Busy Week, Adler School of Psychology Open House

I am at a point where I have to pick and choose what conferences to attend and what I should be studying and focusing on at the moment. I base that on locality and how it benefits myself or my clients. Adler School of Psychology was an interest to me when I was exploring my options for grad studies. However, they were not set up at the time in Toronto. I liked it that I would not have to do research and just focus on counselling. I have been receiving emails ever since I first contacted them and they will be setting up a PHD program in the next few years. I am at a stage in life where I have completed all my studies and though I shall always develop and upgrade myself professionaly, I ponder if I should rise to the occassion and pursue my Phd. Yesderday, as I sat having a coffee and bagel for a late breakfast on the run of events I had to accomplish by the end of the day, I looked at an ad in the lobby where I was sipping coffee and watching people come in and out of the building. I quickly scanned the ad. In bold letters the words spelled that in the last ten years of life in Canada it is on average full of sickness. Right there and then I thought that perhaps a Phd, is not in my best interest. I want to have fun. I want to have balance. If you were given ten years of life? How would you spend it? HOw would you live it? What would you do differently? That is what I thought two days ago when I am busy setting up a practice and sorting out priorities. Let's go one day back, when I decide to brave the TTC which I have not experienced for quite a while. Adler in near Yorkville, on Yonge Street. Since completing my studies at U of T, I have not been to Yorkville, which was a favourite meeting and lunching area for some of my friends from school. It looked pretty bare with a few excited tourists, a film crew and little else, unlike the summer activities of people dining out in the patio. There is a hidden gem there on the second floor, a diner right out of the 50's and there is a great pizza place where Italian is not a simulation but authentic. At Adler, a nice breakfast was provided as well as a great lunch. However, I found myself eating chicken which I was informed by a guest was salmon and I do not eat meat. That was new. I cannot remember when I last ate meat accidently. Oh yes I do, it was High Tea. Everyone was friendly and I spoke to one student in the Masters program that raved about her love for her school. It was cozy and it reminded me of my own school at Regis College, where friendliness is paramount. How do you wheel in new students unless they feel welcomed? The Chief Financial Officer introduced himself to me and of course I asked about the availability of scholarships. Tempting; very, very tempting. I have to admit I found most of the lectures a bit boring for my taste. I never refer anyone for business reasons. I do not think that is ethical and say so whenever I am approached for a business proposal. I was beginning to think that aside from meeting an ethusiastic student and eating good food, even if it wasn't marked (I am spoiled at U of T), the day was not as productive as I had presumed it would be. That changed as soon as Carlos Davidovich, Vice President, Executive Coaching, Optimum Talent spoke up. I have never been woken up at the end of the day by a speaker, but this man was riveting. I understood his language. He is a physician from Argentina, who turned to business. He has lived in Europe and he is now gracing us in Canada. It took someone to use physiology as an analogy for me to understand business. That in itself was new to me. I have studied the brain and the human body, the systems etc....all in undergrad and I was being re-aquainted and having a refersher course all at once. He marvelled as he explained that "love" stems from the repitilian portion of the brain and that was new to me as well. I am still processing that and wanting to know more. When his session was over, he begged for more time and it was provided. Who could say no to this man who was offering so much. His, is the only card that I asked for and took from the speakers. The last speaker of the day was also useful for me. I do much of the do nots on the web. My picture has never been professionaly taken and I am certainly not up to date. It is time to upgrade my web or get rid of it as suggested. The day turned out to be very, very beneficial and I walked out at the end of the day with a new perspective. I will be very busy for the next few weeks and then I have to prioritise and implement some updates. What stimulates you? What excites you? What drives you? What are you doing to help yourself? Are you in a runt? How did you get there? What are you doing to get yourself back on your feet? How will you gain control of your life once again? Do you see a needed change in your life? Then why are you not working towards it? What do you think?

