Exploring Reality

Exploring Reality PDF Author: J. C. Polkinghorne
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300130643
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
Involved for over thirty years in the politics of Iraq, Ali A. Allawi was a long-time opposition leader against the Baathist regime. In the post-Saddam years, he has held important government positions and participated in crucial national decisions and events. In this book, the former Minister of Defence and Finance draws on his unique personal experience, extensive relationships with members of the main political groups and parties in Iraq, and deep understanding of the history and society of his country to answer the baffling questions that persist about its current crises. What really led the United States to invade Iraq, and why have events failed to unfold as planned? The Occupation of Iraq examines what the U.S. did and didn't know at the time of the invasion, the reasons for the confused and contradictory policies that were enacted, and the emergence of the Iraqi political class during the difficult transition process. The book tracks the growth of the insurgency and illuminates the complex relationships among Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds. Bringing the discussion forward to the reconfiguration of political forces in 2006, Allawi provides in these pages the clearest view to date of the modern history of Iraq and the invasion that changed its course in unpredicted ways.

Exploring Reality

Exploring Reality PDF Author: J. C. Polkinghorne
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300130643
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
Involved for over thirty years in the politics of Iraq, Ali A. Allawi was a long-time opposition leader against the Baathist regime. In the post-Saddam years, he has held important government positions and participated in crucial national decisions and events. In this book, the former Minister of Defence and Finance draws on his unique personal experience, extensive relationships with members of the main political groups and parties in Iraq, and deep understanding of the history and society of his country to answer the baffling questions that persist about its current crises. What really led the United States to invade Iraq, and why have events failed to unfold as planned? The Occupation of Iraq examines what the U.S. did and didn't know at the time of the invasion, the reasons for the confused and contradictory policies that were enacted, and the emergence of the Iraqi political class during the difficult transition process. The book tracks the growth of the insurgency and illuminates the complex relationships among Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds. Bringing the discussion forward to the reconfiguration of political forces in 2006, Allawi provides in these pages the clearest view to date of the modern history of Iraq and the invasion that changed its course in unpredicted ways.

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy PDF Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393635813
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 544

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

Exploring Reality and Its Uncertainties

Exploring Reality and Its Uncertainties PDF Author: Ernest Krausz
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1836241682
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using the tools of science, philosophy and the social sciences, this book explores the numerous facets of what we understand reality to mean. It focuses on the human side, especially on the individual experience of reality as manifested through personality, cognitive power, self-consciousness, and rationalistic and communicative endowments.

Exploring Your Inner Reality

Exploring Your Inner Reality PDF Author: Jonas Ridgeway
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615776965
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the Introduction: "... this book is being written for the beginner practitioner. I will assume your knowledge of the subject is limited and will thus offer a simple, step-by-step guide to leaving the body. Although 'astral projection' is often used as a catch-all term for any conscious activity occurring outside the body, throughout this work I will make a clear distinction between etheric projections and astral projections (etheric projections being the most common, at least for me). "By applying the same techniques I use, I believe that anyone can achieve the out-of-body state on a regular basis and with their full critical faculties intact. Surely if I can do it, you can do it (if you really want it). It is only a matter of conditioning, allowing yourself to see the 'door' that you never noticed, to realize the freedom that you never knew you had -- to edge pass the threshold and beyond matter." TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction PART ONE How It Started: My First Out-of-Body Experience Questions & Answers Out-of-Body Predicaments No Vision (Fear of Seeing) The Ectoplasmic Fog Reversed Vision Stuck In Stuff (Windows, Ceilings, Etc.) Stuck In "Mud" The Sleeping Bag Syndrome (or Mummy Madness Again!) Catalepsy / Sleep Paralysis Crybaby Syndrome Don't Over Do It (Unless You Want To) Disembodied, Floating Head Malicious Spirits & Mischief-Makers My Trips to the Moon (In-Flight Failures) Double Consciousness Pre / During / Post Projection Noises Good Vibrations The Art of Locomotion PART TWO Preparations / Preliminaries Kicking the Fear Habit Peace & Quiet & Naked Veganism & Vegetarianism -- Does It Help? Techniques for Out-of-Body Travel The Dream-State Method The Morning Method: The Easiest Method for Inducing an OBE The Catapult Projection Method The Visualization Method The Portal Method The X Marks-the-Spot Method Summary: 7 Steps to a Conscious Projection Objective Reality or Lucid Dreaming? Validating Your Projections The Astral Jukebox Conclusion OBE Survey References Recommended Reading Quotes Used In This Book About the Author

Democratic Evaluation and Democracy

Democratic Evaluation and Democracy PDF Author: Donna Podems
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1681237903
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democratic evaluation brings a way of thinking about evaluation’s role in society and in particular, its role in strengthening social justice. Yet the reality of applying it, and what happens when it is applied particularly outside the West, is unclear. Set in South Africa, a newly formed democracy in Southern Africa, the book affords an in-depth journey that immerses a reader into the realities of evaluation and its relation to democracy. The book starts with the broader introductory chapters that set the scene for more detailed ones which bring thorough insights into national government, local government, and civil societies’ experience of evaluation, democratic evaluation and their understanding of how it contributes to strengthening democracy (or not). A teaching case, the book concludes by providing guiding questions that encourage reflection, discussion and learning that ultimately aims to inform practice and theory.

Discovering Reality

Discovering Reality PDF Author: Sandra Harding
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401001014
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection of essays, first published two decades ago, presents central feminist critiques and analyses of natural and social sciences and their philosophies. This work provides a splendid opportunity for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy and the social sciences to explore some of the most intriguing and controversial challenges to disciplinary projects and to public policy today.

