 
## Where is Hell?

### By Anonymous
Where is Hell?

Anonymous

Copyright © 2020

A. Truth Publishing

Anonymous95221@gmail.com

All rights reserved.

Publishers Cataloging in Publication Data

Anonymous

Where is Hell?

First Edition

1. Spirituality. 2. Philosophy

This Ebook is licensed only for the use of the person who downloaded it. This Ebook is given freely and may not be re-sold to others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please download an additional copy for each recipient. Furthermore, the copyright prohibits the copying any of the text contained in this book without referencing the name of this book.

# Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Can a Dead Body go to Hell?

Chapter Two: Who Goes to Hell?

Chapter Three: Does Hell Exist?

Chapter Four: Are we in Hell now?

Chapter Five: Are We Being Rehabilitated?

References and Bibliography

#  Introduction

Most of us have grown up with the concept that if we don't do the right things in life, we'll end up in hell.

But where is hell?

This is not just a rhetorical question. This question is not being asked in order to generate an ecclesiastical argument in order to prevail a particular religious ideology.

In other words, the purpose of asking the question is not to threaten. It is not a concealed attempt to get people to join one religious sect or another. Nor it is an attempt to dissuade someone from their particular religious leanings.

Rather, this is a practical text that discusses the scriptural sources of the notion of hell, and the particular specifications of its existence and location.

We will also explore the various ecclesiastical myths regarding hell and the origins of those.

Then we will reveal the only scientifically valid locations for the place we call hell, utilizing the specifications as detailed in the scriptural sources.

In other words, we will separate the myths about hell from the realities about hell.

And we will carefully and accurately define hell consistent with scripture.

As such, we will also explain how one arrives in hell and how one escapes hell once arrived.

The information contained in this text is derived from three central sources:

Scripture will be a central source of information – which will be referenced and quoted. The scriptures used will focus upon the Bible because it is readily accepted in Western civilization.

Modern science and current affairs will also be discussed. These will be indicated as observations with some referencing for concepts that are not readily known.

However, the overriding knowledge and wisdom being disseminated in this text comes from an ancient lineage of spiritual teachers that have handed down this wisdom for thousands of years. Each teacher within this lineage has passed on the wisdom to a student who eventually became a teacher to pass it on to others.

What this text does not contain is speculative discourse. The content is not the author's opinion. Let's repeat that: The content of this book is not the author's speculative opinion. The author does believe in the content of this book, but the content does not come from the author. It is not a creation of the author.

This is the case with most of the philosophies that are being passed around today. Someone made up the philosophy at some point in the past. For some philosophies, it was a preacher from a few centuries past. For others, it was a more modern person with a Ph.D. or other credential.

Regardless of the credential, these philosophies are coming from speculation. They are creations of speculative minds.

Typically these philosophies create a speculative thesis for the existence of God and our purpose on the planet. These are the critical pieces as they typically define the larger questions we have about our own existence.

For example, one philosophy says that we have all descended from aliens and God is an alien. Without commenting on the philosophy itself, we know that the source of this philosophy is ultimately some person who imagined it to be true. It is speculative fantasy.

The content of this book draws from another source.

The content of this text is taken from those very same teachers that have been quoted from and misinterpreted with regard to their teachings of hell.

This is inclusive of the Prophets, which over the centuries passed down truth from teacher to student. This truth included the potential for a person to descend into a type of abyss that has become misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Here we lay out the impressive collection of truths along with the scientific reasoning and observations of the natural world which together illustrates the truth about the existence of hell and where it is.

These are referenced along with scriptural texts, taken from the New International Version Bible.

#  Chapter One: Can a Dead Body go to Hell?

Our notion of hell, at least in western society, imagines a dungeon-like environment full of pain and suffering. When we see renditions of hell it is usually conceived as people being chained to a brick wall in a room with a fire burning.

This notion has been misinterpreted from scripture and it is not incorrect.

Certainly one of the problems lies with the understanding of where this place is located and what form the inhabitants of hell are in. In other words, who are the citizens of hell?

Such a question is typically answered by saying that sinners go to hell. Certainly but this doesn't fully answer the question. This tells us what a person did to deserve to go hell. It doesn't indicate who goes to hell.

This of course relates directly to identity.

Let's put it more practically. When someone dies, the body becomes lifeless and is buried or cremated. If the body is buried it decomposes and the flesh and tissues biodegraded. How does this take place?

Decomposition takes place from three levels.

### How do animals, insects and microorganisms decompose?

The decomposition process is accelerated by certain types of organisms – those that specialize in decomposing flesh.

If the body is available to airborne insects, flies will be the first to feed off the flesh. These are called flesh flies. Flesh flies include Blaesoxipha, Gymnopsidia and Opsidia species. The adults will eat flesh, but they will also lay eggs in the flesh and their larvae will also eat flesh as they develop.

Another type of fly that eats flesh is called the blow fly – or Cochliomyia sp. There are many species of these around the world and the larvae are the typical flesh eaters – although adults will sometimes eat flesh.

When bodies are buried, these larvae will also make their way into dead flesh under the surface. They are adept at locating and finding their primary food source.

Beetles are also good at burrowing into the soil and getting to their favorite food source. In the case of dead flesh, a number of beetles will chomp on decaying carcass. These include carrion beetles (Silphidae), rove beetles (Staphylinidae) or rove beetles, and dung beetles (Scarabaeidae).

The species of beetles will vary by region. The small American carrion beetle (Necrophila Americana), the giant carrion beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) and the gold-necked carrion beetle (Nicrophorus tomentosus) are common species in North America. In South America, dead bodies are ravished by the rove beetle called the devil's coach-horse beetle (Ocypus olens) or the scarab beetle (Coprophanaeus lancifer). These can grow quite large.

Larger scavengers that feed off of dead bodies include coyotes, vultures and a few other birds.

In the microscopic world, a number of parasites will begin to feast on a dead body's tissues. Along with these are flesh-eating bacteria – but also yeasts – will assimilate and break down cell tissue into nutrients they utilize for energy.

### How do molecules decompose?

The last form of decomposition takes place at the molecular level. Here molecules that once made up the cells and tissues are broken down, with atoms being lost to other molecules. These loosed atoms will combine differently with other atoms to make different molecules. In this way, what once was flesh will now become soil.

This process of molecular breakdown and repositioning will also occur as worms and bacteria digest the flesh. The difference is that their digestive processes will force the metabolic process where as nature's elements can also bring about the process, which leaves the nutrients in the soil for plants or others to utilize for nutrition.

In other words, after its death our physical body will become nutrition for other organisms.

### How long does it take for our body to decompose?

This depends greatly upon the environment the body is being placed. Modern burials will embalm the body with formaldehyde and numerous other chemicals. These will help slow the decomposition process. These chemicals - when combined with a casket made with wood soaked in preservative or synthetic materials \- will deter the ability of microorganisms and worms to enter the body.

But because the body already contains billons of microorganisms that may only partly be inhibited by the embalming fluid, the microorganism-driven decomposition process is merely slowed and delayed a little.

Furthermore, the molecular breakdown of cells and tissues will still continue, though this is slowed through preservation as well.

The bottom line is that the body will decompose despite attempts to preserve it.

Embalmed bodies will typically decompose completely within a few years. The formaldehyde will gradually degrade, leaving the body ready to biodegrade.

This is evidenced by exhumations – sometimes done for autopsies. Exhumations have discovered significantly decomposed bodies after only a few months. The bone matter of the skeleton may remain, but most of the flesh and tissues have broken down. The bones will also typically take longer in a casket.

### Will a casket biodegrade?

A body buried directly into the soil will certainly degrade faster. Here soil comes into contact with the body, bringing in a variety of microorganisms and insects to devour the body. Eventually this will also take place with a casket – once the casket biodegrades.

Once the casket decomposes, allowing soil within the casket, the tissues will decompose within a few weeks and the bones likely a year or two. But not much because the same elements that break down the body also break down the casket assuming natural materials.. This will certainly depend upon the type of soil. Soil with plenty of humus will decompose a body faster than a body that the snow will, or a volcanic eruption will.

These latter scenarios explain why bones are sometimes found thousands of years later. Snow or volcanic flows can inhibit the decomposition process due to the excessive cold or heat.

Here the excessive cold or heat will also deter microorganisms and insects.

In the case of snow and ice, most microorganisms are blocked or at least slowed.

The molecular breakdown of the cells and tissues is also slowed in slow and ice. For this reason, a few optimistic scientists have offered cryogenic freezing services for those who think that if their body is frozen after death, some future technology will be able to revive the body and thus bring the dead frozen body back to life.

The only problem with this theory is that at the death of the body, the spirit-person leaves and moves on. If the spirit-person does not return home, such a spirit-person will take birth in another physical body.

Thus the person will be long gone and already identifying with another body by the time the previous body could be revived. 'That train has left the station' so to speak.

### What is cremation?

Cremation produces the same end result but much faster and more emphatically. Cremation is done by placing the body into a furnace. The body is burnt until only ashes remain. The ashes are then put into an urn and given to the family.

This creates an almost comical situation should the family identify the body as the self. Such a family will see those ashes as the person they once cared for. But now that body is reduced to ashes and the family must figure out what to do with the ashes.

### What is pouring the ashes?

Some families will pour the ashes into an ocean or other body of water while others will dump them onto some land seemingly meaningful to the person. Some will keep the ashes in the urn.

It is as if the person is somehow still existing within the ashes. What an absurd thought.

Sometimes the dead body's ashes get spilled accidentally. Sometimes, just as the ashes are being dumped, a gust of wind will sweep the ashes into the person dumping them. What happens then?

### How can a dead body go to hell?

Given the above understanding of how a dead body will degrade in nature, it is nonsensical to believe a dead body - whether it is decomposed or cremated - can physically go to hell: Or any other place other than biodegraded soil.

Yes, in the end, the dead body will turn into soil. Soil is composed primarily of the feces of animals, insects and microorganisms. These critters that eat dead flesh will absorb the nutrients and then excrete the rest as feces. Thus what once was our flesh will now become soil.

This soil will then become nourishment for other species of life. These include plants, which become nourishment for species of animals, including humans.

In other words, what once was the flesh of a human body will become part of the soil which will nourish the plants, which will in turn nourish our own bodies. This means that essentially, our physical bodies are composed of nutrients that once made up other physical bodies. It is a recycling of matter.

But we are not seeing the total equation here. These physical bodies – made of molecules and cells that are nourished from other dead bodies and feces – are differentiated from who we are within. We are not these physical bodies.

Let's take a closer look at our real composition.

#  Chapter Two: Who Goes to Hell?

The points in the first chapter illustrate that before we can delve further into what hell is and where hell is, we must understand just who it is that would experience hell.

This is a practical issue. Let's say we log onto an internet site. They will ask us for a user name and password. Why? Because they want to verify our identity before they let us in. They want to make sure the person accessing the site is supposed to access the site. If we are not holding the password, the site assumes we are not who we claim to be.

Identity is a big issue because it distinguishes a person from others. Without identification, how could one person go to hell and the other person not go to hell? Is it distinguished through DNA? Or some other means of distinction?

While we might gloss over this concern, assuming the existence of hell does require a deeper understanding of who is the experiencer: Who experiences life. Just who experiences death? And who lives on after the body dies?

### What is Death?

Before we can understand just who would go to hell, we have to understand what death is.

We know the body dies. We can easily observe that at the time of death, the body no longer functions. Regardless of which outward signs and symptoms we use, there is a dramatic change in the body at the time of death. The body ceases function. The body ceases the display of life and the outward demonstration of personality.

Where did this personality go then? Did it disappear into thin air? Did it evaporate with the final breath? Did this personality die with the death of the body?

Before we can fully understand death, we must understand who is the living person. What is a live person, and what is the difference between life and death? What is the difference between a dead body and a living body, and how is the personality we know and hold dear connected with life?

This means we must delve into the source of the energy and life of the body. Where is the generator of the body? Who or what is running the body? This certainly relates to the concept of identity: Are we each simply a temporary physical body? Are we simply cellular machines that decompose after a few decades?

If we ask someone who they are, they will most likely describe their body's physical features. Or perhaps their body's country of origin. They might say "I am American;" "I am black;" or "I am five feet tall, weigh 125 lbs, and female with brown eyes." The logical question here is: Am I this physical body? If so, what happens if the body gains 100 lbs of weight or becomes disfigured? Does the person's identity change?

Most of us assume that our identity runs deeper than our physical body. A person with a black body wants equality with a person with a white body because that person considers that beneath the skin, we are all of the same substance. Similarly, an obese person wants to be treated equally with someone of a more slender stature. Why would we request equality unless we are assuming we have deeper identities?

### Where is Life?

Discerning the difference between a living body and a dead body was a topic of deep debate by the Greek philosophers. The existence of a living force separate from the body was promoted by many, including Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Socrates, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Origen and many others. Hippocrates professed that the life within the body was due to a "vital spirit" within, which acted through four different humors, for example.