Happy Easter - Here are one of my papers titled, Original sin from a Muslim's Perspective Have a peaceful Easter

Original Sin - A Muslim’s Perspective Augustine’s theme of the universality of sin is not the only perspective for Christians. The Eastern Fathers such as Iraneous and other Theologians have a different interpretation. Christians believe that Jesus died to atone for our sins. Muslims reject this notion. Reconciliation is for repentance and not through atonement as in Christianity. Muslims do not believe that Jesus died to suffer for us and went miraculously to heaven. Muslim’s believe Jesus was ready to die for God and that is an indication of a good Muslim. This paper will present the Qur’anic view of Jesus, the Islamic denial of Jesus’ divinity, death and resurrection as well as the concept that Adam and Eve did sin but this did not result in the condemnation of every person born into this world. It will be argued that the view of the Eastern Fathers is more compatible with modern science because of evolution rather than the static view of the world put forward by Augustine. Muslims and Christians have roots dating back to Abraham. According to the book of Geneses, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation (Gn 12: 1-3) and that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky (Gn 15: 1-6). Not being able to conceive, Sarah brought her maid Hagar to Abraham and they had a child, Ishmael. Sarah became jealous of Hagar when she was pregnant and persuaded Abraham to banish the woman into the desert. Sarah did have a child afterwards who was named Isaac. Through Isaac and Ishmael there are two parallel lines of Abraham’s descendants, Isaac to Jerusalem and Jesus and Ishmael to Mecca and Muhammad. In the Qur’anic version of the story of Abraham there is no mention of Hagar or Sarah, nor is there any mention that Ishmael was rejected in favour of Isaac. Abraham was neither Jew, Christian, nor Muslim but each has claimed him as their spiritual ancestor. To understand the concept of Jesus for the Muslim one must understand what the Qur’an is. The Qur’an has no parallel outside Islam. Christians have equated the Qur’an to the Bible. The Qur’an in Islam is very nearly what Christ is in Christianity: the Word of God. The Bible derives its significance from Christ; but Muhammad derives his from the Qur’an. “There is no God except God” is counted in the Qur’an more than a hundred times (Norman, p 64). This is very significant because it is an indication of how Jesus cannot be accepted as God. The Qur’an is the record of the revelations received by Muhammad between his call in 610 A.D and his death 632 A.D. These revelations were collected and edited within a period of about twenty-five years into more or less the form in which they are found today (Mohammed, p 7). It is important for Christians to be aware that according to the Christian faith the fullness of revelation is not the written word of the New Testament but the person of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the human record, the authentic memoir of the self communication of God in Christ. The New Testament itself admits that it reports the fullness of revelation through Christ only incompletely (Jn 20:30; 21:25). This is the understanding of Vatican 11 (Mohammed, p 54). The Qur’an makes it clear that it not only confirms, but corrects, the Laws of the Gospel (Injil) and the Pentateuch (Tawrat) meaning that the Jews and the Christians misrepresent the revelations entrusted to them (Norman, p 67). The three verses of the Qur’an indicate the evolution of the ordered world. God created the heavens and what is between them in six periods (Qur’an 50:38). Muslim commentators on the Qur’an feel the six days represent a metaphorical period. A day in the sight of God can range from 1000 to 50,000 years of our reckoning (Qur’an 70:4). The Qur’an also reveals that life began in water. This too has been determined from modern science ( Katerrenga and Shenk, p 10). Who is Jesus? A Muslim’s perspective Muslims have great respect and love for Jesus [Isa] the Messiah. They consider Jesus as one of the greatest prophets of Allah [God]. To deny the prophethood of Jesus is to deny Islam. Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother, Maryam (Mary), by Allah’s Devine decree. Jesus is referred in the Qur’an as the son of Mary. The Qur’an teaches the coming of the Messiah (Qur’an 3:45). However, Muslims do not believe and are opposed to the belief that Jesus was divine or the son of God. “It is not befitting to (the Majesty of Allah) that He should beget a son. Glory be to him, when he determines a matter, He only says to it “”Be”” and it is there” (Qur’an 5:75) (Katerrega and Shenk p 131). Although Muslims believe that Moses and Jesus are true prophets, the Jews and Christians are claimed to have distorted the authentic revelations received by their prophets. Therefore, the Qur’an remains the only reliable sacred text, and Muhammad is the greatest and final prophet of God. Muhammad is blessed for Muslims. He is blessed among men, as Mary is blessed among women. The annunciation to Mary, a virgin, produced a son [Jesus], while Muhammad, produced a Book [Qur’an] (Mohammed, p 7). In a rare reference to the Qur’an, Pope John Paul stated: As I have of often said in other meetings with Muslims, your God and ours is one and the the same, and we are brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham…All true holiness