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(2000 edition)  The case of Direct Voice medium Leslie Flint (1911-1994) is extensively documented with numerous recordings available for listening without charge at the website of The Leslie Flint Educational Trust .  In addition to the 1971 autobiography, many other testimonials are in print with a bibliography online.  Fl int visited Los Angeles in 1949 to be the guest of Dr. Carl Menugh after agreeing to hold seances in his Long Beach apartment for a few of his friends. Among the hundreds of ascended realm communicators heard to speak in the presence of Flint were people of earthly renown.  Lynn Russell's book The Voice of Valentino (1965) and the Flint 'seances' (or 'sittings') involving Hollywood actor Rudolph Valentino are mentioned in several previous blog articles ( 1 , 2 , 3 ).  In this article, I am presenting excerpts from Flint's autobiography as told to Doreen Montgomery, Voices in the Dark .  My only cont...

A friend wrote to me recently saying that she had been following various spiritual paths since childhood and that finally last year Sri Ramana had appeared in her life as the ultimate teacher, but that eight years ago she had had an experience while waking from sleep that she later identified with what Sri Ramana said about the clarity of self-awareness that can be experienced immediately after we wake from sleep and before it becomes mixed with awareness of a body and world. She tried her best to describe what she had experienced, but if it was indeed the adjunct-free clarity of self-awareness that Sri Ramana referred to, it would be impossible to describe it in words or even to conceive it by thoughts, because it would have been (and could only ever be) experienced in the complete absence of any thoughts or words, and hence it is beyond their reach. Therefore from her description of her experience I cannot say for certain that it was that adjunct-free clarity of self-awareness, or if...

When we consider the health impacts of eating meat, cardiovascular disease is the first thing that comes to mind.  Popular diet advocates often hold diametrically opposed views on the role of meat in cardiovascular disease.  Even among researchers and public health officials, opinions vary.  In this post, I'll do my best to sort through the literature and determine what the weight of the evidence suggests. Ancel Keys and the Seven Countries Study Ancel Keys was one of the first researchers to contribute substantially to the study of the link between diet and cardiovascular disease.  Sadly, there is a lot of low-quality information circulating about Ancel Keys and his research ( 1 ).  The truth is that Keys was a pioneering researcher who conducted some of the most impressive nutritional science of his time.  The military "K ration" was designed by Keys, much of what we know about the physiology of starvation comes from his detailed studies during World War II, and he was ...

Having profiled many documented cases of people experiencing happenings often categorized as so-called 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' I realized that it would be informative for new readers to have an outline of significant occurrences of this type in my own life that I attempted to place in perspective soon after investigating the phenomena of a contemporary 'talking poltergeist' case in rural Oklahoma in 1995.  My understanding has been enhanced through comparing my own experiences with other case studies encompassing phenomenal events. 1990s After researching the case of Julia Pastrana for a 'spec' screenplay, I decided to find another interesting offbeat true story and selected the Bell Witch talking poltergeist case.  Below is the somewhat frightful cover of the first book I found about the 19th Century Bell Witch case.  This 1972 publication presented facsimile editions of books published in...

A few months ago a friend wrote to me asking in Tamil: ஆத்ம விசாரம் என்பது ‘தன்மையுணர்வை நாடுதல்’ எனப் புத்தகங்கள் கூறுகின்றன. இதையே நானும் நேரம் கிடைக்கும்போதெல்லாம் பயின்றும் வருகிறேன். இவையெல்லாம் மிகச் சுலபமாக தோன்றினாலும் உண்மையில் இது ஓரு சூட்சுமமான பாதையாகவே இருக்கிறது. நான் சாதனையைச் சரியாகத்தான் செய்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறேனா, பகவானின் வாக்குகளை சரியாகப் புரிந்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறேனா என்ற சந்தேகம் எப்போதும் என்னை வாட்டி வதைக்கிறது. இந்தப் பாதையில் சரியாகப் போய்க்கொண்டிருக்கிறேன் என்று அறிந்துக் கொள்ள ஏதேனும் அறிகுறிகள் அல்லது மைல்கற்கள் உள்ளனவா? which means: Books say that self-investigation ( ātma-vicāra ) is ‘investigating the first person awareness’. I too am practising only this whenever time is available. Though all these appear to be very easy, in truth this is such a subtle path. The doubt ‘Am I doing sādhana correctly? Am I understanding Bhagavan’s words correctly?’ is always vexing and tormenting me. Are there any signs or milestones [to enable me] to know that I am proceedin...

In the comments on my previous two articles, Our memory of ‘I’ in sleep and Why should we believe that ‘the Self’ is as we believe it to be? , there has been some discussion about the subject of being a ‘self-realised’ person, with one friend claiming ‘I have realised who I am’ and others expressing doubts about that, so in this article I will examine this concept of being a ‘self-realised’ person and consider whether it accurately represents anything that truly exists. Firstly I will consider the common use of the term ‘self-realisation’ as a translation of the Sanskrit terms ātma-jñāna or ātmānubhava , which respectively mean self-knowledge and self-experience in the sense of experiencing or being clearly aware of ourself as we really are. Though ‘realise’ can mean to recognise, understand, ascertain or become clearly aware of something, it is a rather vague and ambiguous term to use in this context, because it has various other meanings such as to accomplish, achieve, fulfil, actu...