When one of Socrates' students asked him how he wanted to be buried, Socrates gave them a clear reply: They could do whatever they wanted with the body, because he would be long gone by then.

By any physical observation made during the death of the body, the living force suddenly leaves. When we see a living body full of life, movement, energy, personality, and purpose, we understand these symptoms of life are residing within the body. When death arrives, suddenly those symptoms of life leave: There is no movement, no energy, and no personality remaining within the dead body. The body becomes lifeless. There is no growth, no will, no personality and no purposeful activity.

For thousands of years, doctors and scientists have autopsied, dissected and otherwise examined millions of dead bodies. No one—not even modern researchers with highly technical instruments—has been able to find any chemical or physical element missing from a dead body that was previously present when the body was alive. The dead body has every physical and material component the living body had. All of the cells are still there. The entire DNA is still there. All the nerves, the organs, the brain and central nervous system—every physical molecule and cell—are still resident in the cadaver.

The one and only claim of a difference, reported in 1907 by Massachusetts physician Dr. Duncan MacDougal, proposed a 21-gram weight difference between a dead and live body. He could not identify the substance of the difference, however. Dr. MacDougal's results were also inconsistent, and were never corroborated.

MacDougal's experiment consisted of monitoring six patients as they died upon a table rigged with a beam scale. Of the six, two were eliminated because of technical issues. Three subjects died of tuberculosis. Two of these were losing weight before and after death by "evaporation and respiratory moisture." One subject died from "consumption" and seemingly lost ¾ of an ounce in weight as he was dying—later converted to 21.3 grams. Dr. MacDougall admitted that it was difficult in some cases to know at what point the patient had died (MacDougall 1907).

A fellow doctor in Massachusetts, Dr. A. Clarke, immediately debated Dr. MacDougal's hypothesis. Dr. Clarke argued that the typical sudden rise in body temperature before and subsequent cooling without circulation upon death could account for slight weight changes due to evaporation. Especially noting some of the patients had lethal tuberculosis.

While Dr. MacDougal assumed the moment of death occurred when the patient convulsed a bit and then lay still without breathing, modern research tells us that brain death must also occur—something Dr. MacDougal was not monitoring for.

Until his own death in 1920, Dr. MacDougall tried to repeat the results and could not confirm his findings. In one test, he cruelly killed fifteen dogs while weighing them and found no weight loss. No other study has substantiated such a theory of weight loss upon death. The 21-gram concept is now relegated to urban legend standards.

With the exception of these weak findings, many centuries of cadaver research and autopsy have carefully examined organs, bones, nerves, brain, blood, neurochemistry and other vital body parts. None has found any structural or biochemical difference between a live and dead body. The dead body is simply missing an immeasurable element of life that once animated the body: An invisible force that gives the body personality, energy, motivation, and the will to survive.

The life force of the body has never been seen under a microscope or by any other instrument. Furthermore, since this living force separates from the body at death—leaving the physical body with no life—it is obvious that this life force is not part of the body. Since the personality is also gone when this life is gone from the body, it would also be logical that our personality is part of this life force, and not part of the physical body. The physical body—including all the DNA and neurons—remains intact. Just as the driver is not the car: The driver can step out of the car at any time. Therefore, the driver has an identity separate from the car.

### Which Body Part is Alive?

Following an amputation due to an infection or other injury, no one would claim the amputee is any less of a person. This is because the same personality is there despite a massive structural change in the body. This logic can be extended to even severe cases such as the loss of both arms and legs or other major parts of the anatomy. An explosion or other traumatic accident might leave ones torso intact while amputating both the body's arms and legs. Regardless of losing these appendages, the person is still perceived as a whole person—the same person as before—even though their body cannot function the way it did before. The person who operates the body still contains the same conscious being with the same personality. This is why paraplegic and quadriplegic rights are protected by law; and why Dr. Steven Hawking, a quadriplegic, is considered one of the today's foremost theoretical physicists despite his physical handicaps. He is regarded as no less of a person than the rest of us. Physically disabled people are given equal rights because society considers these persons equal in all respects, despite deficiencies in their physical bodies.

The physical organs illustrate the same logic. It is now commonplace in medicine to surgically remove and replace organs such as kidneys, livers, hearts, hips and other parts in order to preserve the healthy functioning of the body. Some parts—like hearts and hip sockets—are now replaced with artificial versions. Modern medicine has illustrated through many years of organ transplants that a person's identity does not travel with the organ. Otherwise, we might have—as a few comedic theatrical performances have suggested—people whose personalities reflect their organ donors. Imagine what would happen if someone receiving a heart transplant assumed part of the personality of the dead donor. We'd truly have a mess on our hands.

This situation is analogous to an auto accident: A car is involved in an accident and brought to an auto mechanic. The mechanic determines that the car needs a new set of tires, a new set of bumpers put on, and the engine rebuilt before the car can be put back on the road. The driver waits for the repairs to be completed, and then gets back in the car and drives it away. The new car parts do not affect the driver.

Matter versus Life

The difference between the physical body and the living personality requires a clear differentiation between matter and life. This investigation has been captured by science under the term autopoiesis. Autopoiesis is the study of the characterization of a complete living system as it compares to either a part of another living system or non-living matter.

To investigate this we could first analyze the difference between a living organism and a piece of matter without the component of life. An easy comparison would be between single-celled bacteria and a dead cell separated from a living body. A single-cell bacterium is a complete living organism. Studies have shown bacteria indeed respond to stimuli, avoid death, and avert pain. As we know from medicine, bacteria will intelligently mutate and adapt to antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are bacteria that have intelligently defended themselves. Living bacteria also conduct all of the activities required for independent survival: consumption, digestion, reproduction, self-propulsion, sense perception and emotional response, the intention to survive, and self-organization. Clive Backster's (2003) EEG work with bacteria proved that bacteria could sense danger through a subtle means of communication. This is also called quorum sensing. In quorum sensing, bacteria communicate amongst each other to come to consensus about the safety or risk about a particular environment.

Non-living objects display none of these characteristics. A machine may digest and respond to stimuli, but it will not have sense perception and emotional response. A machine relies upon a living person to program its tasking and response. Once a cell has been disconnected from a living organism, the cell ceases independent function.

A single cell can be put into a Petri dish and kept alive, however. This in vitro survival makes the cell now dependent upon the environment of the lab equipment, driven by living lab operators. The cell has thus become a surrogate of the lab, just as it was formerly a surrogate of the living body. It displays no independent sense perception, the desire to survive or independent emotional response. While the cell is part of the living body, it maintains the body's self-concept. Once detached, it displays metabolic continuation, but no separate self-existence.

Over many years of laboratory research, test results have demonstrated that all animals and plants also have this self-concept awareness, which prevails through their responses to various environmental challenges. The functions of their mechanical physiology have also confirmed that this self-concept pervades through all living tissues, reflected by the display of episodic memory—remembering specifics about past events and past sensations. For this reason, we see animals learning quickly which activities result in pain and which activities result in pleasure. They immediately respond simply because every living being seeks pleasure.

So who is it that seeks pleasure? Surely we can agree that the person seeking pleasure must maintain innate cognition and awareness. How could something without cognition and awareness seek pleasure?

When we consider the element of cognition, we naturally refer to awareness. Cognition is the awareness of self and non-self. The awareness of self and non-self are required for a living organism to consider pleasure and survival important. Without an awareness of self and non-self, there is no intention for fulfillment. Without intention and the awareness of self, there is no consciousness. Without consciousness, there is no life.

### Is matter permanent?

Throughout its physical lifetime, our body is continually changing, yet we continue to maintain our core identity and consciousness. Research has shown all living cells in the body have a finite lifespan, ranging from minutes to days to years. A few cells—such as certain bone marrow stem cells and brain cells—may exist through the duration of the body.

There are only a handful of these cells compared to the estimated 200 trillion cells making up the body, however. By far the vast majority of cells in the body will participate in cell division. Following division, older cells time out. They are broken down by the immune system and discarded, leaving the newly divided cells in their place. Using this process the body constantly sloughs off older cells from the body, replacing them with new ones. Different cells in different parts of the body have different lifespans. For example:

-Most intestinal wall cells are replaced about between two and four days

-Stomach lining cells are replaced between two and nine days

-Blood neutrophils and eosinophils are replaced between one and five days

-Lung alveoli cells are replaced within eight days

-Blood platelets are replaced within 10 days

-Skin epidermis cells are replaced within a month

-The entire liver is regenerated within 18 months

-All the cells of the bones are replaced within ten years

-Bone osteoplasts are replaced within 90 days

-Cells of the heart (cardiomyocytes) are replaced at a rate of up to 10% per year

-Fat cells are all replaced within eight years

-Stem cells are replaced within a few years – often 3-5 years

-The cells of our entire skeleton are replaced within 10 years

-Nerve cells and the cells of the lens can live longer—for decades, and some over the lifetime of the body. However, most of the composition of all cells, including many nerve and stem cells, also turnover.

Every cell in the body is made up of ionic and molecular combinations. These molecular combinations make up a cell's DNA, RNA, cytoplasm, organelles, and membrane.

These atomic and molecular sub-units are constantly being replaced. New molecular matter enters the body from the environment. Old molecular matter is expelled through waste and respiration. Processes of cell membrane diffusion, osmosis and ionic channel conveyance allow each living cell to undergo a constant recycling of atomic elements.

Active cells will replace molecules and ions quite rapidly. Brain cells will recycle all their atoms and molecules within three days. Ninety-eight percent of all the atoms and molecules in the body are replaced within a year, and most biologists agree all the atoms and molecules within the body are replaced by new ones within five years.

Understanding that our physical bodies change nearly every cell within days, weeks or years; and all our body's atoms and molecules are being replaced from the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe, we can accurately make the following statement:

The body we are wearing today is not the same body we were wearing five years ago.

We are now wearing a completely recycled body. In effect, we have each changed bodies. Every rhythmic element of matter—every vibrating atom—is different.

This might well be compared to a waterfall. The water within a waterfall is always changing. From moment to moment, the waterfall will be made up of different water. Therefore, the waterfall we see today is not the same waterfall we saw yesterday.

Since each of us is the same person from moment to moment and year to year within an ever-changing body, logically we each have an identity separate from this temporary vehicle. We cannot be the body, since the body has been replaced while we are still here. Should we look at our photograph taken five years ago, we will be looking at a completely different body from the one we are wearing today. The very eyes looking at the eyes in the picture are different.

### Are we brains?

One might propose that maybe we are the brain. Most of us have heard of the famous neurosurgical experiments first documented by Dr. Wilder Penfield, where he stimulated the temporal cortex and stimulated particular memories during brain surgery. These results and their confirmations left scientists with an impression that life must reside in the brain since emotional memories were stimulated with the electrode testing.

This assumption is disputed by other brain research over the past fifty years on both humans and animals, however. The assumption that the emotional self is contained in the brain has been conflicted by the many cases of emotions and memory following the removal of brain parts and even a majority of the brain.

Yet we find from science that brain removal does not remove the person. Mishkin (1978) documented that the removal of either the amygdala or the hippocampus did not severely impair memory.

Mumby et al. (1992) determined that memory was only mildly affected in rats with hippocampus and amygdala lesions.

According to a substantial review done by Vargha-Khadem and Polkey (1992), numerous hemidecortication surgeries—the removal of half the brain—had been conducted for a number of disorders. In a majority of these cases, cognition and brain function continued uninterrupted.

A few cases even documented an improvement in cognition after parts of the brain were removed. Additionally, in numerous cases of intractable seizures, where substantial parts of brain have been damaged, substantial cognitive recovery has resulted in 80 to 90% of the cases.

These and numerous other studies illustrate this effect—called neuroplasticity. In other words, the inner self is not reduced by brain damage or removal. The same person remains after brain parts are removed. The same personality remains. Many retain all their memories.

The majority of brain-damaged stroke patients go about living normal lives afterward as well. Even in cases where memory, cognitive and/or motor skills are affected by cerebrovascular stroke, the person within is still present. Though handicapped, the person remains unaffected by the brain damage.

Memory, sensory perception and the emotional self-concept are not brain-dependent. Many organisms have memory and sensory perception without having a brain. Bacteria, for example, do not have brains, yet they can memorize a wide variety of skills and events, including what damaged or helped them in the past. Other organisms such as plants, nematodes and others maintain memory and recall without having brains or even central nervous systems.

MRI and CT brain scans on patients following brain injuries or strokes have shown that particular functions will often move from one part of the brain to another after the functioning area was damaged. We must therefore ask: Who or what is it that moves these physical functions from one part of the brain to another? Is the damaged brain area making this decision? That would not make sense. Some other guiding function must be orchestrating this move of the function. What or who is guiding this process?

The retention of memory, emotion, and the moving of brain function from one part of the brain to another is more evidence of a deeper mechanism; an operator or driver within the body who is utilizing the brain—rather than being the brain. The driver is the continuing element. Physical structures continually undergo change, while the driver remains, adapting to those changes.