comes from God, who is called “”The Holy One”” in the sacred books of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Your holy Koran calls God “”Al Quddus,”” ( Sherwin and Kasimow, p 19). Irenaeaus Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202) believed that man’s basic nature in distinction from other animals is that of a personal being with moral freedom and responsibility. He is made in the image of God, capable of a personal relationship with God but only potentially to evolve into the perfected being who God is seeking to produce. He is only at the beginning of a process of growth and development in God’s continuing providence to culminate in the finite likeness of God. Man is an immature being whom God could not yet profitably bestow his highest gifts. This concept is in line with evolution which has been proven in contemporary science. The Irenaean view is that God is gradually forming perfected members of humanity whose fuller nature we glimpse in Christ (Hick, p 339). Clement of Alexandria (died c.220) confronted the Gnostics’ challenge, “If man was created good, how has he sinned; but if he was not, how can his Creator have been good?” He thus shared the Irenaean point of view that man was created immature (Hick, pp 215, 216). Methodius (died c. 311 and St. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329- c. 389) apparently accepted the picture of Adam as immature and infantile. Therefore, man was not created perfect but his perfecting lay in the future (Hick, p 216). St Augustine Since the fifth century the Augustinian tradition of the fall of “man” and of the subsequent participation of sin has become deeply entrenched. Man was created finitely perfect, but in his freedom he rebelled against God and has existed ever since under the righteous wrath and just condemnation of his maker. The descendants of Adam and Eve stand in a corporate unity and continuity of life with the primal pair and have inherited both their guilt and a corrupted and sin-prone nature. We are born as sinners and we are bound to be lead daily into further sin. It is only by God’s free grace that some but not all will eventually be saved (Hick, pp 201, 202). Until comparatively recent times the ancient myth of the origin of evil in the fall of man was assumed to be history. First it was comprehensively developed by St Augustine and has continued substantially unchanged within the Roman Catholic Church to the present day. It is not unheard of to hear it in a Sunday sermon in the literal sense. It was adopted by the Reformers of the sixteenth century and has been virtually unquestioned as Protestant doctrine until within approximately the last hundred years (Hick, p 246). We know today that the conditions that were to cause human disease and mortality and the necessity for man to undertake the perils of hunting were already part of the natural order (Hick p 249). The doctrine of original sin does not appear among the beliefs of the earliest Christians. There is no mention of original sin in the New Testament. There is no concept that matches what was to become accepted as doctrine of original sin. Augustine is the author of this enduring Christian teaching. St Augustine also contended that infants who died without being baptized because of original sin were condemned to hell. Gradually the doctrine of limbo took the place of hell for non baptized babies (Rondet, p 178). How can one imagine God ever turning away from an innocent babe because she is not baptized, certainly not a Muslim. The Concepts of Adam and Eve - A Muslim and Christian Perspective The Qur’an is in agreement with the Christian view that man is created in God’s image. Unlike Christianity it regards this image as innate in all men and permanent. Islam regards every man at all times embodying the divine image. Islam holds that man is created innocent. It repudiates every notion of original sin; of hereditary guilt (Crawford, p 215). Salvation is an improper religious concept devoid of any equivalent term in the Islamic vocabulary. Adam, the first man, committed a misdeed when he ate from the prohibited tree, but he repented and was forgiven. His misdeed was an ordinary human mistake. It was the deed of one man and therefore his own personal responsibility. It had no effect on anyone else besides him. Not only was it devoid of cosmic effect but even of any effect upon his children. It did send Adam from Paradise to earth but it changed nothing in his nature (Crawford, p 218). Adam and Hauwa [Eve] ate the fruit of the forbidden tree as a result of Satan’s deceit. It was not a willful and deliberate disobedience. When God called to them, they quickly realized their sinfulness and they prayed for forgiveness. They did not turn away from God.” Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost” (Qur’an 7:22). Muslims can deduce from this event that man is imperfect, even if he lives in heaven. Islamic witness is that Allah [God] is always ready through his mercy and grace to forgive the sins of all who are sincere in their wanting to change for the better (Katerrega and Shenk, p 23). Adam, the first man on earth was also the first prophet of Allah. God revealed the religion of Islam to Adam which is submission to the one true God. According to Muslims all prophets are the same. They teach or remind man of the unity of God, the reward of leading a good pious, and peaceful life, the day of judgement, and the terrible punishment for unbelievers (Katerrega and Shenk p 36). Irenaeus pictures Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as children. Their sin is seen as a calling of God’s compassion on account of their weakness and vulnerability. This objective of God is that man passes through all things and acquires the knowledge of death and learns by experience what the source of his experience is, so he may love God ever more. Contemporary life is gradual spiritual growth (Hick, pp 212, 213). Jesus too treated the likeness between the attitude of God to man, and the attitude of human parents at their best towards their children, as providing the most adequate way for us to think about God (Hick, p 258). From a Muslim’s perspective Allah pardoned Adam and Hauwa as the Qur’an testifies, “Then Adam received from his Lord words (of revelation), and He relented toward him. Lo! He is the relenting, the Merciful” (Qur’an 2:37). Adam and Hauwa were absolved of the sin of disobedience, and their future descendants were made immune from its effect. Allah [God] did not only accept man’s repentance but went ahead and appointed him as his messenger to give guidance to mankind (Katerrega and Shenk, p 23). Scholars are positive in affirming that the revelatory content of Genesis is not an explanation of the origin of evil. There is no portrayal of a “fall” from immortality. Humanity has not been changed from how it was created. Death, suffering and work are part of the human destiny, not divine punishment. There is no justification in Genesis for the submissiveness of women or for the destruction of the earth’s resources for human purposes. “The story of the ‘“fall”’ is human conduct in the face of temptation….In sum the doctrine of original sin is not to be found in Genesis…” Catholic biblical scholars recognize that the origin stories in Genesis I-II are not meant to be understood as historical fact. Therefore, we need not take as literal truth that human beings began their existence in a paradise, and had human knowledge and bodily control, and were without suffering and death. Most important of all one need not conclude that there was an offense committed by the first humans so horrible that God demanded that they and their descendants be punished with suffering and death and declared guilty of eternal damnation (Korsmeyer,pp 120, 121). The City of Wrong is a text based on an account of Good Friday during the days of Jesus written in Arabic by a Muslim Surgeon and Educationalist. In his book Dr Hussein indicates that Christianity has not freed itself, and perhaps never shall due to the disciple’s failure to save Christ. Dr Hussein claims that Christians have been destined to bear the reproach of the great sin of abandoning Christ to his prosecutors. “It seemed to them that they were only commanded to withhold themselves from rescuing their prophet because they did not deserve to be his witness. And thus a dread of falling into sin, an apprehensiveness about evil doing, has become a dominant feature of the Christian spirit. And so it will always remain. For Christians have no way of atoning for what happened on that day.” Hussein continues along the same notion deeper into the text, ”It is strongly established in their creeds that man is permeated with evil until he is cleansed, and it may well be that it goes back largely to what the disciples were made to do against their will on that fateful day.” (Hussein, p 123) When Christians and Muslims talk about God they are talking about the same God, although their witnessing, concerning God may be rather different. The Christian witness emphasizes the self disclosure of God (hence the Trinity), while in Islam it is the will and guidance of God which is revealed (Katerrega and Shenk p 88). Islam acknowledges the second coming of the Messiah, but they believe that the Messiah will return to earth to firmly establish the true religion of Islam before the final judgment. Islam and Christianity both claim to have a mission to the whole of mankind ( Katerrega and Shenk, pp 168, 169). The human need to redemption, salvation or atonement through Jesus Christ is necessary because of what we are, selfish by nature and nurture. The sins of the world flow from our genetic heritage which has evolved in a struggle for our survival. New Testament reference to redemption, spell out its meaning in images and symbols. Redemption is achieved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and yet remains to be achieved (Korsmeyer, p125). To redeem means to buy back. Redemption signifies that God has set the relation between humankind and God right again. Evolution The first part of Genises begins with questions of chaos. From an evolutionary point of view this is a beginning. A situation of chaos is one where there is no observable order of substance from any organized past. Therefore the influence of the past on the present is minimal. “God broods over the chaos, then utters a command: Let there be light!” Creation is through a word, a call, a lure towards a particular form of becoming. Creation responds. The light is itself an introduction of difference and therefore definition into the chaos. If there is light and dark, then there is some form of order. We have a responsive God interacting with the world, calling it into being. It is creation through call and response. Catholic biblical scholarship took a major step in 1943 when Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu encouraged the use