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| ISBN-13: | 9781481709835 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 04/03/2013 |
| Pages: | 252 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d) |
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THE GALILEAN PENDULUM
A NEW SCIENCE REVEALS AN UNSEEN WORLD
By BILL KASPARI
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2013 William John KaspariAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4817-0983-5
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
My View of Our Culture
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Buddha
I feel fortunate that I have been able to do a great deal of traveling in my life, particularly to foreign countries. My international travels began when I was a nineteen year old sailor in the US Navy stationed on a destroyer that took cruises to places like Cuba, Japan, Hong Kong and Formosa (now called Taiwan). After being discharged from the Navy I went to college where I earned a degree in Electrical Engineering. My working life included a good deal of traveling around the United States as well as to many countries in Europe and South America. The main reason I enjoyed my travels is that they gave me an appreciation of different cultures, and I have been a student of world cultures ever since. When I speak of culture, I'm not thinking only of the differences in clothing, eating habits, and so forth, but primarily the differences in people's cultural philosophies.
The most significant thing that happened in my life after getting out of college was getting married and having children. That seemed to make my life complete and certainly added more meaning to it. But a huge challenge was thrown in my path—twice: surviving the loss of two sons. The first time was tough, but after being hit the second time, I became aware of what I think is lacking in our culture—and certainly was lacking in my life—an understanding of the meaning of, or reason for, our existence. I became more aware of how our society has changed from one founded on religious principles to a technological society where a subject like survival of consciousness, or in non-scientific terms, life after death, is rarely discussed in mainstream science.
Thinking about how our culture is changing made me think of how there have been paradigm shifts in societies over the centuries, especially in western society. I am reminded about people like Galileo who lived at a time when the scientists of his day believed in a geocentric theory of the universe which stated that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun, other planets and stars revolved around the earth. Galileo's observations led him to support a heliocentric theory of the universe (first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus) where the sun was the center about which the earth, other planets and stars revolved. When Galileo made his support of the heliocentric theory public, the rulers at the time (who were controlled by the Catholic church) decided that he could present his theory as a possibility, but not as fact, because their interpretations of religious scriptures stated that the earth could not move and therefore had to be the center of the universe. Stating otherwise was heresy. When Galileo's subsequent writings continued to defend the heliocentric theory and appeared to attack the Pope, he was punished by being placed under house arrest for the remaining years of his life.
This is the best example I know of to demonstrate how a dogmatic belief system can prevail against evidence indicating that those beliefs are wrong.
However, over the following centuries, those people who took a scientific approach to explain the physical world gradually became dominant, and in western cultures religion was kept separate. In other words, we went from a society where religious beliefs dominated to one where science dominates. Scientists have developed rigorous methods of conducting investigations, which have led to a much greater understanding of physical phenomena, but anything suggestive of a non-physical world is viewed by many scientists as heretical. In my view, in some ways mainstream science has become a dogmatic belief system.
My way of thinking of this is that the pendulum swung to the opposite side, hence the name I chose for this book.
My purpose in writing this book is to share my new perspective on a subject that suddenly became very important to me, and that I believe is important to most people: is there an existence that follows death? This question has been debated for centuries, and in general these debates have resulted in two proposed answers: 1) those expressed by traditional religious beliefs and 2) theories put forth by traditional science, theories that lack the kind of evidence I feel is necessary to give them credibility. I was not able to accept either of these views because of my need for some sort of validation.
I have spent the last twenty years searching for answers in a way that satisfied my questioning mentality. Although the answers I have found are not absolute certainties, to me they are more believable than anything I was aware of prior to my search. I have gone through an amazing transformation, one in which I have been able to fill an empty void with an understanding I never thought I would gain.
There are two general groups of people that I had in mind when writing this book:
1. People like me who suddenly lost a loved one and whose love for that person is so deep that they need something more than hope or a belief, who essentially need some sort of evidence to support the belief that they will see that person again.
2. People who have a curiosity about questions such as survival following what I call "physical death", what may follow death, and who are willing to spend time reading about the investigative work being done in this exciting new area of science.
Many people seem to have a genuine fear of death. However, a great deal of evidential information, obtained through afterlife science investigations, supports the survival-of-consciousness hypothesis and indicates that the afterlife is not something to be feared. Because these studies are different than most traditional scientific investigations, it does require the reader to have an open mind.
In addition, those who believe that there is nothing but the physical world may find this book interesting. It discusses evidential studies indicating an existence beyond the physical world, suggests that there is a "non-physical" world, and gives a glimpse of what this world may be like.
However, one thing needs to be emphasized:
Research into afterlife phenomena is a new and different type of science. Unlike traditional science, we are not just dealing with physical objects or phenomena. We are attempting to detect and evaluate non-physical phenomena.
