William Samuel

Absolute, Awakening

First, harking hack to China, Mr. Shieh and I, with five American teammates, were being pursued by a Japanese combat patrol. We were “retrograding;” bringing up the rear of our little patrol, trying to get back to the safety of friendly lines. We were close to being captured. In those days, neither the Japanese nor Chinese “gave quarter.” That is, we took no prisoners. I knew that if I were taken by the pursuing Japanese, it meant certain death. On the other, hand, Mr. Shieh might successfully pass himself off as a Chinese peasant. Oh, I cannot write this story! At this minute it is enough to remember Mr. Shieh seeing and pointing out the beauty of those purple blooms on the distant mountain we had yet to climb. I marveled at a man who could see beauty under such oppressive circumstances. I marvel more that he helped me learn to do it. * During the Korean War, an artillery round burst among my men on the left flank. Several bodies were hurled about and I ran to see the extent of the damage and whether the platoon leader was still effective. Sick to my stomach at the sight, I sat down among three of the bodies sprawled along the slope. I became aware of a visual “Presence” hovering beside them. A misty, blue-white light of sorts. A different kind of light, primal, persuasive and powerful. I could not explain what I saw then, nor can I now, but with the sight, and because of the sight, I was absolutely certain within myself I was being shown evidence of the deathlessness of Life—the survival of the Child, the Soul of men. I felt a marvelous sense of relief, almost gratitude, concerning those men and everything happening that day. Within a few minutes of that incident, my regiment, and my part of the line in particular, was hit by an enormous wave of shell fire and oncoming Chinese troops. Hell erupted in a manner that no one can sufficiently describe or picture for another. One simply must experience something like that to fully understand. But, to the ongoing Glimpse I’d like to write here if I can. In the early moments of that terrible onslaught wherein everything that moved was slaughtered ten times over—advancing troops, men, women, children, dogs and chickens and every moving creature caught at that place at that time—I was suddenly unable to hear. My world went silent and I was enveloped in an immeasurable calm. In the midst of that horrendous din of exploding bodies and shells, I could hear nothing but my own voice. In some marvelous way, I was caught up in a quiet, tranquil dimension, separate, but attached to the carnage at hand, I had not been wounded. I felt as well as one could be expected to feel under such circumstances. I could hear my own voice and even my breathing quite clearly, I went from gun position to gun position and heard myself giving calm encouragement to my troops. I could see their mouths move in reply and gratitude—and terror—but I couldn’t hear them. I heard myself but couldn’t hear the shells bursting in my face. I was beset with a wonderful enwrapping calm that let me move fearlessly to do whatever the moment asked me to do, as hideous as those moments were. Perhaps a man can so detest a situation that his body produces the chemicals which, in turn, erect a barricade between himself and the galling situation. But as this was happening for me on that long day in Korea, there was a clear perception that a superlative Reality stood just behind the events: that there is another Scene just above this one, surrounding it; that Reality was bursting through that corridor of chaos into my own conscious recognition. I walked with a detached courage, as if the mortal body couldn’t be and wouldn’t be hurt. I ran from soldier to soldier, gun to gun. I was knocked down, spun around and stung with rocks and earth, feeling nothing but a calm, clear sense of Life’s dominion over the sights and sounds of the world; as though, with the Presence I had sensed and seen moments earlier among the first bodies felled, I was SEEING and FEELING Life, eternal Nature, even in the face of death. Perhaps this was the beneficent calm Mr. Shieh had felt those years earlier when he saw the blossoms on the distant mountain. That particular hellfire and damnation in Korea lasted four nights and three days without sleep for my troops and me. I have never forgotten the different time frame and the enwrapping inner peace nor how I was held and supported during that time—or non-time. More significant, that Peace has not forsaken me since those days, at least not when I was mindful of It nor when the chips were down and I called for It. How do I call for It? I bring forth the Child of Me. Why I write this now after all these years, I really don’t know, but on this Memorial Day when I feel everything necessary for the book has been written, I sit me down and write something that might tell others, like Janice and Bill, that there are times when the anguish of the lesson is absolutely necessary—that leaving the anguish may not be the answer. Now, with absolute assurance, I can tell people, old and young, their lessons can be learned under the most difficult and trying circumstances. Better that we leave our nets after we’ve learned their lessons. Better that we call on the Child because the Child knows what to do. The Child and the Presence are the same one Presence and It is right here where we are, transcending this world’s time and space. The final tone in this Overtone: The day I moved King Company onto line in Korea, I was given the Order of Battle of the “enemy” opposing me just across the valley on the next mountain. Facing my regiment, and me in particular, was the Chinese 60th Army, the same troops I had lived with and trained for two wars in China. We met again, eight years later, in a terrible and senseless slaughter. In the apparent world, our friends and enemies are the same—and, sometimes, needlessly, insanely, we try to destroy one another, thence to find that Life is eternal. Like Arjuna, in awful combat, I was instructed in certain of the Mysteries and learned the sense of senselessness. Memorial Day, 1985 Making sense of this world