### How old are we?

Consider how most of us perceive the aging of our body with respect to our identity. Most of us try to deny the age of our body in one respect or another. Teenagers want to be older and more mature, while older adults want to be younger and more youthful. Most adults refuse to accept getting old. As any birthday party will illustrate, adults are surprised at the body's age as it gets older. We try to disconnect ourselves from the physical age of our body somehow. This denial is often joked about, but to most of us—as we are faced with an ever-wrinkling body—it is no laughing matter. We are often embarrassed by our body's age as we get older. For this reason, many older adults do not want to state their age. They are embarrassed by it. They want to distance themselves from it. Furthermore, many of us dress the body with make-up, hair dyes and/or trendy clothes in an attempt to hide the body's age.

For this same reason, many in our society undergo extreme forms of surgery in order to achieve a younger looking body. In these cases, the self is in conflict with the images left by the body. Plastic surgery, hair-removal, hair transplantation, breast enhancement, and various other medical interventions are all extraordinary attempts to reconcile our identity with the temporary physical body.

This same issue applies to gender identification issues. The struggles relating to identity with regard to gender over the last few decades has led to the growth of a condition described as gender confusion. One recent report estimated as many as three million children in the U.S. suffer from gender confusion. In an attempt to accommodate this confusion, many of these children are prescribed hormone blockers to prevent normal puberty development. The concept is that hormone blocking will allow them to make a decision after they turn eighteen as to which gender they want to be—now that they have the option to undergo surgery for a sex change.

These are all symptoms of a critical issue: The confusion between our temporary physical body and our true self.

### Are we chemicals?

Over recent years, various researchers have proposed from one basis or another that our identities are chemical. They have proposed that emotions and personality are seated within the chemicals (such as hormones and neurotransmitters) that flow through the bloodstream, basal cell network and the synapses of our nervous systems. Could our identities simply be a mixture of complex chemicals? A logical review of the scientific evidence would indicate otherwise.

Emotional responses to environmental stimuli will initiate any number of biochemical cascade pathways to occur within the body. A cascade occurs when one chemical release stimulates the release of another biochemical, and that biochemical in turn stimulates the release of another. The biochemicals in the cascade might stimulate a particular cell, tissue or organ function. With each cascade, there are initiating stimuli and subsequent responses from various tissues and nerves.

Because neurologists and other researchers have seen these biochemicals involved with emotional response, some have proposed that these biochemicals contain the emotion. They propose that chemicals such as endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, or acetylcholine each contain the particular emotions they reflect, and are thus the sources of the emotion. They propose that these signaling biochemicals connect with receptors positioned at the surface of the cell; and the response by the cell is the emotion being released from the chemical. An example some have used is the famed opiate receptor, linked with the cell's reception of morphine or endorphins, and the sensation of euphoria. The idea is that the feeling of euphoria is produced when the ligands like endorphin connect with the receptor.

One problem with this speculation is that no two organisms respond identically to the same chemical. With opiates for example, some may hallucinate while others may only respond casually. On the other hand, some may have nightmarish experiences. If these structurally identical neurochemicals contained the emotion, why would each person respond differently to the same chemical and dose?

Another major problem with this thesis is the observer: Who is observing that the body is feeling euphoria? Who observes the hallucinations created by certain chemicals? Who observes the positive or negative sensations of the body? The fact is, without an observer, there is no way to be able to view feelings. A physical body that is experiencing a physical emotional response with no observer could not observe and review the experience. Therefore, there could be no discretion regarding the event. There could be no judgment available as to whether the experience was positive or negative. There could be no available decision on whether the experience should be repeated or curtailed. There could be no analysis or learning experience from our activities. These require an observer of the experience.

The perception of pain may offer some clarity. In 2005, Dr. Ronald Melzack, co-author of the now-standard 1965 gate control theory of pain transmission, updated his theory of pain from a simple gateway effect to one of a multidimensional experience of neurosignatures. His new theory—which he calls the body-self neuromatrix—explains that the consensus of clinical research on acute pain, behavior and chronic pain indicates an independent perceptual state of self; observing and exchanging feedback and response with the locations of injury.

Because doctors and researchers have found a good portion of the pain response is unrelated to specific injury but rather a modification of sensory experience, this neuromatrix indicates that pain requires an interaction between the nervous system and what Melzack calls the "self."

In other words, pain requires two components: 1) The sensory transmission of pain and 2) the observer or experiencer of that pain. Once that pain is experienced, there may also be a feedback response from the experiencer. This feedback may either be: 1) take action to remove the cause of the pain; or 2) if there is no apparent cause then become extra-sensitive to the pain until the cause is determined (Baranauskas and Nistri 1998). This increased sensory elevation leads to what is called nociceptic pain—pain not appearing to have a direct physical cause. Some might also refer to this type of pain as being psychosomatic, although psychosomatic pain is often considered not real. Noiceptive pain is considered real, but its cause is not obviously physically apparent.

Regardless of the name, this type of pain is very difficult to understand and manage. This is especially true for doctors and patients who deal with chronic pain that appears unrelated to trauma or inflammation. Because the self naturally seeks pleasure, we would propose that the current cause of that pain is always real, from either a gross physical level or a more subtle level.

Regardless of the level, the self experiencing the pain would certainly be considered separate from the pain, along with any biochemical messengers assisting in its transmission. After all, how could the self "escape" pain unless it was separate from the cause of the pain? Because they increase the separation of the self from the pain source, pain medications are a multi-billion dollar business.

Since the biochemical transmission effectors such as substance P among neurons are present during pain responses, it is logical that these chemicals have a role in the physical responses to emotions or memories. However, the proposal made by scientists such as Candace Pert, Ph.D. that emotions exist within the chemicals is not supported by logic or observation.

Researchers have observed an increase in biochemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and various endorphins in the bloodstream during feelings of love or compassion. The question being raised is whether the emotions stimulated the biochemicals or the biochemicals stimulated the emotions.

The implications of proposing the limited view that the emotion was created by the biochemicals are many. This would be equivalent to saying love comes from biochemicals. It would open the door to a murder suspect pleading that his body's chemical balance was responsible for his committing the fatal crime.

Dopamine, serotonin and endorphins are circulating at heightened levels following activities such as laughing eating, sex and post-traumatic stress. These biochemicals are also circulating at other times, during other emotions, albeit at different levels. What comes first, the biochemical or the emotion? Does the emotion drive the biochemical levels or do the biochemicals drive the emotional response? To break this down properly, we must separate the physiological response to an optional response relating to optional behavior and decision-making.

Yes, a biochemical reaction or ligand-receptor response can stimulate a physiological response. But can it dictate behavior? Could a hormone or neurotransmitter ligand-receptor response force us to shoplift? In that case, we should be able to find that certain biochemicals were "shoplifting" chemicals. We'd be able to just reduce their levels and forget about putting shoplifters in jail. We'd also have to look at blood donors' criminal records before accepting their blood.

The reason we put shoplifters in jail is to teach them that shoplifting is morally wrong. This is decision for an observer—an inner self—who can observe the body's activities. Each of us can observe our activities and steer them with decision-making. We may not always be able to steer our physiological responses, which also produce certain moods within the brain and nerves. But we can observe those moods and decide whether we are going to let them control our activities. While more shoplifters are likely to have bad moods, we aren't forced to shoplift by a bad mood.

If biochemicals create emotion, they would be present only in and prior to particular emotions. Instead, they are present during a variety of emotions. Again physiological changes can be brought about by biochemicals. But emotions stem from life: There is no emotion left in a dead body.

Furthermore, if chemicals could contain emotions, these emotional characteristics should exist in the chemicals both inside and outside of the particular body of the person experiencing the emotion. Illustrating this, health workers regularly remove biochemicals (in the form of body fluids such as blood, plasma and marrow) from one subject and transfer them (or their components) to other subjects. In none of these cases are emotions transferred from one person to another. Supposed "emotional biochemicals" do not retain or display the emotions of their donor once they are transferred to a new host. Certainly, if we found that blood transfusions resulted in changes in personality or emotions, blood transfusions would not be very popular.

Thus, the basis for a biochemical self fails thousands of times a day around the world in hospitals that transfuse blood.

This is not to mean that injected biochemicals cannot stimulate a physical response within a new host, which may or may not facilitate particular emotions to be expressed. The organism receiving epinephrine or another neurochemical may experience a physical response consistent with the vanilla biochemical response related to that particular molecular structure.

Injected adrenaline may produce a physical reaction of increased heart rate, for example. However, adrenaline drawn from one person during a fearful response will not induce a recall of the donor's fears. The recipient's physical response after the injection will neither reflect the appropriate response required for the donor's particular fears.

Once the inner self responds to a particular sensory input—often signaled through biochemical reception—the unique emotional response of the self stimulates particular biochemicals to translate and express the emotion. In other words, these biochemicals help translate the emotional self's response.

Just as current travels within an electrical wire, neurotransmitters help transmit sensory feedback messages to the inner self. They also help transmit emotional responses from the inner self. The self is the observer of sensory input, and stimulates feedback responses utilizing some of the same biochemical transmission pathways.

We must therefore conclude that there is someone inside who is either—directly or indirectly—receiving and responding to the body's neural transmissions. Any response that proceeds with direction and decision-making must come from a conscious source. Otherwise we would simply be machines.

Fuel may ignite a spark in the cylinder of an automobile engine causing combustion, which will push the rods into motion, exerting force on the axel cranks. Fuel is not the original stimulant, however. Nor does fuel contain the ability to guide and steer the car. Rather, there is a driver within the car who consciously turns the key and drives the car to a particular destination using the steering wheel, accelerator, and brakes. The driver optionally stimulates the flow of fuel through the injection system. The driver can also stop the flow of fuel by turning off the car.

When the driver of the body leaves at the time of death, there are no emotions exhibited in the dead body. Yet all the hormones, neurotransmitters, genes and cells—all the biochemical ligands and receptors—are still contained within the recently dead body. The body supports no memory or emotional response because there is no longer a conscious driver present. The conscious driver who drove the feedback and response neurochemistry has left.

Emotions elicited from a response to an observation or other sensual stimuli would logically come from someone separate from those stimuli. Because emotion is integral with interpreting stimuli, an observer would be necessary for that interpretation. Without an observer, there could be no decision-making: There would be no optional behavior.

This does not mean that all physiological responses require conscious interpretation and decision from the self. For example, should we touch the burner of a stove there is programming in place within the neural network to instantly react by pulling the hand away. This will often happen before the self has a chance to make a decision.

However, this programming does not mean the self cannot engage in the decision to resist that reaction of pulling away. A firewalker may intentionally walk on the coals despite his sympathetic system's programmed response to jump away onto the cool sand. These observations lead us to understand that the self can be involved in almost any sensory reception should there be determination and intention.

Most other stimuli requires the emotional self to respond. Otherwise, no action would occur. This is where intention comes in. Upon hearing the alarm in the morning, the self could choose to do nothing—lying in bed for the rest of the day. The self could also intend to accomplish something that day, and rise to begin the day's activities. Ultimately, the self creates the intention and impetus for those activities.

While biochemicals participate in the process of conscious response and feedback, they are actually conductors for electromagnetic wave transmissions. Once sensual stimuli are pulsed to the neural network after ligand reception, neurons produce specific information waves. As we will discuss later in more depth, at any particular point in time, there are billions of brainwaves of various frequencies moving through the brain.

As the different waves collide—or interfere—they create different types of interference patterns. The neurological research headed up by Dr. Robert Knight at the University of California at Berkeley and UC at San Francisco illustrated that the interaction of these interference patterns together formulate a type of informational transmission and mapping system.

This mapping system forms a type of observational screen from which the self can view incoming waveform information. Using this mapping system, the self can view the sensory information coming in from sense organs, and combine these with the feedback from the body, creating a total perception of ones environment and situation.

As the self views these waveform interference pattern images, we can respond with intention. Intention from the self is typically translated through the prefrontal cortex and medial cortex to create brainwave patterns that express the self's response.

These response brainwave patterns are translated through the hypothalamus and pituitary gland to produce master hormones such as growth hormone, adrenocorticortropic hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, oxytocin, luteinizing hormone, and others, stimulating the cascade of biochemicals that translate the response into action. The brainwave transmissions also stimulate a particular nervous system response which activate particular muscles, organs and other tissues. The end result is a physical action combined with certain biochemicals that stimulate a physical response.

We can illustrate this process more practically. Let's say that we heard from a friend that a relative was hurt. The transmission brought through our body's ears will cause an emotional reaction from us as soon as we hear it.

The emotion was experienced following the auditory reception of the announcement. Upon interpreting the sounds by our brain, our inner self reacts emotionally. The particular response would depend upon our personal connection with the relative. It is not automatic. If they were a vicious, hurtful relative, we may react far differently than if they we had established a close personal relationship with them.

Assuming a close personal relationship, our inner self may then initiate a physical response, producing tears and a rush to the hospital to be with them.

These physical activities were stimulated by the emotional response of our inner self. The emotional response and subsequent activities were optional responses made by a conscious individual. It would be nonsensical to say that this was a biochemical response. Why would a group of unconscious biochemicals have a problem with another group of remotely located biochemicals?