Throughout this book I refer to the physical or material world, the world we are all familiar with that consists of organic and inorganic matter. I do this to distinguish it from a non-physical world, one that appears to consist of a "non-physical energy" that is different than any we are familiar with in our physical world.
If we were studying physical phenomena, our task would be much easier. In studies involving the physical sciences, such as disease manifestations, geologic patterns or planetary motions we have clues that, while not always obvious, are observable using the various detecting devices that science has developed such as microscopes, telescopes and infra-red sensors. Because of the non-physical nature of the phenomena involved in this new science, we must rely on methods of discovery that are quite different. These methods include using the special abilities that some people either are born with or acquire at some point in their life, many times as the result of a life threatening illness. These abilities are generally not accepted as authentic by mainstream science.
In order to show that studies in this area of science are being done by legitimate scientists, I reference the works of several professionals, mostly MDs and PhDs, in the area of afterlife research and paranormal studies, and combine this with my own personal experiences following the death of my son.
While much of the material presented here is of a scientific nature, my intent is not to present a scholarly, scientifically rigorous document. My aim is to present very unusual material in a way that can be easily read and understood by people with a variety of backgrounds, and ultimately to introduce a new paradigm through which to view consciousness, a paradigm which, like heliocentricity, requires an open mind and a shift in traditional thinking.
CHAPTER 2
The Early Days
Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.
Nido Qubein
When I was born my parents lived in Weirton, West Virginia. My dad worked at Weirton Steel Co. which had a giant steel mill in the middle of town. The mill burned coal in the process of making steel and since there were virtually no environmental controls in those days it dumped large quantities of black soot on the town nearly every day. Most people were not aware of the effects that breathing this dirty air could have on their health.
When I was about a year old, and my brother Wayne around two and a half, my mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). As I remember my dad telling the story, he stated that in the same meeting with the doctor, when they were informed that she had TB, the doctor also told her that she was again pregnant. The only treatment for TB in those days was to put the person in a TB sanitarium so that they were isolated from the general population in order to prevent spreading of this very contagious disease. This meant that my mom was not allowed to hold nor be near her children. So my mom was put in a sanitarium in Pittsburgh, PA. when she was twenty-seven years old.
Because TB is a disease of the lungs, there was concern whether carrying a baby to full term would inhibit my mom's ability to recover from the disease, thereby raising the question of whether or not to abort the baby. The decision was made more difficult because both my mom and dad were practicing Catholics and abortion was discouraged by the church. My father told me many years later that he talked to mom's doctor and that the doctor advised him not to abort the baby because he felt my mom would recover without having an abortion.
So in 1936 my brother Lee Patrick was born at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. (not in the TB sanitarium) and a few months after his birth was separated from my mom, who then went back to the sanitarium. It must have been extremely difficult for her but the concern was that the baby could contract the disease. My mother had fifteen siblings, mostly girls, and ten reached adulthood. They took care of my brother Wayne and I most of the time. Lee stayed at the hospital where the nuns were able to give him the proper care. He apparently stayed there for several months, until my dad's mom, who lived in Chicago, decided to take him. That couldn't have been easy for her since she was over sixty years old at the time.
My mom died in 1937, a week before Christmas, at age twenty-nine. It was extremely hard for my dad. I have copies of letters that he wrote to his mother and stepfather during that time and my dad's frustration and sadness was overwhelming. His life, as well as his mom's, had not been easy up to that point. His dad died when he was six, he had a brother die before he was born and his sister died at age twenty eight. Now his young wife was gone and he had three little boys to take care of.
But my dad was a very strong individual. During his childhood there wasn't much money, so he worked at whatever jobs he could find in order to help his mom pay the bills. He was proud that he was able to work his way through college and earn a degree in Electrical Engineering. He taught my brothers and me the importance of both hard work and education. He also impressed on us that life can be really tough sometimes and that you need to learn how to handle it.
In 1941 dad took a job at an aluminum plant in Massena, NY, but after six months or so we moved to Chicago. We stayed with my grandmother until my dad was able to buy a house on the south side of Chicago. I had started the second grade in Weirton and finally finished it in Chicago. During that time lee continued to live with grandma. My brother Wayne and I, who were left on our own after school until dad got home from work, occasionally managed to get into trouble of one kind or another.
One day when I was eight I started what turned into a big fire that nearly burned down some new houses that were under construction. That evening, a police officer, fireman and a person from social services appeared at our house and gave my dad two weeks to find someone to take care of us. My dad put an ad in the paper and hired a lady named Jane to watch us. She had a daughter named Pat who was about Wayne's age and they moved in with us. My brother lee was then able to move in with us also.