nonsense, near death and real life find meeting point

Nonsense

“Early Greek philosophers understood full well that people sometimes report spiritual experiences when they are revived from close calls with death. Plato wrote about the famous case of a soldier who apparently died in battle but spontaneously revived at his funeral. The soldier told amazed spectators that he had left his body and went through a passageway into another world. Plato thought that such accounts indicated a transcendent world beyond death. Another Greek philosopher, Democritus, thought differently about experiences like those. Democritus had figured out that things in the world are composed of minute, indivisible particles—atoms—that are too small to be seen. Democritus wrote that the experiences of people who recovered from apparent death were caused by residual biological activity in the body. He said that there is no such thing as a moment of death; dying is a process. The debate about near-death experiences has not progressed much since then. Some claim that near-death experiences are evidence of life after death. Others claim that the experiences result from oxygen deprivation to the brain. This book explodes that old framework of debate by setting out an entirely new way of thinking. Specifically, this book solves the primary problem that previously prevented real advances toward answering the question of life after death. David Hume (1711–1776) was a renowned philosopher who refined our concepts of causation and inductive reasoning. His famous skeptical works helped shape what we know as the scientific mind. In an incisive analysis, Hume pinpointed the real problem of inquiring into the afterlife. Hume said, By the mere light of reason it seems difficult to prove the Immortality of the Soul…Some new species of logic is requisite for that purpose, and some new faculties of the mind that they may enable us to comprehend that logic. 1 Hume was right. In reality, we can’t solve the afterlife problem with the logic we have and the mind we have. The logic you are using right now as you read this is based on literal meaning. In that logic, “There is life after death”is a self-contradiction. After all, “death”just means “the final, irreversible cessation of life.”Hence, saying that “there is life after the final, irreversible cessation of life”is just meaningless. This book solves Hume’s problem by setting out a new logic—a logic of nonsense. Learning these new rational principles will actually activate previously hidden powers of your mind. At the end of this book, all these new logical principles and new powers of the mind will come together. Then we will be able to shine astonishing new light on life after death and other big questions of science and religion. After a stint as a philosophy professor, I went to medical school. I soon noticed that patients who were delirious, intoxicated, psychotic, severely stressed, or confused often talked nonsense. Moreover, when ill patients talked nonsense involuntarily, they talked the same types of nonsense that authors like Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll wrote deliberately. That is, nonsense is nonsense whether it is deliberate or involuntary. Eventually, I brought together all I had learned into a semester-length university course on nonsense, which I taught numerous times. Students learned about the many important psychological and spiritual effects of nonsense and the many roles nonsense plays in humor, songs, advertising, literature, religion, and the quest for knowledge. My students learned to recognize more than seventy different types of nonsense, describe their structures, and write their own examples. Similarly, here you will learn about the nature of nonsense, its various forms, and why it is important. From there, we’ll look at deep connections between nonsense and the mind to bring the hidden, unconscious world of nonsense fully into your conscious mind and better understand both the rules it follows and the rules it breaks. You’ll also learn about the spiritual significance of nonsense and how it has appeared historically in sacred texts, ritual and magical practices, and tradition for inducing transcendent or mystical states of consciousness. Next we’ll review the relationships between nonsense and our search for rational knowledge. In addition, we’ll take a look at the important topic of misuses of nonsense and how it is sometimes used for manipulation and selfish purposes. And finally, with a clear foundation of nonsense set, we’ll review the fascinating topic of how it plays a role in our understanding of life after death. The students in my university course also completed nonsense exercises as part of their practice, which awakened unknown cognitive and creative powers of their minds. The exercises I designed for my courses are reprinted throughout Chapter 2 in this book for your own practice. By completing them, you will find that you are able to think logically and creatively about questions that previously eluded reason, and you will attain a revolutionary new understanding of the mysteries of the next life.” – Raymond Moody