of modern scientific methods in studying the Bible. Vatican II’s Dei verbum strongly approved use of the historical-critical method of biblical analysis, which attempts to establish what the biblical authors intended to convey in their texts (Korsmeyer, p 48). The difference between primates and humans is much less than once thought. There is no need to insist that all humans can be traced to Adam and Eve. All humans require the grace of God because they are human, the product of an evolving, self-seeking universe. We don’t need the sin of the first parent to know that we sin (Korsmeyer, pp124, 125). Challenges and Benefits in Dialogue Christian-Muslim relations has since the beginning been one of ambivalence. The major reason for this is that both faiths are intensely missionary-oriented. Each claims to have an exclusive universal message of truth and salvation for all of humanity. Each community considers the other to be in grave error in its basic understanding of God, God’s nature, and God’s relationship to humanity and its history. There has been a deep mistrust of the aims and intentions of each community toward the other. This mistrust stems from long-held distortions and misrepresentations of the faith and culture by both communities of one another. Pope John Paul 11, first journeyed to a predominantly Muslim country to Turkey in November 1979. The Pope called on both Muslims and Christians to collaborate on the basis of their common faith in God, in promoting peace and brotherhood “in the free profession of faith proper to each.” Honoring Jesus and his mother is an essential part of the Muslim faith. But to acknowledge Jesus as God is for Muslims to associate other gods with God, which is the only unforgivable sin. These differences should not be ignored in efforts to promote better understanding through honest dialogue, but recognized and dealt with patiently and with sensitivity on all sides (Sherwin and Kasimow, pp 171, 172). While Christians constitute the most populous of the religions, around 1.9 billion in 1998, Muslims occupy an impressive, and growing, second place with 1.2 billion. Therefore, it is important that we learn to understand and respect each other. No matter how much we try, we are always going to view, hear and understand the other religious person from our own religious perspective (Knitter, p 217). That is the challenge. How open minded and respectful can we be towards the beliefs of the other. The time has come when it is not only beneficial it is necessary. There has been no other Pope who has contributed so much and so widely to a greater understanding of other religions as Pope John Paul 11. The unprecedented meeting in Assisi on October 27, 1986, of religious leaders of a great number of faiths came to pray for peace in the world and to give witness to their dedication to the cause of reconciliation among people of all religions. This has been followed up by similar events being organized almost yearly promoting the cause of world peace and solidarity. For Pope John Paul 11, every child born into this world is formed in the image of God, is love by God, is respected by God. God desires that each and every one of God’s be brought to the joy of God’s Kingdom. No Christian can say that he or she loves God but despises those whom God loves (1 John 4:20) (Sherwin and Kasimow p xii). It is perhaps best to be mindful of how Pope John Paul 11 addressed the President of the Sudan in 1993 when he was concerned with the unique situation facing the Christian community, “[t]he inalienable dignity of every human person, irrespective of racial, ethnic, cultural or national origin or religious belief, means that when people coalesce in groups they have a right to enjoy a collective identity. Thus, minorities [that is Christians] within a community have a right to exist, with their own language, culture and traditions, and the State is morally obliged to leave room for their identity and self expression.” (Sherwin and Kasimow, p 191) Interfaith dialogue can be quite difficult. Mary Boys who is in the process of writing a book with a Muslim and Jewish scholar said that “Dialogue has an altering effect.” The three (David, Mary and Mohammad) wrote a blessing that all three could pray. Boys said that “we need one another to understand ourselves.” Boys admitted that after the first week of getting together with the Muslim and Jewish scholar to write a book of the three religions she was prepared to leave the trio group because of the challenges of interfaith dialogue. Ultimately she is pleased that she stayed. Boys indicates that there are three types of particularisms: 1. advisory - one demonizes the other. This gives religion a bad name. 2. Superficial – lacking any knowledge of religion outside one’s own. Without knowing we have false perceptions. 