section of Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday, not Thursday. You can read this column, as well as other columns, on the Internet by logging in to www.inq7.net, then click Lifestyle.

source: http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=72841&col=3

Mary Magdalene, the woman Jesus loved

THIS Lenten season, I would like to focus not on Jesus Christ, but on the woman he loved, Mary Magdalene, a mysterious woman who was much misunderstood, maligned, ignored and marginalized by the Christian church.

To me, Mary Magdalene stands taller than any of the apostles of Jesus. She was the “Apostle of Apostles” to whom was revealed the greatest spiritual mysteries after the resurrection of Jesus.
She was mentioned only a few times in the canonical gospels of Luke, Mark, Mathew and John. But her importance in Christ’s mission cannot be denied.

She was present during the most crucial moments in Jesus’ life. It was Mary Magdalene who anointed Jesus with a most expensive perfumed oil, thus fulfilling his being called The Anointed One. She was present during the crucifixion and she was the first person to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection.

Who was this woman that the early Church mistakenly branded as a “repentant prostitute” and
relegated to the footnotes of history? What did she represent that the church tried so hard to eradicate?

Wealthy
To be sure, not much is known about the background of Mary Magdalene. Modern research and educated guess work suggest she was a very wealthy woman, probably from a place in Africa called Magdala.

Other theories say she was from Egypt and some say she was from a town in the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. But she most definitely was not a prostitute, as commonly believed. There is absolutely no biblical basis for it.

Where did the idea of Mary Magdalene’s being a prostitute start? This false label stemmed from a homily of Pope Gregory in the year 591 where he declared that she and the unnamed woman in Luke VII were, in fact, one and the same, and the faithful should hold Mary as a penitent whore.

Here is the pertinent portion of that historic homily with the erroneous notion about Mary Magdalene:
“She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? ... It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.”

In 1969, the Catholic church officially corrected Pope Gregory’s error of labeling Mary Magdalene a penitent whore. However, almost nobody paid any attention to the correction.
The Christian community, by and large, persisted in regarding her as a former prostitute. One would expect the Catholic clergy to lead the way in correcting the false impression of Mary Magdalene but that has not happened.

Was there a deliberate attempt by the church to marginalize Mary Magdalene, as Dan Brown’s immensely popular novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” suggested? Though vehemently denied by church apologists, there seemed to be some historical evidence for this.

Why would the church want to downplay Mary Magdalene’s role? What could be its motive?
Based on his consultations with other writers, like Margaret Starbird (“The Woman in the Alabaster Jar”), Lyn Picknett (“Mary Magdalene”), Elaine Pagels (“The Gnostic Gospels”), and Michael Baignet, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (“Holy Blood, Holy Grail”), Brown theorized, “Mary Magdalene represents a woman who is freed from sexual repression, who is not dependent upon a male-only hierarchy, and who fulfills her desires through confident individualism, not repentance and submission.”

All about power
In other words, this is about power and the recognition that sexuality is a fundamental element of power. According to Susan Haskins, “What the church feared and abhorred the most was that which is incarnated in the flesh of the woman, her sexuality, and so made Mary Magdalene a repentant whore in order to rob her of that power.”

In 1945, a whole library of ancient papyrus writings containing lost gospels written in the Coptic language was discovered inside jars in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. The most well-known of these writings was the Gospel of Thomas. But it also contained the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary, which asserted that the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ was more than casual.

The main theory behind the “Da Vinci Code” novel is that Jesus and Mary were married and she bore him a child in France where she fled with Martha, Lazarus and John after the resurrection.
The Holy Grail was not the cup that Jesus used during the Last Supper, but the royal blood of Christ that must be protected. The church was said to be behind a conspiracy to keep this secret at all cost even to the point of deception and murder.

That’s why the Catholic church is all up and against this work of fiction. It has reason to be alarmed because Brown’s book has sold 25 million copies worldwide and is more popular than the Bible.

Although there is absolutely no historical basis or evidence that Jesus was ever married to Mary Magdalene, or that they had children, as some writers theorized, there is enough written and documentary evidence suggesting they were most likely lovers. During the early period of Christianity, it was no secret that Magdalene was not only his constant companion but his dearly beloved.

THE Gospel of Philip found in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, in 1945 contains this very revealing passage:
“… The companion of the (Savior was)... Mary Magdalene. (But Christ loved)... her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her (mouth). The rest of the disciples were offended... They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’

“The savior answered and said to them, ‘Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.’”

What I believe Christ was saying to them is this: “Even if I explain this to you, and you do not have the inner knowing, the gnosis, then you will still not understand. You are like the blind man who cannot see even if the light comes. But if you have inner vision or inner knowledge, you will understand.”

This implies that Mary understood and therefore had no need for explicit explanation. She intuitively knew and understood her true role which the disciples apparently did not.

Favored
According to Elaine Pagels, who holds a doctorate degree from Harvard and author of the Gnostic Gospels, “the Gospel of Mary depicts Mary Magdalene (never recognized as an apostle by the Orthodox church) as the one favored with visions and insight that surpass Peter’s. The Dialogue of the Savior (also part of the Nag Hammadi Library) praises her not only as a visionary, but as the apostle who excels all the rest. She is the woman who knew it all.”

Mary Magdalene, after Christ’s resurrection, became the intermediary between Jesus and the other disciples. As the constant companion of Jesus and the first witness of the Resurrection, it seemed only natural, as Michael Terdieu, editor of the Berlin Codex pointed out, that she had been accorded special revelations.

Instead of explaining why Mary Magdalene was not even considered an apostle when it was to her that Jesus Christ revealed the most secret teachings after his resurrection, not to Peter and the other disciples, the Church simply labeled those who advocated this view to be heretics.But labeling a statement or belief heretical does not mean it is wrong. It only means it’s different from the accepted or authorized belief.

For example, during the medieval period, it was heresy to believe that the earth revolved around the sun. In fact, the great astronomer Galileo was arrested by the Holy Inquisition because of such belief. He was made to retract this “heresy” or be burned at the stake. The Orthodox and accepted view at that time was that the sun revolved around the earth.

Unprecedented
The aggressive and often acrimonious smear campaign the Catholic church has unleashed on Dan Brown’s novel, which the author himself admitted to be mere fiction, is unprecedented in modern literary history.Church apologists took pains to point out every small artistic, historical, theological, biblical and even geographical errors Brown supposedly committed in his work, errors that are not essential to the story he was telling.

But Brown should be happy with the aggressive stance the Catholic church has taken against him. It will make his very popular book even more popular. More people who may not have been interested in reading the book will now want to know what the fuss is all about.
As usual, the Church will be at the losing end in this publicity game. Brown has the numbers. And with a movie starring Tom Hanks coming out soon, watch the sales of the book go even higher.

I wish the church also condemns my book “On Christianity, New Age and Reincarnation.” That will ensure its place on the bestseller list.

source: (April 3, 2006) http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=71548&col=3
(April 10, 2006) http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=72309&col=3