In 1943 we all moved to Mount Vernon, NY. I attended Catholic schools and graduated from Blessed Sacrament High School in New Rochelle, N.Y. My dad wanted me to go to college, but I just wasn't ready. He was frustrated that the job I had at the time was selling newspapers at night to people in the bars in the surrounding towns, which kept me out most of the night. What he was not aware of is that some of the guys I was hanging out with were beginning to get involved in burglaries, something I had no interest in doing. In addition, the situation at home with Jane, who later became my stepmother, had become unbearable and on top of that, I was a prime candidate to be drafted into the Army. I decided that the best solution was for me to enlist in the Navy, which I did in 1953. My dad was not happy about it, but I consider that decision one of the best I've ever made. It enabled me to get a fresh start in life. The Navy sent me to Electricians Mate (EM) school and following that I was stationed on a destroyer.
I was discharged from the Navy at the end of 1957, and the following year I enrolled at the University of Colorado (CU) where I studied Electrical Engineering. An integral part of my studies was learning what is generally known as the scientific method, which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses." Learning the rigid objectivity required by this discipline had a strong influence on how I viewed our world in subsequent years.
In 1963 I graduated from CU and moved to Northern California. Finally I was able to relax a little and begin enjoying life. In addition to having a good job, I went snow and water skiing, learned and later taught Jiu Jitsu, did some skydiving, got a pilot's license and sometimes just hung out with friends. I also spent a lot of time with a young lady I met where I worked named Diane, who had a little boy named Jim from a previous marriage. Jimmy was almost three at the time and he became my little buddy. When I was quite young, I remember thinking that some day I wanted to have children. For some reason that seemed like something that I would enjoy.
Diane and I were married in 1965. In 1967 our first son Ricky was born. I was elated. He appeared to be a healthy little guy, but during the post-birth examination our doctor detected a problem and told us he wanted to have some tests done. The very next day he informed us that Ricky had a serious heart defect called Truncus Arteriosus. His pulmonary artery and aorta had failed to separate into two vessels. This meant that freshly oxygenated blood was being mixed with de-oxygenated blood, causing a reduced level of oxygen in his blood stream as well as the accumulation of fluid in his lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe. He was placed in the Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU) at Stanford Hospital, but there were no surgical procedures for his defect in those days. All we could do was wait and hope for the best. After a short time we asked if we could take Ricky home. The doctor agreed, but told us we would need to suction the fluid from his lungs. A nurse then handed me a "turkey baster" with a piece of tubing stuck on the end as the suctioning device. That not only surprised but also concerned me because I wasn't sure how we could control the amount of suctioning, so the next day at work a friend and I built a small motor driven suctioning device with a control valve that allowed much safer suctioning of Ricky's lungs. That experience planted the seed in my mind that someday I wanted to start a company to develop products for the medical field, which I finally did about ten years later.
But our happiness at having Ricky home was short-lived. There were times when he seemed to be improving, but they were followed by times when it was obvious he was really struggling just to breathe. Then one night Diane woke me in the middle of the night because she sensed that he had stopped breathing, We were able to get him breathing again and rushed him to the hospital in the middle of the night.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE GALILEAN PENDULUM by BILL KASPARI. Copyright © 2013 by William John Kaspari. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface.................... ix
Foreword.................... xiii
Chapter 1: My View of Our culture.................... 1
Chapter 2: The Early Days.................... 7
Chapter 3: Time For A change.................... 15
Chapter 4: The Near Death Experience.................... 19
Chapter 5: A Glimpse of Other Paranormal Phenomena.................... 25
Chapter 6: The Study of Mediumship.................... 37
Chapter 7: Playing charades.................... 53
Chapter 8: Three Special Messages.................... 71
Chapter 9: Understanding Mediumship.................... 79
Chapter 10: Fortune Tellers, Frauds or Gifted?.................... 89
Chapter 11: What conclusions can we draw from this?.................... 95
Chapter 12: Memory.................... 99
Chapter 13: A Scientific look at Paranormal Phenomena.................... 103
Chapter 14: Materialism versus Dualism.................... 115
Chapter 15: Skepticism.................... 123
Chapter 16: Science and Spirituality.................... 137
Chapter 17: letting Us Know They Are Around.................... 157
Chapter 18: The Pendulum Begins to Swing Back.................... 165
Glossary of Terms.................... 173
Appendix A: Attribute Definitions and Scoring Values.................... 187
Appendix B: Book Review.................... 189
Recommended Reading.................... 193
Bibliography.................... 211
Website Addresses & Information.................... 213
Acknowledgements.................... 217
Index.................... 223
About the Author.................... 235