3. Textual (rare) One has grown deep in one’s religion, divine presence, faithful to the vision of God. In today’s multicultural society and global village it is imperative that we understand each other as people, as religious and non religious, and as a unit for our own survival and that of our earth. Dialogue will be difficult and the more different others are to us, the more our tendency will be to distance ourselves. Being an atheist is not excluded either. Vatican 11 explicitly taught that even avowed atheists who follow their conscience are really though unknowingly, following the voice of God and so are “saved” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium [LG] 16) (Knitter, p 76). No one can deny how much damage religion has done. In religion’s name people have psychologically traumatized, groups have been exploited, wars have been fought. Some of the worst sins of humanity have been carried out in God’s name (Knitter, p118). It is no longer of primary concern or at least should not be that my religion is the fulfillment of yours, that my notion of God is superior to yours or that my Saviour is bigger than yours. What does matter is that people actually be helped, fed, educated and given medicine, that violence and war be avoided and that the environment be saved and protected (Knitter, p 140). This is why we need to dialogue and unite as one people for the common good of all. It does not make sense this world of ours as it is. We have a responsibility to heal it and to recognize kinship in each of us. So when Christians lift up Jesus as the universal Saviour, they are also affirming the integrity and validity of Buddhist claims that Buddha is a universal Saviour (Knitter, p 201). It is important that we have a true understanding of each other’s religion. It is more than knowing that the Jews follow the path of the Torah, the Hindus follow the Vedas and the Buddhists follow the Darma (Sherwin and Kaslimow p 4 ). Buddhist argue that the idea of God is an attachment from which humanity must free themselves. According to Buddhism the world in itself is not bad. The source of our suffering is our own desires, our thirst, greed and clinging to a permanent self which is an illusion(Sherwin and Kaslimow, pp 10, 11).

LIFE AFTER DEATH - Book report (for eschatology course)

People search for answers to what is not fully understood. Death is not only puzzling, it has a mysterious finality to it. There are people who determine death to be the end for themselves and for those who they have loved and died. Others find death to be a passage towards some other chance at life such as re-incarnation. There are also those who believe that they will go to their creator – God. There are endless possibilities to the creative mind. Life After Life by Raymond Moody promises a dimension between life and death. This paper will list what the author has gleaned from his interviews with or about people who have died or were near death. At the same time the reliability of what is disclosed will be examined. Life After In Dr Moody’s Life After Life the author explains that he writes primarily about reports, accounts or narratives which others have provided verbally and includes third parties. These reports involve being able to see and hear what is going on when people are pronounced dead but not able to talk, feel others, or feel pain. There are reported sensations of peace and comfort. There are sounds which are pleasant (14-19) and sounds that are disturbing. There are also recordings of a passage through a dark tunnel with a floating sensation, of weightlessness to their new spiritual bodies (pp 21, 35). Dr Moody indicates that he is not trying to prove that there is life after death (xxvii). This seems clear in how he presents his information. Dr Moody will report two people having a similar experience of a voice telling them that they have to go back [to life] (p 48). He will report one other person who associates heat with the light who talks to him (p54). In another he will report the observations of another, sole person, “It was a fun person to be with! It had a sense of humor, too- definitely.”(p55). There seems to be general sense of vagueness regarding the information that is provided. As an example, there is no explanation for the humor or what the humor is. There seems to be a consistency of unanswered questions. Who is each participant? What are the backgrounds of these people? The author does report listing the findings from 50 cases (p 9) so why isn’t he more specific with each case and why is it common for the author to report similar findings from only one or two cases as mentioned? The author begins his study with one man’s particular experience. This man states that he heard himself being pronounced dead by his doctor. The participant then hears a loud ringing or buzzing and feels himself moving rapidly through a long dark tunnel. He subsequently finds himself as a spectator as he watches himself being resuscitated at a distance from his physical body which is different from its’ physical form. He also has different powers from its’ former self. Spirits of dead relatives and friends come to meet and help him. A beam of light also approaches and speaks to him “nonverbally” so that he may question his life. The man then finds himself at a “barrier or border” from this life to the next. He returns to his body which he resists. He experiences intense feelings of joy, love and peace (p 11-12). The aforementioned is documented as an actual account from one person. However, the author concludes that it is not intended to be a representation of anyone person’s experience but a model of common elements found in many stories. In Dr Moody’s “abstract model,” each element occurs in many separate stories”(p 12). Providing an abstract model and not indicating such at the beginning of the description of events, becomes distracting. There is an aura of trickery by what is eventually disclosed. However, one cannot ignore the thought provoking ideas that is encouraging. Dr Moody reports that one participant who suffers a heart attack finds himself