### Are we DNA?

A newer version of biochemical identity put forth by scientists over the last few decades is the notion that the self is the genetic information—or DNA—of the body.

The assumption that we are DNA is buried within the theory that genes accidentally evolved from chemicals. The gene evolution theory supposes that genes, and life itself, spontaneously arose from a random pool of chemicals. This theory requires a process called spontaneous generation. Unlikely as it seems, the spontaneous generation of life theory was debated by scientists for hundreds of years, as they observed life seemingly growing from barren flasks. Finally, Dr. Louis Pasteur refuted spontaneous generation by illustrating that this growth was due to the presence of tiny microorganisms invisible to the naked eye. For many decades this assumption has continued nonetheless. Many researchers have attempted to create life from 'primordial' chemicals—all without success.

To analyze the likelihood of even one typical protein molecule to have been randomly developed, we can reference Dr. Francis Crick's statements in his 1981 book Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature. Here Dr. Crick calculates that the chance of even one conservative protein molecule of two hundred amino acids coming into existence is one chance in 10260—the number one with two hundred and sixty zeros behind it. He furthermore states that this would be analogous to a billion monkeys typing onto a billion typewriters and somehow typing one sonnet of Shakespeare.

The chance of a 1,000-nucleotide chain DNA molecule forming accidentally is more remote. Both Dr. Dawson and Dr. Crick agree with this. Lester Smith (1975) calculated the probability as about one in 10600.

The probability of genetic mutations accidentally leading to a new species is even more remote. Dr. Lee Spetner (1998) calculates that a new species (one positive mutation step) would have a (negative) probability of 2.7 x 10-2739, using Stebbins' (1966) estimation that five hundred intermediate mutations would be required to establish one positive mutation step.

This fantastic assumption that chemicals spontaneously (even a gradual development is still considered spontaneous without a determined cause) created genes and life assumes also that the chemicals combined somehow developed the desire to survive. In other words, these chemical combinations somehow developed the intention to improve their chances of survival. Have we ever observed chemicals desiring survival? Chemicals simply do not display this characteristic. No scientist has ever found the intent to survive outside of a living organism. No chemical desires survival unless part of a living organism—hence the name biochemicals (bio = life). Chemicals may react and form various substances, and certainly will change structure when heated or cooled. Having a desire to survive is another matter altogether.

The desire to survive is connected to the desire to improve survival factors and eliminate threats to survival. The need to improve survival requires that someone values survival over death. Otherwise, we would be talking about a group of unconscious chemicals somehow beginning to value their existence.

Chemicals that value their own existence means that the chemicals could somehow recognize a difference between living chemicals and dead chemicals. This in turn requires that chemicals have awareness, because the desire to survive requires an awareness of self-existence. It also requires a fear of death: Could a chemical become afraid to die?

In order to desire survival, a living organism must be aware that it is alive. A living organism must be able to differentiate itself from a dead batch of chemicals. If there is no distinction between life and death, why avoid death? Why desire life without a distinction between living and nonliving chemicals? Certainly it would be easier for a batch of chemicals to remain dead than to have to struggle for survival in the midst of all the environmental challenges to staying alive.

A small unicellular organism can be killed by so many environmental challenges: Freezing, direct sun exposure and any number of natural enemies. If there were no distinction between living or dead chemicals, the path of least resistance would be to remain dead chemicals. Why try to survive without a benefit for living? If there were no awareness and desire for survival in the face of all this resistance, there would be no incentive for genes to develop and evolve towards greater complexity—the basic tenet of the evolutionary theory and the 'survival of the fittest.'

Put more simply, if a living entity could not distinguish itself from a nonliving entity, there would be no urge to survive. Without the urge to survive, there would be no motivating factor to encourage adaptation or mutation. There would be no impetus to evolve because survival is not valuable without an awareness of life.

In his 1977 book The Selfish Gene, Dr. Robert Dawkins proposed that genes themselves somehow became not only selfish in their orientation, but also somehow acted upon their selfishness. Certainly, we can all agree that in order to become "selfish," there must be a "self." Without a self, how could something become selfish? How could there be an orientation towards oneself without there being a self?

We must also ask, logically, just who would be available to recognize life in a chemical-based existence? We are being asked to assume a batch of chemicals developed a state of consciousness, yet there is no individual present the chemicals to be conscious of being alive?

The incidental gene theory of life simply has no logical basis. Genes cannot desire survival. They cannot mutate, or make changes that promote survival without a conscious self present within the organism who values life. This living being must be aware that it is alive, and must therefore value survival.

Once the self values survival, it has a logical basis for making genetic and physiological adjustments to better adapt to the environment. Because the self is fundamentally alive when it is inserted into a temporary physical body, it naturally strives to survive within that organism.

Admittedly, the total mapping of the genome and further mapping of the individual allele locations within codons—their haplotypes and collectively, their hapmaps—reveals a complexity of design beyond our current understanding.

Over the past three decades, tremendous research efforts have gone into creating statistical models to match the physical traits of humans and other organisms with particular gene sequences. As a result, thousands of species genomes have been tabulated and connected with physical characteristics.

In addition, different diseases have been connected to certain sequences. Although these efforts are laudable, science has unfortunately succumbed to a blurring of the relationship between these genetic traits and life itself. The erroneous assumption is that gene sequences—the particular arrangement of alleles or nucleotides at different positions of the DNA molecule—are the cause of those physical or behavioral traits. That somehow, those sequences together make up the identity of the individual.

While some might call this a chicken-and-egg problem, the solution is certainly clearer than this. This assumption that the self is the genetic hapmap would be equivalent to saying a telephone is the source of the voice we hear through its speaker. It is elementary: The voice on the line is coming from a remotely located person. We may not be able to see the person while we are speaking with them, but we know a person is out there because we exchange personal communication and perform a type of voiceprint analysis as we hear their voice.

In addition, the voice on the other side responds to our statements with a clarity that can only come from a conscious speaker. Even computerized voice greetings are clearer if they are recorded by real people.

The sequencing of genetic haplotypes indicates its complex structure. This complex coding indicates programmed design. As with any programming, there must be an underlying motive for the program.

It is not logical to assume that a complex, well-designed code with specific rules comes from a chaotic and accidental design process. Just as we can connect the lucid voice on the phone to a personal consciousness, we can tie the sequencing of genes to a living, intentional component, ultimately driving its design with intention.

If we were to extract a DNA molecule from our skin or body fluids, and place it onto the table or even in a test tube, we will find there is no display of life. Just as the body after death is lifeless, DNA or RNA molecules extracted from a living body become lifeless. It should also be clarified that RNA transcription and genetic mutation is impossible without a living being driving the process.

We can certainly force a mutation upon an organism or its seed through the vehicle of a virus. Yet the mutation will only become duplicated through an organism if there is a living force present in that organism. In other words, we cannot insert a mutated gene into a dead body and see that mutation replicated through the dead body.

The proposal that personality is determined by genetic code is refuted by children who have inherited genes from parents. Children are each born with distinct personalities, talents and character traits not necessarily portrayed in their parents or grandparents. While we are quick to notice similar physical traits among our children, each has their own character and personality.

We can easily observe children behaving significantly different from their parents in similar situations. We can also witness the many conflicts that arise between children and parents. We have also observed that the extraordinary talents of child music geniuses or savants are not passed down genetically. In most musical savant cases, the parents have relatively little or no musical gift whatsoever.

If personality and behavior were genetically driven then genetically identical twins would live parallel lives and have identical personalities. They would make the same decisions, leading to identical histories.

This is not supported by the research. Twins live dramatically unique and individual lives from each other. Depending upon how much time they spend together, they will make distinctly different choices in life as well. In general, they display significantly unique and often diverse behavior. Hur and Rushton (2007) studied 514 pairs of two to nine year old South Korean monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

The study findings indicated that 55% of the children's pro-social behavior related to genetic factors and 45% was attributed to non-shared environmental behavior. It should also be noted that shared environmental factors could not be eliminated from the 55%, so this number could well be higher if shared environments were removed.

In another study from Quebec, Canada (Forget-Dubois et al. 2007), an analysis of 292 mothers demonstrated that maternal behavior only accounted for a 29% genetic influence at 18 months and 25% at 30 months. In a study of 200 African-American twins, including 97 identical pairs, genetics accounted for about 60% of the variance in smoking (Whitfield et al. 2007).

In a study done at the Virginia Commonwealth University's Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics (Maes et al. 2007), a large sampling revealed that individual behavior was only about 38-40% attributable to genetics, while shared environment was 18-23% attributable and unshared environmental influences were attributable in 39-42%. These studies are also confirmed by others, illustrating a large enough variance from 100% to indicate the presence of an individual personality within each twin.

Distinct identity despite genetic sameness is further evidenced by the fact that identical twins will have distinctly different fingerprints, irises and other physical traits, despite their identical genetics. Many twins also differ in handedness and specific talents. Researchers have found that twins will often have significantly different lifestyle choices later in life such as sexual preference, drug abuse, and alcoholism.

For example, say two people purchase the exact same make, model and year automobile at the same time. Comparing the two cars in the future will reveal the cars had vastly different engine lives and mileages. They each had different types of breakdowns, and different problems.

This is because each car was driven differently. One was likely driven harder than the other was. One was likely better taken care of than the other was. They may have been the same make and model, but each had different owners with different driving habits.

Because twins have the same genetics—just as the cars shared the same make and model—the unique factors related to the eventual circumstances of their lives stem from the fact that each body contains a distinct driver.

Because geneticists are not aware of the inner self, they are now trying to resolve the inherent inconsistencies of the gene theory with the developing theories of epigenetics. In general, epigenetics is the acceptance of additional factors (called marks or phenotypes) that affect the switching on or switching off of genes.

This is also called gene expression. It was hypothesized—and confirmed by research—that while the DNA may or may not change within a species, there are many physiological and anatomical changes that will take place within a lifetime or within immediate generations that will reflect environmental changes. These environmental changes are seen as turning on or off these phenotypes, enabling changes in the epigenome of the individual or family.

The concept of epigenetics was proposed by geneticist Conrad Waddington in the early 1940s to explain how environmental circumstances could effect genetic expression. In the 1980s, Dr. Lars Olov Bygren studied Northern Sweden populations that descended from families who were isolated and subjected to periodic famines. He found that children of famines had different genetic traits than those who did not live through famine. Those who lived through periodic feast and famine years died sooner and had more cardiovascular disease.

As researchers have discovered more genetic anomalies—such as the twins research mentioned earlier—the concept of epigenetics has received increasing attention.

The biochemical relationships between gene expressions have focused upon the action of DNA methylation or histone regulation. These biochemical messengers have been implicated in the process of switching alleles on or off. The assumption once again has been that the body's switching systems are purely mechanical and robotic. There is no intentional driver or observer present: Only a biochemical machine that somehow acts with desire and direction.

However, the very research by geneticists that theoretically supported epigenetics also exposed a major shortfall in the theory. In mice experiments at McGill University's Douglas Hospital Research Center (Szyf et al. 2008), epigenetic phenotypes could be turned on and off within baby mice by the increased nurturing from the mother. In other words, baby mice receiving mama's nurturing would switch on genes differently than mice not receiving nurturing from mama mouse.

Quite simply, this indicates the presence of another influence upon the genetic switching of epigenetic phenotypes: That of an exchange between emotional personalities. Nurturing is, in its very essence, the expression of love between one living being and another.

When a mother communicates love through nurturing, the baby receives that expression of love through those nurturing activities. As the expression is received, there is a resonation or hand-shaking between the two living beings. That resonation produces an effect upon genetic expression through the pathways of the brain, nervous system and the body's biochemicals, which bridge the self with the body and its genes.

The inner self is also connected to the body's genes through conscious decision-making. The research has quite resoundingly connected environmental changes with epigenetic changes. Yet many environmental changes are the direct result of the decisions of the inner self.

Let's say we decided that we wanted to live in a warm climate. Furthermore, we decided that a warm climate was more important to us than having a good job. So we packed up our belongings and moved to Hawaii. We settled down in Hawaii and lived there for the next twenty years.

Over that time, our body will undergo many adjustments as it accommodates the warm, humid weather of Hawaii. Eventually, these environmental conditions will affect the switching on and off of certain genes, ultimately changing our genetic outcome.

The bottom line is that epigenetics research illustrates that we are not the genes: We are the person within, who can affect and change our genes with our conscious choices.

### Who is the observer?

Consider biofeedback. Sensors are attached to various parts of the body to monitor physical responses like heart rate, breathing, brainwaves, skin response, muscle activity, and so on. These sensors are connected to a computer, which displays the various response levels onto a monitor for the subject to see.

The heart rate amplitude and frequency readings will be displayed on the monitor in waves, bars, and/or numbers. With a little practice, most people—once they see their heart rate with graphics clearly on the monitor—can consciously lower their heart rate with intention.

