Joseph Felser on The Cosmic Internet

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

“The Cosmic Internet is filled with provocative insights, great intelligence, warm humor, and above all, the passionate quest for truth. Much more than a fascinating record of conversations with ‘non-physical friends’ from ‘the other side,’ it stands as an eloquent testimony to the author’s courage in publicly grappling with the central questions of human existence: Who and what am I? What is my life purpose? What is ‘reality’? How can I trust my own inner experience in a culture that denies the value of inwardness? Frank DeMarco must be defined as one of the premier visionary healers of our age. For above all, it is wholeness—health, in the true sense of the term—that is his quest and question.”

— Joseph M. Felser, Ph.D., author of The Way Back to Paradise and The Myth of the Great Ending

For other quotes, and to see the cover in full color, and to order from Amazon, go here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_19?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+cosmic+internet&sprefix=the+cosmic+internet

The Cosmic Internet, some reactions

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

What do the following authors (in alphabetical order) have in common, besides creativity, a passion for exploration, and a lifetime’s thoughtful observation of the world around them?

Robert Bruce (OBE pioneer)

Joseph Felser, Ph.D., (professor of philosophy)

Ervin Laszlo (systems theorist)

Carla Rueckert-McCarthy (channeler of the Ra material)

Charles Sides (businessman)

Michael Ventura (cultural explorer)

They have all provided  advance cover quotes for my new book, The Cosmic Internet.

To see the cover in full color, and to order from Amazon, go here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_19?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+cosmic+internet&sprefix=the+cosmic+internet

 

 

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (6)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

 

Part VI: Coda

Bob Monroe, bless his heart, thought we could. But we must decide. The clock is ticking; time is short. 

We may soon be forced to confront the prospect of humans no longer being the dominant species on this planet. Whether this would be a good or a bad development is, perhaps, debatable. What is not arguable, I think, is that all the old Answerist philosophies are passé. Neither scientism nor religionism will help us one iota with the challenges we must face. We need fresh perspectives, new ideas, and novel approaches. And, above all, open minds and hearts.

The future is open, but closing fast. The question is, do we have the nerve to trust our reason and the verve to practice our magic? As Bob might have said, “Well, you do the best you can.” Let’s make it so.

 

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (6)

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (5)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Part five of six of Joseph Felser’s paper on Bob Monroe’s philosophy.

Part V: “Forms of Freedom Inconceivable”

To make the magical as reasonable as possible and reason as magical as it can be; this, then, is the chief task of the members of this professional division.

Many of the fruitful results of these investigations have been catalogued in the reports of the Focus and the Hemi-Sync Journal, as well as in those two marvelous volumes edited by Ronald Russell, Using the Whole Brain and Focusing the Whole Brain. (38) Contained therein are reports of just some of the many “peak performances” that can be coaxed out of individuals willing and able to “try and test for themselves.” From the healing of physical and mental suffering, and the facilitation of learning, to the sheer, exhilarating fun of exploring There, Hemi-Sync has proven its worth, time and again. Magic can be eminently practical and down-to-earth after all, just as the intellect can soar when it embraces (or at least tolerates) experiential data that may not fit its preconceptions.

As noteworthy as all these particular achievements are, however, I suspect that behind and beyond them there is a still greater purpose at work. What might that purpose be?

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (5)

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (4)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Part IV: Monroe’s Philosophy

What impressed me most about Journeys out of the Body, however, was not the author’s narrative of his metaphysical adventures (as captivating it was), but rather, the underlying philosophy of the narrator. This philosophy would find further elaboration, not only in Bob’s later writings, but also in the creation of Hemi-Sync and this Institute. His pragmatic approach was one of word and deed, because, I believe, he intuitively grasped the central importance of uniting theory with practice.

Bob Monroe–a philosopher? You bet he was.

To be a philosopher, one does not need advanced academic degrees or specialized training. This is what I had learned from the work of R.G. Collingwood, whom I mentioned earlier. As I slowly came to realize, Collingwood and Monroe had several important ideas in common.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (4)

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (3)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Part three of six parts

Part III: Accepting Nietzsche’s Challenge

Against this backdrop, our deeply personal preoccupations with such questions as, “How can I harmonize my right and left brain functions?” may seem like selfish, petty conceits. But what I am arguing is precisely the opposite: We do not have the luxury of dismissing or ignoring our own inner warning systems. Nature is speaking to us and through us. Our individual quest for balance and harmony is the expression of a wider and deeper wave of positive change, just as surely as our individual acts of ignorance and greed contribute to the mess we’re in. It works both ways. After all, we have to start somewhere.

As I mentioned earlier, my own search began with a (mostly unconscious) yearning for connection with the lost, “magical” parts of my self. This yearning triggered a disturbing upheaval of right-brained activity, including a number of odd experiences that did not fit my standard, left-brained definitions of rationality–or, for that matter, of reality. The questions continued to pile up.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (3)

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (2)

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

For part one of this paper by Joseph Felser, Ph.D., see yesterday’s post.

Part II: The Nightmare of Reason

As I struggled to make sense of my experiences, I was not aware that my bad dreams were more than my own private nightmares. The maverick British philosopher Robin George Collingwood argued that we never struggle with our problems in isolation.(3) Whether we know it or not, our deepest personal challenges are rooted in the common ground of our cultural and social difficulties. No one is an island.

What is our chief problem? As Bob Monroe observes in Far Journeys, it is that we are a “half-brained society.” (4) That half, of course, would be the left side of the brain: our rational intellect. But what about the other half of us–the right brain of feeling, intuition, psychic sensitivity, and imagination? Like the sorrowful mother rabbit of my dream, this creatively fertile, “magical” aspect has, by and large, fallen asleep. In psychological terms, this means it has fallen into the unconscious, where it becomes an unknown object of fear and misunderstanding.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (2)