in a grey mist, with wonderful lights and people and perhaps buildings. He is told by his “Uncle Carl” (who died years earlier) to “go back” because his “work on earth is not completed”(pp 68-69). One is left wondering if that is what life is about? Is it about completing our work? Then what is my work, one may ask? Life After Life reveals that some of the participants have a change of attitude for the better. Dr Moody indicates that, “almost every person has expressed” that he no longer fears death (p 88). Though it is unknown exactly how many participants are religious and from what faiths, Dr Moody does indicate that, “Others say that although they had read religious writings, such as the Bible, they had never really understood certain things they had read until their near-death experiences (p 129). What that is, is never clarified but one may presume that if a person experiences death, than life in general would have more meaning. The author does provide comments from individuals and extends this to “a small number of cases” without indicating exactly how many have an altering life experience. These changes include life being more precious, the mind being more important than the body, and in a “small number of cases” acquiring or noticing intuition bordering on the psychic (pp 84-87). The author indicates that there seems to be no difference in experiences reported by the men or women, though women seem to be able to talk about their experiences more. Since Dr Moody never provides a gender demographic, there is again an element of inconclusiveness. It should be noted that when Dr Moody reveals that, “almost every person has expressed…” (p88), these persons are referred to as “…he…”. How many men actually were hesitant to report the findings from the 50 cases? It appears that women may be the minority in the cases presented if the author is to be taken literally. This continuous vagueness of where the information is from, is at times difficult because it gives the reader a feeling of incompleteness. However, this feeling is also often replaced by genuine curiosity when cases seem to become more real, even proven. “In quite a few instances” many persons report being out of their bodies for extended periods and these could be verified by what they saw when they should not have been able to as they were dead or close to death. Several doctors have reported being baffled that patients with no medical knowledge could describe in details the resuscitation “attempts” when the patient was “dead” (p. 93). This is interesting because Dr Moody also indicates that in only one of the cases, did a physician reveal any familiarity at all with near-death experience (p.80). Reliability is put to the absolute test when Dr Moody provides an account of authenticity for his participants. “I have detected in their voices sincerity, warmth, and feeling which cannot really be conveyed in a written recounting. So to me, in a way that is unfortunately impossible for many others to share, the notion that these accounts might be fabrications is utterly untenable.”(p 126) This belief in his participants continues with they, “are not victims of psychosis. They have struck me as emotionally stable, normal people who are functional in society. They hold jobs and positions of importance and carry them out responsibly. They have stable marriages and are involved with their family and friends…” (p160). It appears that Dr Moody’s idea of honesty from his participates is very subjective. How sure can one be that every participant is truthful? Is there at least an acknowledgment of a margin of error? - Apparently, not. There is a sense of truth due to the similarities of information cited but the reader must take the word of the author for everything that is provided. There is also at times a climate of what seems incredulous, such as one participant’s report of a spirit in the shape of a ball of light, globe like with a hand reaching out of it (p 96). This seems to be the extreme from what is usually reported. The author indicates that his study is not scientific because his sample of participants is not a random sample of humans. His definition of random sampling is restricted to an example of demographics of “Eskimos, Kwakiutl Indians, Navahoes, Watusi tribesmen, and so on. However due to geographic and other limitations, I have not been able to locate any (p 133).” One wonders if the author understands the definition of “sample”. A sample is a set of individuals selected from the population, usually intended to represent the population in a research study. For example one study might examine a sample of 10 children in a preschool program or use a sample of over 1000 registered voters. The End Life After Life has sold over 13 million copies worldwide. A phone consultation with Dr Moody is $200.00 per hour. This demonstrates that people hunger to know about experiences after this life time. Someone may read this book and realize that a dream she had was not a dream but a life after life experience. She in turn can soothe her ill mother with that knowledge. People need to believe that there is something more, that there is a God and another place that can be called home. Sometimes people need more than the written word. They need proof that there is more than this. Dr Moody has successfully teased the brain to want to know more about life after death. But, Dr Moody has also failed to demonstrate a satisfactory degree of reliability.

