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In a comment that he wrote on one of my earlier articles, What should we believe? , a friend called Venkat asked: Bhagavan said that ajata vada was the ultimate truth, in his experience. He also said that eka jiva vada (drsti srsti vada) was the 'closest' to ajata vada. How did Bhagavan see these two being different, given that eka jiva vada says there is no existent creation, it is just the perceiving of it (i.e. it is a dream)? I replied to this in another comment : Venkat, you should be able to understand the answer to your question by reading my latest article, Metaphysical solipsism, idealism and creation theories in the teachings of Sri Ramana , so I will give just a brief reply to it here. According to ēka-jīva-vāda and dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi-vāda , there is one ego or jīva who perceives this world, which does not exist except in the view (the perception or experience) of that one ego. Therefore what causes the appearance of creation ( sṛṣṭi ) is only the perception ( dṛṣṭi ) of...

Matthew Manning is a facilitator of spiritual healing .       This is the pathetic introduction of the May 8, 2014 British GQ article about Matthew Manning:   For 50 years, Matthew Manning has been Britain's most haunted.  Harassed by spirits since the age of eleven and apparently gifted with the power to heal cancer the 'Poltergeist Boy' is not your common-or-garden kook.  Having withstood the scrutiny of doctors, academics and every rigour of the scientific method, Manning claims his abilities are from beyond — and beyond dispute.  Believe him or not, he claims he's the real deal.  And what's more . . .  He can prove it   Sadly, this paragraph may reflect the mentality of many of the magazine's readers regarding 'unexplained phenomena.'  The article begins with an offering of a coterie of celebrity names "of some of those who have consulted him."  The events of strange phenomena in Matthew Manning's early lif...

A University of Virginia researcher named Hannah Menefee contacted me recently to ask for our help.  She and her colleagues are conducting a study on how people with type 2 diabetes use Facebook to manage their health, and how that technology can be leveraged to support effective health communication. If you have type 2 diabetes, and you'd like to participate in the study, please join their Diabetes Management Study Facebook group .  There, you'll receive more information about the study, you'll receive a short survey, and you may be invited into one of the study phases.

In a comment that he wrote on one of my recent articles, What should we believe? , Sankarraman referred to an article on David Godman’s blog, Swami Siddheswarananda’s views on Bhagavan’s Teachings on Creation , in which David discussed some opinions that Swami Siddheswarananda (former president of the Mysore branch of the Ramakrishna Math and founder of the Centre Védantique Ramakrichna in France) expressed about Sri Ramana’s views on solipsism and the idealistic theory of creation known as dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi-vāda in the third section of an article that he wrote in 1946 for the Golden Jubilee Souvenir , in which he claimed: The philosophical outlook of Maharshi tends very often to be confused with that of solipsism or its Indian equivalent, drishti-srishti-vada , which is a sort of degenerated idealism. That Maharshi never subscribes to that view can be known if we study his works in the light of orthodox Vedanta or observe his behaviour in life. [...] ( Golden Jubilee Souvenir , third edi...

STV Dundee photo Last year on June 20, UK media reported that representatives of The Daily Mail  newspaper agreed to pay psychic Sally Morgan £125,000 in damages and legal costs in relation to a 2011 news article that accused her of cheating by using an earpiece.  A Daily Mail article regarding the agreement included the statement "Associated Newspapers accepted the allegation was untrue and apologised unreservedly." The Press Gazette headline was "Daily Mail pays £125k damages plus costs to TV psychic Sally Morgan over 'charlatan' report"  while a BBC News report on the payout quoted from Sally Morgan's statement at her website: "There will always be sceptics who attack my work and I understand and accept that. However, to libel me and falsely accuse me of a con trick does not constitute rational commentary or debate.  I hope now this settlement and apology will repair the damage that has been done." The Guardian article on the libe...