Greetings from Center Valley, Pennsylvania!
I'm blogging from the annual conference of the Acadamy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies (formerly the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research), being held on the beautiful campus of DeSales University. I'm settled into Day 2 of the conference, and playing catch-up with the internet now that I am more coherent after a good night's sleep.
First, let me take a moment to share a personal lesson. I do not recommend to anyone, under any circumstances, that they attempt an 8 hour drive on only 3 hours of sleep. After managing to avoid having my own near death experience, I arrived just in time on Day 1 to grab a bite to eat and listen to Dr. Raymond Moody's keynote address.
The topic of the address was "Near-Death Experiences in Ancient Greek Philosophy: The Origins of Rational Inquiry into the Afterlife." His talk described how the very men who are credited with discovering and developing our current system of reason and logical thinking were concurrently setting the style for rational inquiry into the afterworld. Dr. Moody discussed how figures like Hermotimus, Epimenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocies, Democritus, Socrates, and Plato were also concerned with the phenomena of out of body experiences, near death experiences, channeling and reincarnation. Some of these men were shaman-like figures with visions and experiences of their own to share.
I was very impressed with Dr. Moody's talk, and especially his ease in fielding questions. And Dr. Moody, if you are reading this, please know that the yawning tall blonde in the second row with the watery eyes barely holding up her head throughout your lecture was most definitely NOT bored to tears. She just has time management issues.
Day Two of the conference should appear soon...and with pictures! Stay tuned.
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