Homeless

I had planned to write today about what I would have learned at a seminar I had been invited to at Regis College at U of T. At the last moment I cancelled because I was too tired. I contemplated not cancelling because I did want to be updated about homelessness. I comforted myself by suggesting, that it is not a requirement for me to know right now. That was last night when I was feeling very tired. Today feeling my perky self, I wish I had pushed myself a bit more. On the other hand I believe strongly in self care and I know I made the right decision. How do you make your decisions? The news usually reports that many are one pay check away from being homeless. Initially, hearing this I was surprised, but I am no longer. My father always instilled the value of standing on my own two feet. He was such a hard worker. But he also taught priorities in life and that was that family came first. I have planned my life carefully ensuring that I could take care of myself. My priority was having a house and savings because that was what I was taught. High school also taught me how to understand the differences about credit and debit and balance and risk taking when it came to money. I learned that I was not a risk taker. I feel that I have had adequate instruction and love to understand the benefits of having a balanced life. We live in a society now that was different when I was a child. There are so many opportunities to get money without having earned it. It is spend now and pay later. So much of that becomes interest and one too many can lose their homes to a society, that has become consumed by greed. I like watching a show that I tape “Til Death do us Part.” The financial expert, I believe her name is Gail, goes into a home and gives the couple a wake up call about their expenditures. She tells them how much in debt they really are because for some reason, they do not know. Then she gives them certain challenges and if they are successful, she also gives them a cheque, to help them. Most of the time the couples are happy and all is well for a promising future of balancing debt and earning more income. At other times they have a problem with her attitude. I kind of like her attitude, but I am not the one being taped for live television. Most of the time these couples have families who support them and in some cases have enabled them to live the lifestyle that they have selected. I think it is more important than ever for children to learn about basic finances from an early grade because too many have no one to learn from. The only win situation here are the banks (legalized loan sharks as my mom said once) and other pop up money machines. This needs to be kept in check by governments we elect. It is not fair for people if they do not have the tools to learn and protection, from becoming homeless. The homelessness that I am familiar with is that which involves mental health. Again the news reports that one out of five need help. What resources are there for them? Psychotherapy is not covered by OHIP. There are some organizations out there that help and some do it by exploiting students for gaining their required hours, but is that still enough for one out of five? I was surprised in my undergrad to learn how they closed psychiatric hospitals in the States (I cannot recall if it was the fifties or sixties) and so many of these people who had been cared for, were suddenly homeless and all alone. I am not sure of what happened in Canada because the study at the time was about the US. However, what usually happens there, also eventually happens here. It is up to us to be different and hold on to values when it comes to helping people, but that is not what I always see. I am concerned. Abnormal psychology has been my favourite study. The professor I had was amazing. He was also an expert in court and he provided us with the insight for what we would need in the future. I learned a lot from him. What I really liked about him was his respect for people who really needed help. I will share two stories briefly about how two ended up homeless. The first person when he was a child was being sold by his father, at the downtown bus terminal to men, to be sexually abused. He grew up naturally fearing people and was living in a mid town park under a bridge. His shelter was an abandoned fridge and his only friend a racoon who he would sleep with. This man had an amazing talent for artwork. As much as my professor tried to help him, even to connect him to people who would recognize his art, he couldn’t. This man had been so abused by those who should have loved him and protected him, that he could not choose to live in a society who had taken away his spirit (the professor did not say spirit). He had also been beaten up as an adult because he was a homeless man by those who should have again protected him. With each story that my professor told, I admired his compassion more. In this next story a young man promised his dying father that he would become the doctor his father wanted him to be. The request his father made as he lay dying and the promise given became his torment. He did get into med school but he had a nervous breakdown trying to keep his grades up. He had managed to have good grades prior to med school, but it required him to study very hard with little sleep. In med school he needed more hours to study and eventually became sleep deprived. My professor had informed him that his grades were very good and why would he not consider pharmacy? He certainly had the marks for that aspect. However, he had promised his father that he would become a doctor and in his family of origin a promise to a dying father must be kept. This very bright man, ended up in the streets of Toronto homeless and distraught. He had broken his promise to his father. There were more sad stories of how beautiful, talented and educated people end up suffering so much that they become homeless and find themselves in a hollow pit. I wanted to share with you this morning what I would have learned last night. Instead I share with you what I have learned as part of my studies. Do you think you may perhaps see the person you walk by in the streets? What do you think?