Biofeedback has thus been used successfully to teach people to alter physical functions such as muscle tension, hunger, physical stress, and other autonomic functions. Biofeedback training also gives the subject the ability to directly control a variety of physical issues, including stomach cramps, muscle spasms, headaches, and others—many known to be part of a biochemical cascade.

The reason why the biofeedback subject can learn to control certain autonomic functions is that the self ultimately exists outside of these bodily functions. The self is the key participant who influences physical functions.

Once the person intends to make a change, the mind will facilitate the stimulation of the biochemicals by the appropriate glands to produce a physiological response. This can take time, discipline and practice. Even without biofeedback, a person can initiate various autonomic responses. Most of us have experienced how a physiological fear response may be initiated by simply imagining a dangerous event or situation.

This happens every day in the professional world, where executives stress over events that may never happen. Stress increases the heart rate and stimulates stress-biochemical release. Most of us have experienced being worried about an event that may never happen. The resulting increase in our heart rate indicates our body's autonomic response to an over-anxious self.

If the self can affect the body's biochemistry with anxiousness, the self is separate from the biochemistry. Furthermore, if the self can affect the body's biochemistry intentionally, there is no question of the self's ability to direct the body through intention. The range of control the self has over the body is limited by design. Still, there is no doubt that intention initiates the sequencing of instructional signaling through the body.

This neurochemical process would be analogous to a computer operator operating a computer. A computer will tabulate, calculate, and memorize data. It will display various graphics and perform various functions, based upon the input or direction of the operator. The software and hardware are designed in such a way to coordinate computer functions very quickly and automatically within particular limitations.

Regardless of the programming, the computer's operator is required. The computer operator must decide to turn on the computer and must decide to input into the machine certain intentional commands to initiate the computer's programming functions. In the same way, the physical body, with all of its functional chemistry and various physical responses, is ultimately being steered by the personality within: this is the self, the living being—the operator of the body.

It is difficult sometimes to separate the self inside the body from the various physical and biochemical operations of the body. This is because the feedback-response system bridges the self with the physical body.

For example, breast-feeding is now being rediscovered. Researchers have discovered that breast-feeding not only gives the child better nourishment and a stronger immune system, but also stimulates brain development due to some of the biochemistry of breast milk. This notion is consistent with the role various nutrients or drugs have in altering moods and behavior.

Chemicals influence behavior because they not only stimulate physical tissue response, but they also give feedback to the self about what is going on in the body. For example, the feeling of thirst is a neurochemical signal to the self that the body needs water. The combination of hormonal, osmotic, ionic and nerve signaling all integrate to stimulate osmoreceptors located among brain tissue (such as the anteroventral third ventricle wall).

Once stimulated, these receptors initiate waveform signaling through the hypothalamus, which converts into the more subtle waveforms of the mind. Through the reciprocation of the mind, the self observes this feedback, and responds by initiating action to find some water.

A computer will also feed back to its operator in the same way. The computer is not only designed to perform operations based upon the input of the operator, but also its programming is designed to feed back to the operator the results of those operations, signaling a need for new responses from the operator.

This process is called a feedback loop. The body's feedback system is designed to respond to environmental and physical changes around the anatomy. The system is designed to signal to the self on how the body is functioning. This is one of the purposes for serotonin release in the body: To feed back the presence of balance within particular organs and tissue systems. A diet balanced in proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, along with physiological activities stimulate the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin.

This conversion is also stimulated by such activities as relaxation, laughter, and exercise. These are all positive activities for the body's metabolism. This combined state of balance and activity results in a normal flow of serotonin, which feeds back through the brain's translation systems to the self the presence of physiological balance among certain parts of the body.

Pain, on the other hand, indicates quite the opposite: Some imbalance exists somewhere. Pain feeds back to the operator the need for an adjustment among certain functions or activities. This necessary adjustment could be to the diet, fluid intake, sitting posture, lack of exercise, or perhaps an infection of some sort. Chronic pain indicates an unresolved lack of balance in the body, requiring an appropriate response to fix the issue.

Just as an instrument panel on an automobile informs the driver of the running condition of car, we can monitor the condition of our body through these and other neurochemical feedback mechanisms. Just as the car driver slows down when the speedometer shows the car is over the speed limit, the self—directly through conscious control or indirectly through the autonomic system—can make the needed adjustment when the body's feedback systems indicate a problem.

Should we misidentify ourselves as the body, we might confuse positive feedback mechanisms as pleasure. This misconception leads us to attempt to manipulate our body's biofeedback mechanisms. Eating, for example, will stimulate neurochemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and leptin when there is a balance of nutrition and energy. Another example is how our taste buds feed back positive neural signals when we eat something sweet or fatty. These are both positive responses to the body achieving its basic fuels.

In an effort to gain pleasure from these positive responses, many of us continue to eat long after the body has enough for its fuel. An ongoing attempt to become fulfilled through eating can result in obesity, frustration, and depression. In the same way, the car driver does not get full when he fills the car's fuel tank. Thus, the answer to obesity is the realization of this conflict between the body's fulfillment and the fulfillment of the self.

" _Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."_

_\- Democritus ("The father of science," 4_ th _century, B.C.)_

### Is there a person within?

Empirical and clinical evidence reveals the existence of a transcendental inner self operating the body. Why do we say "transcendental?" If the self were not transcendental to the physical plane we would be able to see it. We would be able to measure it with physical quantifications. As it is, we can only see it in the animation of the body. We can only see it through the emotions that are expressed through the body. We can only see it in the decision-making and objectives that push the body to act one way or another. It is, in fact, the inner self's transcendental nature that has caused modern science to completely ignore the existence of the self.

The inner self is the source of personality and life, which the body expresses through physical activity over its lifetime. There is energy, personality and movement in a living body prior to death. This is followed by a lack of movement, personality and energy after the death of the body. This means that the source of the energy and personality must leave the body at death.

Furthermore, contrary to the proposals of many, since each personality is unique and different from everyone else, each inner self must also be an independent, individual being. We are not, despite the seductiveness of such a statement, "all one."

Consistent with the ancient teachings of all major religions, the ancient philosophers, and the vast majority of western scientists prior to the emergence of the accidental chemical life theory, we can now scientifically and empirically document the existence of a unique individual being, transcendental to the gross physical plane.

Plato, Socrates and most of the ancient Greek philosophers referred to this inner self as the soul. The translation is thought to originate with Aristotle, who described the self with the Latin telos. Rather than a vague spirit-like organ, telos translates to a personality with purpose, will, and character. In this context, we would emphasize that each of us does not possess a soul: each of us is a soul—accessing the physical plane through a temporary physical body.

We conclude this discussion with a comment made by the fifteenth-century physician, Paracelsus:

" _The power to see does not come from the eye, the power to hear does not come from the ear, nor the power to feel from the nerves; but it is the spirit of man that sees through the eye, hears with the ear, and feels by means of the nerves. Wisdom and reason and thought are not contained in the brain, but belong to the invisible spirit which feels through the heart and thinks by means of the brain."_

### What Happens when My Body Dies?

The research of Dr. Moody, Dr. Kübler-Ross, Dr. Sabom, Dr. Ring and others has given us a clear scientific understanding of what happens when we die. Thousands of clinical death patients have come back to tell us what is on the other side. Their information is invaluable. With it, we can combine some of the peer-reviewed hypnosis research and the ancient knowledge applicable to this. Together this allows us to present, from a scientific basis, what will happen to each of us when we die:

First, some event will shock our body into the sequence of dying. This may be a heart attack, a stroke or a fatal accident. At the point of death, our heart will malfunction and our brain will be deprived of oxygen and glucose. This will induce brain death. We will feel numbness throughout the body. As this happens, our bodies will become unconscious, and we will slip out of the body via one of the body's orifices.

We will rise above our body. As we rise, we will have a sense of exhilaration as we realize that we are still alive. We will be overjoyed knowing that we are fully intact, and whatever physical handicaps we had within the body will no longer constrain us. For example, if our bodies were in a wheelchair, we will be amazed that we can suddenly dance and walk. If our bodies were blind, we will be overjoyed to find that we can see in full color and definition.

During this phase, we have left our gross physical body but have retained our ethereal body. The ethereal body retains our projection of false ego that defined the shape of our gross physical body. Therefore, we still identify with the gross physical body and feel that we are still within our own dimension.

We are floating above our body, watching the events occurring around it. We watch as urgent care specialists try to revive the body. We watch as our family members gather around to mourn our loss. We begin to speak to them. We tell them that we are okay. We tell them that we are still alive.

After a few minutes of communicating to them we realize that they do not hear us. They do not know we are standing right next to them or above them, trying to speak to them. While we are elated to be alive, this is a little disappointing.

If our relatives or loved ones are not around our body at the time of death, we will go to them. At the speed of thought we will immediately be at their side where ever they are. They might be halfway around the world. We will still be there in an instant. Again we will be next to them or floating above, watching them. They might be crying or otherwise engaged in mourning our departure. We are a bit frustrated with this, as we try to communicate to them that we are still here.

Soon we realize that although we are alive, our body and this environment is no longer our home. We are moving on. Where do we go?

#  Chapter Three: Does Hell Exist?

### The Threat of Hell

This text makes no argument against the existence of hell. The question is where is hell. Certainly the notion of hell is bantered around, typically as a threat:

" _You're going to hell if you do that" is a common threat._

" _If you sin you will face damnation in hell," is another one._

" _You'll go to hell if you do that," is still another one._

What are these expressions? Are they congratulatory? Are they statements of praise? Are they qualified statements? No.

They are threats. Plain and simple, they threaten us with "going to hell" if we do something wrong.

That 'something wrong' is typically described as sin.

### The Bible and Hell

From the Books of the Bible we find clear scriptural evidence that hell exists. Let's consider the Biblical verses that document the existence of hell – according to the New King James Version:

Deuteronomy 32:22:

For a fire is kindled in My anger,

And shall burn to the lowest hell;

Psalm 9:17:

The wicked shall be turned into hell,

And all the nations that forget God.

Psalm 55:15:

Let death seize them;

Let them go down alive into hell,

For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

Psalm 139:8:

If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Proverbs 5:5:

Her feet go down to death,

Her steps lay hold of hell.

Proverbs 7:27:

Her house is the way to hell,

Descending to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 9:18:

But he does not know that the dead are there,

That her guests are in the depths of hell.

Proverbs 15:11:

Hell and Destruction are before the LORD;

So how much more the hearts of the sons of men.

Proverbs 15:24:

The way of life winds upward for the wise,

That he may turn away from hell below.

Proverbs 23:14:

And deliver his soul from hell.

Proverbs 27:20:

Hell and destruction are never full;

So the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Isaiah 14:9:

" _Hell from beneath is excited about you,_

To meet you at your coming;

It stirs up the dead for you,

All the chief ones of the earth;

It has raised up from their thrones

All the kings of the nations.

Ezekiel 31:15:

" _Thus says the Lord GOD: 'In the day when it went down to hell, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were held back. I caused Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it."_

Ezekiel 31:16:

I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to hell together with those who descend into the Pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the depths of the earth.

Ezekiel 31:17:

They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

Ezekiel 32:21:

The strong among the mighty

Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell

With those who help him:

' _They have gone down,_

They lie with the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.'

Ezekiel 32:27:

They do not lie with the mighty

Who are fallen of the uncircumcised,

Who have gone down to hell with their weapons of war;

They have laid their swords under their heads,

But their iniquities will be on their bones,

Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Amos 9:2:

" _Though they dig into hell,_

From there My hand shall take them;

Though they climb up to heaven,

From there I will bring them down;

Hab 2:5:

" _Indeed, because he transgresses by wine,_

He is a proud man,

And he does not stay at home.

Because he enlarges his desire as hell,

And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,

He gathers to himself all nations

And heaps up for himself all peoples.

Matthew 5:22:

" _But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire."_

Matthew 5:29:

" _If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."_

Matthew 5:30:

" _And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."_

Matthew 10:28:

" _And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."_

Matthew 18:9:

" _And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire."_

Matthew 23:15:

" _Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."_

Matthew 23:33:

" _Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?"_

Mark 9:43:

" _If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—"_

Mark 9:45:

" _And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—"_

Mark 9:47:

" _And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—"_

Luke 12:5:

" _But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!"_

James 3:6:

" _And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell."_

Peter 2:4:

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

### What do these verses have in common?

These verses describe hell as being related to:

\- Fire and anger

\- Forgetting God

\- Death and wickedness

\- Descending and chambers

\- Being dead and depths

\- Destruction

\- The wise turn away from hell

\- A soul can be delivered from hell

\- The eyes of man not being satisfied

\- Hell greets you "at your coming" and "stirs up the dead for you"

\- God casting one down to hell – descending

\- Climbing up to heaven from hell

\- Pride, wine, enlarged desire, no satisfaction

\- Becoming angry with ones brother without cause

\- Sin, fire

\- The soul and the body get destroyed in hell

\- Sin may cause one to be cast into hell fire

\- Hypocrites, ecclesiastical scribes and Pharisees

\- Ecclesiastical Jewish priests

\- Tongue defiling one

\- Chains, darkness, judgment

From this list we can draw a comparison between the references to hell. Hell is most related to the elements listed above. While some of these are obviously metaphorical – such as chains, fire and darkness – they represent elements to consider.