The Grid

The Grid PDF Author: Marie D. Jones
Publisher: Hierophant Publishing
ISBN: 193828920X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Get Book Here

Book Description
Read this book and you will never view reality the same way again! Mainstream science argues that if something can’t be touched, measured, quantified, and duplicated in a laboratory, then it doesn’t exist! According to this worldview, reality is an unconscious, non-personal mass of matter, which leaves no room for the existence of spiritual or unexplained phenomenon. But is that all there really is to reality? Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman don’t think so, and after reading this book, neither will you! In The Grid, paranormal investigators and best-selling authors Jones and Flaxman present their theory of the Grid, a divine superstructure that includes multiple levels of existence, the entirety of which make up our reality. Imagine a towering skyscraper with numerous floors, where each floor represents a different “level” of existence. Matter, spirits, angels, ghosts, extraterrestrials, quantum physics, biology, neuroscience, religion, metaphysics—even paranormal studies—all have their place in the Grid. And once you have an understanding of the many floors of the Grid and how they are connected, you will learn all the possible ways you can “take the elevator” to access them, such as developing your psychic abilities, deep meditation, out-of-body experiences, and even the use of psychoactive drugs! Jones and Flaxman will show you how to release the limiting belief that “this is all there is” once and for all by exploring the Grid, expanding your awareness, and empowering your life in the process. Reality, dear friend, will never be the same again.

Astral Projection and the Nature of Reality

Astral Projection and the Nature of Reality PDF Author: John Magnus
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
ISBN: 1612831214
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
Astral Projection and the Nature of Reality goes beyond preconceived notions about how to get out of the body and then back in, as well as the dimensions to which the outofbody adventurer can travel. Magnus starts with a brief history of astral projection and then guides the reader through a stepbystep course for reliable projection. He explains how, once outofbody, we create our own astral world, and he offers techniques for understanding our mind and the nature of reality. Magnus offers detailed exercises and proven techniques for reliably exiting your body; confronting the basic fears that can hold you back; taking advantage of psychic side effects; taming your mind; navigating a world in which you have the ultimate power to create; integrating the lessons you learn from OBEs into your everyday reality; replenishing your energy . . . and much more. Plus, incisive journal entries of his many outofbody adventures will convince you that it can be done and give you the inspiration to go farther than you ever thought possible.

Ghosted!

Ghosted! PDF Author: Brian Laythe
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476685770
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Reports of paranormal experiences vary tremendously, but are often associated with ghosts, haunted houses, and otherwise eerie circumstances. There exist both classic and modern texts on ghosts and haunted or possessed people, places and spaces; many discuss traditional ideas regarding such phenomena or utilize now-outdated research in highly academic and technical ways. This book offers a very different approach in reviews provided by a leading-edge research program devoted to who has ghostly experiences and why. With new insights both global in scale and multidisciplinary in scope, this collaboration by five researchers uncovers consistent evidence that anomalous experiences represent a very real "Haunted People Syndrome"--a term describing anomalous experiences that manifest recurrently to the same percipients and are interpreted as "ghostly"--with implications for future research across academia. The participation of new citizen scientists (the field investigators and researchers among us) is invited in furthering the exploration of paranormal mysteries. Photos and figures illustrating concepts and models are included, as is a glossary.

Muddy Tracks

Muddy Tracks PDF Author: Frank DeMarco
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
ISBN: 1612830935
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 526

Get Book Here

Book Description
"One of the precious gifts of my father's legacy was his insistence that people can turn beliefs into knowns, finding out for themselves through direct experience that they are indeed more than their physical bodies. In that spirit, this book is a fine example of another explorer's journey into profound self-discovery, and particularly to the realization that "love is the only thing in life that counts." --Laurie A. Monroe, President, The Monroe Institute This book was written specifically for those people for whom the question of "what is real" is the most important thing in life. It is for those who have a hard time concentrating on career or family--or anything--for fear it will turn out to be illusory. It is for anyone whose life is haunted by lack of meaning. The entire point of Muddy Tracks is that the author went out searching. He trusted, and sincerely looked, and found that his trust was rewarded. And, he says, as his trust was rewarded, so will yours be. Muddy Tracks tells some of the things that happened to him, and at every step he says to you, "Here's a resource; try this. Here's a resource; try that. When I did this, this happened. When I did that; that happened." Keeping strictly to what he has experienced, DeMarco shows how many aids we may find in life. He shows how his life was enriched by selected reading, and by dream analysis, and by interaction with friends and so-called strangers. He describes some of the unusual resources he has discovered and used, particularly in connection with out-of-body explorer Bob Monroe and The Monroe Institute. More intimately, he tells of some of the nearly unbelievable things he has learned to do--things, he points out, that are natural human abilities, available to all. As noted British author Colin Wilson says in his introduction, "Frank's experience has been in many ways remarkable, and he has a natural gift for making it come alive." The net result is to provide the reader with firsthand, informed reassurance that we all have our own internal guidance, which is reliable and is willing and able to come forth when welcomed. DeMarco cites his own experiences to argue that if you come to the quest in faith, the faith will be rewarded. The meaning of your life can be found, but it can only be found by you yourself. And, having found it, you will find it meaningful precisely because it will be your meaning, and not someone else's. The age of gurus is over. It is time for us each to come into our own. Muddy Tracks will help you--and encourage you--to learn to do that.