Editor's last word:

Every religion over there has its ‘ecclesiastical ghettos’ in which the party-faithful still congregate in churches and temples, are led by clergy, and continue in the old ways, just as they did on Earth. It’s no different with “R” as a religion.

But it's all illusion and stagecraft. Even so, these true-believers will remain in the ghetto until they wake up to their true selves.

In “the 500” article you will encounter one of the most puzzling and anomalous features of the other side: alternate realities, largely, divided between those who believe in “R” and those who do not.

You must read the entire discussion for a more complete treatment of the issue, but all this is very unsettling. On one hand, we have all these testimonies saying “R” is false, is propaganda, is a terrible mistake; and these accounts might come from ones over there thousands, or even billions, of years old. And then, of course, we have those who say “R” is the only way it is.

These alternate realities seem to be very real. Those who believe in “R,” along with related concepts of “ridding oneself of self” (see “the 500” article on this), have created an entire society, a philosophical ghetto, with teachers, buildings, even “higher levels” of habitation, which seem to give substance to “R.”

For example, I was listening to a man speak about his “near-death experience” during which he was taken to learning-temples by his spirit guide. These temples of knowledge were huge edifices, some of them, many miles in length, all of which featured instruction on “past lives” and various aspects of “R.”

And then we have the counter view, those over there who say that, while the “R” temple-buildings are real enough, it all devolves toward colossal illusion, a giant example of group-consensus deception. I will say this:

While we have firsthand accounts of temples and guides and all the rest devoted to "R," I've never come across an example of someone actually being reincarnated, I mean, waving good-bye at the train station: "I've been thoroughly briefed, got my mission all planned out, so I'm about to step into the 'R-machine' now and I'm gone." We've never seen that or heard about it. Just talk.

So it is with all of these religions over there; there might be a great deal of hymn-singing, confessing, all sorts of religiosity, but you'll never come across an example of someone actually being 'saved' by any of this drama. And so it is with 'R'.

If ‘R’ were true, virtually the whole society over there would need to be devoted to the logistics of planning a next trip. Think of the layers of difficulty. Because, as they claim, the planning wouldn’t be for just one person but a coordinated effort to include many others who would be related to one’s life and purported life-mission. This interlacing of detail, concerning large numbers of people related to one's project -- and these people would affect other people in a widening ripple effect -- all of which would unlock a combinatorial orchestrated-detail explosion of gargantuan complexity, as any math student of probabilities will know. This "combinatorial explosion" would quickly consume more time than the entire life of the universe! The principles in the just-referenced article, originally written to defuse the math-chaos illogicality of Darwinism, the "given enough time, anything can happen" propaganda, do not pass the math test, but, in any case, apply here, as well, concerning R.

However, there’s not a peep of any of this math-chaos byzantineness in Summerland, not in the “better” neighborhoods, anyway. Some of the illusionary sectors over there which teach R attempt a brave front, but it's all talk with no reality, no one has actually seen anyone "wave goodbye at the 'R' train-station."

Each of us needs to sort this mess out for him or herself; however, in my view, the only way to cut through this heavy layer of confusion is to access one’s “true self,” begin to live by its dictates, reduce systemic fear in one's life, and believe nothing, no matter the source, unless it resonates deeply with the “living truth” within.

give us one free miracle, and we'll explain the rest

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake: "As my friend Terence McKenna used to say, modern science is based on the principle, 'Give us one free miracle, and we'll explain the rest'. And the one free miracle is the appearance of all the matter and energy in the universe, and all the laws that govern it, from nothing, in a single instant."

what can’t you believe

In the Sheldrake / Abraham / McKenna Trialogues, that took place between 1989 and 1998, the latter participant, Terrence McKenna, also irreverently asserted, to the effect, “If you can believe that all the energy and matter, everything that you see around you, came into existence from nothing in a hot nano-second, then – what can’t you believe?”

Yes – “what can’t you believe?” At times we find ourselves so mesmerized by group mindset and materialist propaganda that we robotically agree to whatever is spoon fed to us; we uncritically accept it, gulp it down like water.

Something-from-nothing is a “religious doctrine” of holy materialism, to be endorsed as a matter of faith. There’s no rational argument for it, but is simply required by the theory to offer semblance of coherency in a spirit of “the joker is wild.” There are, however, more credible cosmogonical explanations.

"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

                                                Lewis Carroll