### Metaphorical References to Hell

Here is the short list of elements described with hell. Let's draw out each with a practical approach for the meaning:

### Fire

Fire relates to the sensation of burning. But what is burning? Is it the skin? It may include the sensation of burning on the skin, but the primary relationship between burning and the spirit-person within is the burning sensation of lust and desire. These burn at the person's core being, rather than simply burn the skin.

The burning of lust and desire also lead to frustration, because the spirit-person within is never satisfied with the objects of the senses – those objects that are lusted for and desired.

We might compare it to an automobile. If, for example, the driver of the car is hungry and thinks if he fills the car with gas he will not be hungry any longer – what will happen? The driver will fill the car with gas yet still feel hungry inside. Such a situation will make the car driver frustrated.

In the same way, because the spirit-person within the body is not the body, obtaining the objects of the senses will not make the spirit-person within fulfilled. The spirit-person will remain empty and unsatisfied – leading to frustration.

As this frustration of the spirit-person within the body is repeatedly dealt with, over time the person will become angry.

This anger is also a type of burning – a burning to the core of the person. Such a sensation – feeling angry due to frustration of not being satisfied from those things we thought would satisfy us – can also lead a person to violence.

Violence is the result of anger, which is the result of frustration, which is the result of desiring and even obtaining those things that were supposed to satisfy us but doesn't.

All of these expressions – lust, desire, frustration, anger and violence – all stem from the spirit-person within desiring those things of the material world that do not bring fulfillment.

In some of the descriptions of hell from the scriptures we find the terminology of being 'cast into' or 'thrown into' hell fire the fires of hell. What does 'cast into' or 'thrown into' mean with respect to this description of fire to be relating to lust, desire, frustration, anger and violence?

To be 'cast' or 'thrown' relates to the spirit-person being forced into occupying a particular physical body. In effect, the spirit-person is cast into such an embodiment.

The point is immersion. Just consider how a person can be cast or thrown into a body of water – be it a lake or river. Once they are thrown in, they will be immersed into the water.

Such an immersion relates to the context of "into." "Into" relates to being put within something. Becoming immersed by that body of water – or whatever environment we are becoming immersed into.

In the same way, when the spirit-person is cast into a physical body, they become immersed into that physical body. They become enveloped by the physical body.

Such an envelopment leads to the spirit-person forgetting her identity as a spiritual entity, and identifying herself with that particular physical body.

This is called illusion. While the physical world is real, the illusion of the physical world is that we are these physical bodies. The illusion is that this body is my identity.

It might be like getting into a Ford Explorer car and saying that we are now a Ford Explorer. Such an identification will be considered by others to mean we are nuts. Everyone knows that we do not become the car just because we sit down in it and drive it for awhile.

Yet that is what happens when a person gets into and drives the physical body. They immediately forget their spiritual identity and identify themselves with the physical body.

This is illusion. And it is created by the Supreme Being to allow us the ability to – granting our wish – get away from Him. Forgetting our identity and relationship with Him allows us to forget our relationship with God.

As such we are being cast into this physical body, and this ability to forget our relationship with God.

" _And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell." (James 3:6)_

### Descending or Falling

The use of the word descending – meaning to fall or to have fallen – is used repeatedly in the scriptures when describing hell. But what is falling? What is descending?

Is it a physical body? Does a dead body fall off a cliff and descend into some black hole or something? Certainly not. The dead body decomposes after it is buried. Or is turned to ashes if cremated.

Therefore we must look deeper when considering the issue of descending or falling. The person who is falling or descending is the spirit-person who resides within the physical body and leaves the physical body at the time of death.

This means that descending relates to hell because of the state of the spirit-person. If a person descends into hell, they have fallen. What have they fallen from?

They have fallen to a lower state of consciousness from a state of higher consciousness.

What is higher consciousness?

Consciousness relates to where our focus is. It relates to our desires and our dreams. What we wish upon. What we want, for ourselves and others.

Let's consider for example, the consciousness of, say a bird. Take a few minutes and watch a bird as it sits in the tree. Where is its focus?

Typically the bird is focused upon not getting captured or hurt. The bird thus darts its head back and forth, making sure it is not going to get pounced on.

The bird is also focused upon food. Where the worm is, or where the breadcrumbs are. If we toss some breadcrumbs out, birds will see them immediately and flock to them. Why do they see the crumbs so quickly? Because that's where their consciousness lies. They are focused upon food. They are focused upon survival and the survival of their offspring if they have them.

This focus upon survival means their consciousness is upon keeping the body alive. It is not so different from a human's consciousness, if the human's focus is merely upon their job, making money, their family and so on.

But consider a human being whose focus is upon spiritual life. They are studying about their identity and about the Supreme Being. They are using as much time as they can to increase their focus upon God through prayer and praising of God's Names.

Such a person is of a higher consciousness than a person who is focused simply upon the needs of the body.

This means that to go from a point of this higher consciousness to being focused simply upon the needs of the body is to descend in consciousness.

One might not see this as such a big fall between two humans, because such a lower-consciousness human could potentially always increase their awareness of God and thus raise their consciousness.

But what about falling from the position of human to that of an animal? This is a definite fall in consciousness, because animals have a limited ability to increase their awareness of God. They have a limited ability to investigate spiritual teachings.

What would we say about a person who went from a human form of life to an animal form of life with a lower state of consciousness?

We would say that person has fallen. They have descended.

This is related directly by the Supreme Being to Ezekiel:

'For they have all been delivered to death,

To the depths of the earth,

Among the children of men who go down to the Pit.'

(Ezekiel 31:14)

Just consider that the spirit-person is eternal, but the physical body is subjected to death. To be "delivered to death" means to become subjected to the identification of the physical body – which means to become subjected to death.

Consider also the "depths of the earth." Does this mean underground? The word "depths" is translated from the Hebrew word תַּחְתִּי (tachtiy). This word means, according to the lexicon, "low, lower, lowest" and "the lower parts." It doesn't refer to underground. It is referring to a low level of consciousness.

### Chambers

This word is used in some verses when referring to hell. What is a chamber? Most people think of an enclosure or enclosed room. When most think of this with regard to hell they think of a cavern within a cave – a type of chamber.

The point of the word is not so much that it is a room. For example, a person might have a bedroom in their house. Would they consider their bedroom a chamber?

Typically not, because a chamber is typically considered to be a place where a person is tightly enclosed – or trapped within.

Thus chamber is often referred to when considering a tomb or underground room that is difficult if not impossible to get out of. In other words, a place where a person is trapped within.

But consider this carefully. What is the physical body? I it an enclosure within which the spirit-person dwells within. It is, in fact, a type of chamber. Why? Because the spirit-person is effectively trapped within the physical body.

And because the physical body is but a fraction within the physical world, to be trapped within the physical body means being trapped within the physical world.

Thus we can conclude that the physical body and the physical world in totality should be considered to be the chamber as referred to in the scripture.

Her house is the way to hell,

Descending to the chambers of death (Proverbs 7:27)

### Chains

This notion of being chained relates to the spirit-person being trapped within the confines of a physical body and thus being effectively chained to the physical world.

This also relates to consciousness. A person who is chained is trapped by desire: Succumbing to the desires that are rooted in self-centeredness.

We see this often in the form of addictions. A person can become addicted to any number of activities, including eating, sex, alcohol, drugs and so on. What is behind these addictions?

Modern scientists would say that it is the release of serotonin and dopamine within the brain and nervous system that causes us to become addicted to these activities. Are they right?

Yes and no. The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are actually only the symptoms or physical effects of the attachment that the spirit-person has to trying to become satisfied within the physical world.

The desire for satisfaction runs deep within the spirit-person. We were created to be satisfied. Satisfied by loving and serving the Supreme Being. But once we wanted to be satisfied outside of our relationship with God we are left with emptiness.

That doesn't mean that we stop seeking fulfillment. As we reach for something that we think might fulfill us we become attached to that activity. We become attached because we become vested into that activity. We become committed.

The serotonin and dopamine are merely the offshoots of that commitment. They serve to encourage us to repeat the activity.

But the decision to repeat the activity still lies deep within, at the level of the spirit-person, who is still seeking fulfillment in a self-centered manner.

So we might consider the addictive neurotransmitters to merely be a self-fulfilling prophesy. The addiction is rooted in the initial rejection of those forces that warn against the addictive activity – which represent the authority of the Supreme Being.

Yes, by engaging in addictive activities we are, in the deepest sense, essentially rebelling against the Supreme Being. We might think that by doing drugs after being warned by their parents, a teenager is simply rebelling against their parents.

But the teenager is actually rebelling against authority – which ultimately descends from the Supreme Being. Rebelling against authority is simply a reflection of our ultimate rebellion: The rebellion against our relationship with the Supreme Being, a relationship where He is the dominated person and we are being dominated. We are the servant and He is the boss.

We don't want to be servant. We want to be boss. We want to be the hero. We want to be the star.

Even though He is all these things, we want to be these things. This means, basically, that we became envious of God's position as God.

The Supreme Being knows this. This is why the Supreme Being created the physical world: For us to forget Him for awhile so we could chase around our self-centered desires.

Here in the physical world we can play the boss. The hero. The star. The guru. Here we can play numerous roles, even the role of parent. Yes, we can even play creator (parent) here in the physical world.

But this is the perfect illusion, created by the Supreme Being. The physical world was created to convince us that we are these roles we are playing. But this of course requires us to forget who we really are. If we remembered who we really are, we couldn't really pretend we were these roles, could we?

We might compare it to how a movie set is arranged to convince the viewer that the events are real. The movie elegantly hides the various props and green screens - rendering images that are truly convincing to any movie-goer.

Yes, the Supreme Being has created an awesome realm of illusion here. While there is physical evidence all around us regarding our identity as spirit - such as clinical death and the fact that this body is always changing - we choose to be convinced that we are these temporary physical bodies.

Even though a person who loses his arm or legs or both is still considered the same person - we still think that we are these bodies.

Even though we see our body age from a baby body to an elderly body - we still think we are these bodies.

Even though we know scientifically that every atom and molecule in the body is recycled within five years - we still think we are these physical bodies.

Even though we can look at a dead body and find no physical particle missing from when the body was alive - we still think we are these bodies.

Yes, this is truly an illusion. But it is an illusion supported by ourselves. We want to think we are these physical bodies because we wanted to get away from our real selves. We wanted to escape from God. We wanted to get away from our responsibilities as one of His servants. We wanted to escape from the notion that we are servants rather than the boss. Or the star. Or the hero.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; (Peter 2:4)

### Sin

This word comes up repeatedly in the scriptures. But what is sin? In the New Testament the word "sin" is translated from the Greek word ἁμαρτία (hamartia), meaning "to err," "to miss the mark," and "that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act."

In the Old Testament, the word sin is translated from the Hebrew words חָטָא (chata'), כָּשַׁל (kashal) and עָוֹן (`avon). These mean "to sin," "to stumble" and "iniquity, perversity, depravity" respectively.

All of these descriptions refer to activities founded upon a particular consciousness. What is that consciousness?

Self-centeredness. Greed. Wanting something for oneself, typically at the expense of others. Self-centeredness without hurting others is considered less sinful, but at its core it still is considered in these references as related to hell.

Sin and self-centeredness is related to hell just as love and loving service to God are related to the spiritual realm.

Thus it would be appropriate to consider that sin – self-centered activities that have the potential of hurting others – is hellish. It is a characteristic of hell.

Just consider the elements of this world that we consider the most hellish. Most of these relate to violence, bloodshed, anger, stealing and so on. These are activities based upon self-centeredness.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; (Peter 2:4)

### Anger

As mentioned, anger is associated with hell due to becoming frustrated with not becoming fulfilled by the things we thought would fulfill us.

By identifying with these physical bodies, anger will become inevitable because we cannot become satisfied by the things of this world.

This relates to the notion of the verse regarding the "eyes of man not being satisfied

Anger is also the result of feeling that I (or my extended self in the form of my family) am the most important person in my life. This self-centeredness leads to emptiness.

" _But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5:22)_

### Wickedness

Wickedness relates to all of these symptoms, with the addition of not caring how our actions may hurt others. A person who is wicked is considered self-centered, thinking oneself better than others and thus not caring about how their actions may affect others.

Such a person will seek their self-centered desires at the expense of others' suffering.

So how does wickedness relate to hell? By the statements above we see that wickedness is one of the prerequisites of hell. One is sent to hell due to their wickedness.

### Or is wickedness itself hell?

Absolutely. The two go hand in hand, because ones consciousness relates precisely to where they end up. This is God's design as He set up the physical world. Each destination of our journey is determined by our consciousness.

Let them go down alive into hell,

For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. (Psalm 55:15)

### Forgetting God

Forgetting the Supreme Being is one of the hallmarks of hell as described in scripture. Why? Because those who descend into hell descend specifically because they want to forget the Supreme Being.

Just consider the loving Supreme Being. He loves us each and cares for us deeply. But because love also requires freedom, the Supreme Being never tries to force anyone to love Him.

In fact, love requires freedom. The freedom to love or not love. Could a person even be forced to love? Certainly not.

If, for example, a man kidnapped a woman and tied her up in his basement – would that woman ever love the man? Certainly not. Even if the man tried hard to make the woman love him – she still wouldn't. Because love requires the freedom to love or not.

As such, the Supreme Being created each of us to love Him and serve Him. But He also created free will and the freedom for each of us to decide for ourselves whether we wanted to love Him or not.

This means the Supreme Being must also create an option for those who decide they don't want to love Him. After all, what is the sense of having freedom if we cannot exercise that freedom?

In other words, there must be an option to loving the Supreme Being in order for loving Him to be done out of free will.

That is what the physical world presents to the spirit-person: An alternative to not loving God.

How does the Supreme Being do this?

By setting up the physical world in such a way that we can forget Him. By creating an illusory situation where we can pretend to be who we are not.

After all, if we could see who we really are then how could we forget the Supreme Being?

The wicked shall be turned into hell,

And all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:17)

### Death

Death is often used in conjunction with discussions of hell in the scriptures. Many verses suggest that hell follows death, and some relate to hell as death in itself.

Many sectarian institutions and their teachers interpret this to mean that hell comes after a person's body dies. But is this necessarily true?

Note, for example, the use of the word "dead" by Jesus:

"Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:22)

Thus Jesus is utilizing the word "dead" to mean more than just a dead body. He is inferring that a person whose body is still alive could also be dead. Howso?

Jesus is discussing their spiritual state: Their current relationship with the Supreme Being. A person who is ignoring the Supreme Being and thus worshiping dead bodies is to be considered dead by this verse.

But this also indicates a deeper context with regard to the reference of hell and death in many verses. What is that?

A person can be dead even though their physical body is still alive.

Note that hell is often characterized as either following death or death itself. Should we accept Jesus' definition of being "dead" then we must accept that going to hell also does not have to follow the body's death.

In other words, we can be in hell right here and now:

Let death seize them;

Let them go down alive into hell (Psalm 55:15)

### Destruction

This notion ties in specifically with the element of death. Hell is often tied to destruction in the scriptures just as it is tied to death. But what is being destroyed? Are cities or houses or even bodies being destroyed in the type of destruction discussed in the scriptures?

No. They are speaking of the destruction of the soul. The destruction of the spirit-person's connection with the Supreme Being. Connection means relationship.

In other words, a person who has destroyed their relationship with the Supreme Being by rejecting God and consciously offending God have effectively destroyed their chance to renew their relationship with the Supreme Being.

This of course is the opportunity offered by the human lifetime. Any of us during our human lifetime have the opportunity of making amends and renewing our loving service relationship with the Supreme Being. No matter how fallen we are, we can apologetically reach out to the Supreme Being and His mercy will be extended to us.

But should someone reject this opportunity and instead continue to reject their relationship with God even though they have become aware of it, they are effectively destroying their opportunity.

This is the type of destruction being referred to by these verses in scripture:

Hell and destruction are never full;

So the eyes of man are never satisfied. (Proverbs 27:20)

### The Soul and Death

Many of the references to hell discuss the soul. We find this especially among Jesus' statements regarding hell.

Furthermore, hell is often used in conjunction with discussions of death in the scriptures. Many verses suggest that hell follows death, and some relate to hell as death in itself.

We see above a mixture of allegorical and metaphorical references to hell, along with some clarity of who actually goes to hell, as Jesus stated:

" _And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)_

Along with the other references above, this statement by Jesus indicates clearly that:

1) the soul and the body are separate, and we live on after the body dies (or is killed);

2) the physical body is related to hell ("body in hell")

### Depictions of Hell

Beyond these verses, hell has also been speculated upon by the various ecclesiastical sectarian institutions and their teachers. Various painters – many commissioned by these institutions – have thus depicted hell within paintings and drawings.

These have described and depicted hell as some sort of cavernous situation where its residents are chained to walls and subjected to the torture of the devil.

We thus often see depictions of a horned devil carrying a pitchfork.

We also often see a fiery dungeon where people are chained up.

We also often see these people who are chained up are in some sort of agony and suffering.

Often we might see the horned devil beating those tied in chains.

Sometimes there are multiple devils in these depictions, but often there is just the one.

Certainly these depictions have as their source the metaphorical statements regarding hell within the scriptures as we have discussed above.

But should they be taken literally? Put it this way: Assuming that we accept these depictions of hell are metaphorical, is there any value in taking those depictions literally?

The first thing to consider within this question is that everything within the universe is owned and controlled by the Supreme Being. This would also include the metaphors regarding hell and the depictions of hell we see in paintings and other art.

Therefore, we can accept that there is – just as there is for everything – a reason for these depictions, even if the depictions are in error with respect to a literal sense.

As to the precise reason for their purpose, this is known by the Supreme Being and not necessarily by us. But we must accept that there is a reason why these depictions of hell are so scary.

No one wants to be thrown in a hot dungeon, tied up in chains and tortured to death – do they? Surely, no one.

As a result, this depicture does have a purpose of scaring those who would believe in a literal interpretation of the parts of scripture excerpted above.

But we must ask: Does God want to scar us into becoming devoted to Him?

Certainly He wants our love. And love is based upon freedom. Could we really love Him if we were being threatened with hell if we didn't?

One might compare it to some of the extremist fanatics in the world who kidnap people and force them to convert to their sectarian institution. If the prisoner does not convert, they will be beheaded. So many of the prisoners do convert. But are they really converting to this fanatical institution?

No. They are pretending. They are succumbing to the threats in order to become released or at least avoid beheading.

In the same way, could we accept that a person who decides to go to church because they are afraid of going to hell is actually devoting themselves to the Supreme Being?

Again, no. It is simply a business relationship. The person is performing devotional activities in order to avoid going to hell.

As such, this misinterpretation of the scriptures with regard to the existence of hell – and its depiction as being an obvious fictional fiery dungeon with a horned devil torturing people could be considered offensive against the Supreme Being, because it misrepresents the situation.

This, in other words, is the choice of those who have created institutions of power so they can exert their own authority over people and thus threaten innocent people.

But at the same time, there is always an ultimate purpose, in that the Supreme Being does want to warn us of the consequences of leading a life of self-centeredness.

But what He is trying to communicate to us – through the scriptures and through His representatives such as Jesus and David is that:

Self-centeredness is hell. Rejecting the Supreme Being is hell. If we are rejecting the Supreme Being and seeing ourselves as the greatest person and the most important person in my life then we are already in hell. That is hell.

And yes, hell does have consequences, and these include burning, because lust burns, and anger burns. But they burn our hearts. They burn from within. It is not that we are being literally burnt – although our bodies can certainly be burnt sometimes but this is not necessarily related.

What is related is the fact that rejecting our relationship with the Supreme Being and becoming self-centered results in our being sent to the physical world and being given physical bodies.

Yes, these physical bodies and this physical world is a place of suffering. As we will lay out in the next chapter, the physical world comes with a variety of forms of suffering, each of which can be considered hellish.

And these physical bodies in themselves are designed to exert the illusory energy – something set up to convince us that we are these physical bodies rather than spiritual children of God.

So the combination of these physical bodies and this physical world – a place of consequence and suffering – does provide the basis for the many metaphorical descriptions used to explain hell.

After all, each of us – the spirit-person - is chained into this physical body. We are trapped within this physical body, which can be considered a dungeon or a chamber.

And the various events of the physical world can serve to provide the notion of fire, death and wickedness – as this physical world is teeming with wicked people.

This physical world is, as mentioned by Peter, the place where the wicked go:

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; (Peter 2:4)

#  Chapter Four: Are we in Hell Now?

In Jesus' teachings in the four Gospels, the word "hell" is being translated from the Greek word γέεννα (geenna). Centuries ago, Biblical scholars determined the word is derived from the name of a valley - Gehenna - in the Southeastern region of Jerusalem. The place is recalled for the cries of children as they were thrown into the fiery arms of the idol Moloch, which was shaped in the form of a bull.

In the 7th Century B.C., King Josiah abolished sacrificing to Moloch, but Israelites continued to use the former location of sacrifices to Moloch as a refuse area, where dead bodies of animals and executed criminals would be thrown. Here the bodies and refuse were burned, so the valley had a residual putrefied stink to it.

Over time, this Gehenna valley began to be referred to metaphorically as a place in hell where people would be subject to burning fires. Eventually it assumed the vernacular and as we see here, even Jesus referred to hell metaphorically using this term, as it was understood to be so by the people he was teaching.

Yet Jesus is clearly stating this place is not where dead bodies go. It is a place where the spirit-person - the person who occupies the physical body temporarily - may go after the death of the physical body. This means - since the physical body decomposes or is cremated after its death - that the spirit-person leaves the physical body and goes somewhere.

Once again, this text is not arguing that hell does not exist. Such an argument has been made by modern scientists who have examined the physical evidence and find no indication that the classical definition of hell exists.

But there is more evidence, as we have examined in the second chapter. But further than this, we find the existence of hell quite logical. If one accepts that we are not these physical bodies, and accepts the existence of the Supreme Being, then one can easily come to understand precisely where hell is and what its characteristics are.

Following is a series of essays on the location of hell, and the rational behind that existence. These essays have been prepared on separate occasions, so they may include duplicated concepts. At the same time, each will provide slightly alternative approaches for consideration:

### Welcome to Hell

You see, we are living in hell at the moment.

Yes, we don't need to worry about going to hell after we die - we are already there.

Just consider the state of affairs around the world: Mass shootings, chemical gassings, bombings, kidnappings, civil wars, stealings and cons, starvation, torture, wife and child beatings, murders - the list goes on and on. The physical world is a place of suffering, much of which is brought on by us - the citizens of the physical world.

In Jesus' teachings, he commented on the fact that while he has come to this planet place to try to save people - those very people he is trying to save will be organizing his persecution and murder.

Consider this for a moment. Consider going to a place where you love others and you try to help them, and they turn against you and persecute you. Let's look at what Jesus faced during his journey on this planet:

From birth, he was hunted. Herod was threatened by a "king of the Jews" so he ordered the murder of every male child born in the region where Jesus was born. So Jesus' parents had to flee with young Jesus to escape the murder of baby Jesus.

Growing up, Jesus faced hostility in the form of prejudice and racism, as his mother was considered a harlot because it was suspected that she didn't conceive her baby in wedlock.

As Jesus traveled during his teachings, crowds pursued him aggressively, seeking to be healed. Jesus had to escape to mountains and out to sea for solitude from the crowds.

Jesus was repeatedly tested and pursued by the Jewish pharisees who become increasingly envious of his ability to attract large crowds. They were trying to trick him into saying things that would allow them to arrest him and put him to death.

They eventually did this. The guards of the high priest arrested him outside of Jerusalem and then turned him over to the Roman governor, Pilate. When Pilate saw no grounds to persecute Jesus, the high priests and their followers pleaded with Pilate to kill Jesus' body. They won Pilate over – as Pilate was afraid of a riot – and they tortured Jesus' body and hung him from a cross.

Did Jesus not enter into a hellish place? As described in the scriptures, we find Judea and the people and the situation to be akin to the descriptions of hell above. Judea was very hot. Hunger was prevalent as people worked hard to survive in a subsistence manner. People were tortuous and cruel. Stonings and hangings were frequent. Do just the slightest thing wrong and you were persecuted.

Quite certainly, we can agree that Jesus had entered into a hellish place – and was persecuted by demons.

In fact, this world today is also hellish.

### Where else would we go to Hell?

Many religious philosophies discuss the possibility of going to hell. As a result, the fear and avoidance of hell is oftentimes the reason a person begins to attend a church, mosque or temple. A person threatened with eternal suffering in a hellish atmosphere will often react with fear and repentance.

It is taught that hell is a place of suffering: a place of anguish and unhappiness. It is taught that hell is a place where misery, sadness, pain, and suffering exist. Hell is said to be a place of heat and fire. Popular depictions of hell show people chained up in red-hot, fiery dungeons being tortured by monstrous horned devils. Anguish and pain are the most common features of this depiction.

This depiction assumes that we are not in hell right now.

But what about the pain, anguish, torture and emptiness existing here on this planet right now? What about the wars, the murders, the terrorists and the starvation around the world right now? What are these, then? What should we call the state of existence where millions of people around the world are dying of starvation? What should we call places that do not have clean water to drink and millions of people die from dysentery? What about places were people die from malaria? How about places where women are raped and murdered with little or no protection? What should we call the place where greedy bankers, CEOs and lawyers steal money from unsuspecting investors who put their trust in them?

How about the place where hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados rip apart homes and lives? How about the place where oil gushes into the ocean and washes up upon the beaches, turning them black and poisonous?

What should we call the place where someone is locked up in a closet by lunatic parents and beaten or raped throughout their childhood? How about the place where someone is condemned as insane and locked up in a mental institution—tied down to their bed and given drugs that cause horrendous ghoulish nightmares?

What shall we call the place where someone is jailed in a small cell as a criminal and subjected to violence and rape? What should we call the place where a person is locked in a dark cell and tortured as a political prisoner by a violent government regime?

Are these places not hellish? Are they not places of anguish and pain?

Surprisingly, most of us don't relate with these states as actually being hell. It would seem that these sufferings are not bad enough to be called hell. Possibly each of these instances did not occur in a hot-enough or fiery-enough place to be called hell. Perhaps because we don't see any horned people or fiery dungeons, we can't identify them as hell.

How about the rest of us, living more average lives here in our modern society?

Our sufferings begin at conception. Our bodies begin their lives by forming in a hostile environment—the womb. We find ourselves trapped inside this dark womb for many months. Research has revealed that not only do babies feel pain in the womb, but they are extremely sensitive.

The slightest jolt creates a painful experience that can only be expressed by recoiling or trying to adjust. Microorganisms also live within the womb, irritating the baby's new skin.

When our bodies are finally pushed out of the womb we immediately cry because of the harshness of the new environment. We are born in pain, evidenced by our screaming. Of course, most of us do not remember this excruciating experience.

Throughout childhood, we must adapt to various harsh realities. Our bodies undergo various physical aches, pains, and diseases. These are often described by the expression, "growing pains." Feelings of intense hunger alternate with teething, bloating, gas, fever, nausea, mumps, measles, and other childhood maladies. A dose or two of laughter and a few games provide us with short breathers for respite.

Our dealings with others are also often painful as we grow up. Even innocent games can easily turn competitive and hostile. Children can be hurtful and callous towards one another. Seemingly innocent games like dodge ball hide the pain and mental anguish caused by other playmates, siblings and parents. Not many of us can say that we haven't been beaten up by another child or even our sibling as children.

We have little control during childhood. We are perpetually subjected to the whims of our parents, teachers and other adults—who may or may not have our welfare in mind.

Children do not cry by accident. We cry as children because we are either in some kind of pain, or feeling frustrated with our situation. Crying seems to do little to alleviate the pain and frustration we feel, however. It might bring us a little attention—which we crave—but this will not always be the type of attention we are looking for. We are not able to do much to change things, though we desperately try.

We might win a few slight victories here and there as we throw a few tantrums. Many of us will learn to cry for affection as we strive to be loved. Our parents will often figure this means we want another toy or bottle of milk, however. After being given these things often enough, we also may start to think that perhaps this physical stuff is what we need to alleviate our pain and emptiness.

Once our bodies grow a little, we are thrust into school. This often feels more like prison. Our school experience results in new kinds of pain. Most of the other kids are as miserable as we are, and as a result, we struggle with each other, fighting for pecking order and attention. Our childhood soon becomes a race: Who can get others to like or even fear them the most. Many of us will simply struggle to fit in.

As our bodies grow older, we are introduced to new types of pain. Middle and high school opens an entirely new level of greed among our classmates. Sports and other activities, which bring attention to successful children, bring out stiff competition—often leading to violence and discrimination—as kids jostle for popularity.

As we age, new stresses are added: The pressure to get good grades, get into, pay for and get through a good college is added to the pressure of choosing a career. Getting through school usually means being forced to spend many hours each day memorizing mostly inconsequential facts and figures in order to pass exams.

Meanwhile, we experience so many heartaches, bouts of loneliness, growing pains, and the feeling of being trapped. Fights with parents can get worse, as our parents don't seem to understand us. Between the pressures of fitting in with our schoolmates and pleasing our parents, we find ourselves strung between two worlds, as we attempt to figure out our place in society. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is the common question we're supposed to have an instant answer for.

These pressures lead to various mental and emotional anxieties. On top of this, we must deal with the issues of our parents. These may range from drug abuse and alcoholism to violence. Incest is a surprisingly frequent occurrence, especially among step-parents. Imagine being forced to live in a house with a rapist, and not being able to tell anyone for fear of their threats. Now why would this not be considered hell?

To add to these parental derangements, we will likely have to suffer from bullying, often from an older siblings. While schoolyard bullies can be devastating, having a bully in the next bedroom can be much worse. Again, under threat of worse punishment, we may be forced to keep quiet about these forms of suffering.

It is no wonder many teenagers in western society are on various drugs and medications. No wonder many are depressed and/or suicidal. No wonder many have developed perversions such as self-mutilation.

Childhood is full of pain. Childhood only appears attractive to reminiscing adults who have conveniently forgotten all the pain and suffering: A typical tendency of the mind.

As we graduate into adulthood, another level of suffering emerges. We now must figure out how to survive on our own in a competitive adult world. In the world of physical survival, there are so many people who make a living out of scamming or otherwise taking advantage of us. The free market system is set up to allow the bullies of society to con or otherwise take advantage of the weaker, nicer people.

In some places, we see wealthy corporations capitalizing on the efforts of children and poor adults to produce goods for wealthier people. Unbelievably, in some parts of the world, we also still see people being bought and sold as though they were commodities. Active slavery isn't as prevalent as it was just a century ago, but today there are still subtle forms of it in many societies.

While wealthy people can make one million dollars during one phone call, others make a few cents or a few dollars per day toiling in drastic factory conditions, or laboring on industrial sized farms choked with pesticides. While some gorge themselves on super-sized meals, people in many parts of the third world are lucky if they can get a bowl of rice for the entire day.

This indicates clearly that hell is stratified. There are better regions of hell and there are worse regions of hell. But here on this planet there are several of those regions.

Regardless of where we live, and upon which economic level we stand, we experience an increasing level of discomfort and pain as our bodies age. None of us makes it through adulthood without becoming extremely sick on occasion.

Most adult bodies get multiple colds and/or flu viruses each year. No one—not even those with the healthiest of bodies—is spared from a devastating and miserable illness at some point. This is why hospitals are constantly lined with sick people, suffering in pain and agony from either disease or injury.

Almost everyone ends up in the hospital at some point in their physical lives. There are thousands of different illnesses we can contract in our lifetimes. Medical books are thick with the various illnesses, and each sickness creates its own special form of misery.

Illnesses are directly related to our past or recent past activities, and there is little a physical body can do to avoid some of them. Escaping illness in our physical lifetime—though modern medicine tries heroically—is not possible. Quite simply, our physical body is designed to be inflicted.

Hell is right here. We are living in hell. The question is to what extent we are suffering in hell. This physical dimension simultaneously supports relative degrees of hell, depending upon our past activities.

Do we not think that a person who is starving in the Sahara is in hell? Is a woman in Africa who is repeatedly raped at gunpoint not in hell? How about a person in the grips of war in Afghanistan? Are they not in hell? How about a Jew who was tortured by the Germans during the Holocaust? Were those Jews not experiencing hell? If these are not hell, what is hell then?

Many other species of living organisms are also living in hell. Consider a small mouse who lives around a house with a big cat. The mouse is constantly in fear, being chased by this gigantic cat with huge teeth, who eventually rips it apart in a gruesome death. Is this not hell? How about a bug in constant fear that he will get snagged by the gigantic tongue of a frog? Is the fly not living in hell?

### Hell is stressful

As we watch animals and insects in nature as they nervously try to avoid death from something higher on the food chain, we can reflect on our own stressors.

In addition to the various pains associated with illness, there are many other stressors that affect us throughout our lives, causing us various degrees of discomfort and pain. There are so many environmental stressors our bodies must face. In many places, the seasons range from brutal cold, wet and snowy to boiling heat and sweltering humidity. Is there any place on the planet we are truly comfortable?

For this reason, many consider a tropical environment the perfect location. However even tropical places have their environmental problems: Mosquitoes, horrible rainy seasons (floods or hurricanes), and humid jungles that cause the body to sweat through the day and night are just a few of the many issues those tropical climates come with.

Add to this various human-created environmental problems including air pollution, water pollution, overcrowding, noise pollution and so many other stressors we've created within our modern society.

We face so many hassles from others, including people we work with. Our boss or management in general—or our peers—want to outmaneuver us as they gain authority over us.

Employees often wish they owned the company, but the business owners deal with their own range of stresses. These are associated with investors and stockholders, and the incredible financial challenges of staying in business. To this we add having to compete with other businesses that would just assume we were out of business.

There are so many other people-oriented stressors: Neighbors who disturb us. Disagreements or controversies between friends or family members. Crime and violence by those around us in one way or another. As soon as we think we have escaped one type of stress, another stressor arises. Just as we solve one challenge, a new challenge will present itself to take the first ones place.

In between so many of these pains and stresses are brief bursts of neural feedback that we consider pleasurable. But are these actually pleasurable? Actually, they are better described as relief than pleasure. These brief episodes of neurochemistry allow us to temporarily forget all the stresses and pains for a minute or two. For this reason, memory is often severely subjective.

A good example of this is the sexual orgasm. The orgasm is what many humans live for. Many strive for the sexual orgasm throughout their sexually active lives—continually seeking that momentary rush of neurochemistry. Humans will struggle for many years—enduring many hardships—to arrange their lives in such a way that will attract the opposite sex. Humans may even sacrifice their reputations and the health of their bodies to achieve this momentary urge.

Getting to the orgasm with a partner is not an easy task, however. First one must find a willing partner. This can get complicated, and can take months if not years of determined searching and dating. Through the process of finding a willing and suitable partner, we may endure painful confrontations; the pains of breakup; and many other forms of rejection. Then to get to the orgasm—assuming we have found a willing partner—we must partake in various forms of ritual: often referred to as foreplay.

These rituals can take time, and if not done just so, the whole thing can be ruined. It is a tight-rope scenario. One slip-up—a bad joke, ill-timed flatulence, or a wrong move—could easily ruin the whole occasion, leading to embarrassment and pain. After all of this effort, the culmination—the orgasm—will only last for a few seconds, and sometimes may not happen at all. Then there is the disappointment of it coming too early.

Should the orgasm come, all the built-up expectations and anticipation will immediately be over—typically leaving letdown due to our expectation of fulfillment. For many this follows by a smoke or something to eat. Why so quick to move on to more consumption? Isn't the most sought after part of physical life satisfying? No. This is because the sexual orgasm is: 1) only fleeting; and 2) not satisfying to the transcendental inner self.

Often the sexual effort only leads to additional suffering. Should the man not perform well, he will be embarrassed and anxious, as his reputation becomes damaged. Should one of the partners have a sexual disease, they will both come to suffer from an often excruciating experience, which might bloom into AIDS, herpes or a number of other sexually-transmitted diseases.

Our attempts at other physical pleasures can be even more fleeting. The pleasures of eating good tasting foods, buying material goodies or other physical possessions offer brief flashes of neural feedback. A new car, house or other material item may be anticipated for many hours, days, or weeks in advance.

They may also be accompanied by struggle and frustration to get them. They will usually require hard work, planning and dealing with people who want their own piece of the pie.

This is illustrated by the violence surrounding the dealing of drugs by international drug cartels. Each cartel struggles to dominate the distribution of their drugs, leading to bloodshed on each side.

Typically our plan for the acquisition is never what we envision. We think the new goodie will somehow fulfill us, but it never does. Once we get it, we are usually disappointed that it did not deliver any fulfillment. Once we get it, we are stuck having to take care of it and protect or maintain it. We have to work hard to reduce the potential that our acquisition may be stolen or otherwise damaged.

The ancient texts describe this in detail. They describe the three miseries attached to material acquisition: 1) The misery of obtaining the difficult-to-acquire possession; 2) The misery involved in protecting and maintaining the item; 3) And the misery associated with the loss or damage of the possession.

Most of us live our lives in perpetual fear. As children, we may be afraid of the bogeyman. Then we may be afraid of schoolyard bullies. Then we may be afraid of failing. Then we may be afraid of being embarrassed. Then we may be afraid of losing money. Then we may be afraid of getting sick or injured. Then we may be afraid of being hurt by others. Then we may be afraid of dying. Fear drives so many of our actions and consciousness during our physical lifetimes.

Look carefully at the other organisms of this planet. Take a look at a bird—or any other animal for that matter. They are in a perpetual state of fear for their lives. This is evidenced by their quick motions of the head and their darting, watchful eyes. (Just try approaching them for a confirmation of this.)

Most organisms deal with multiple threats from various organisms. Many are faced with terrifying situations: A bug is faced with monstrous creatures. Consider what a frog looks like to a fly: ferocious. Or what a cats with sharp teeth looks like to a mouse. Consider a rabbit faced with giant hawks, wolves, foxes and other beasts. Should they ambush the rabbit, they would devour it within minutes.

The human form faces similar frightening scenarios. These are caused by other animals, by other humans, by our environment and by our own technology. Machines, chemicals, weapons and bombs we have invented have become extremely dangerous. Millions of people die each year from automobile, plane, or train accidents.

They move so fast that we are literally on the edge of death. The simplest intrusion—such as a deer in the road—can instantly cause a nightmarish and disfiguring accident if not death. Other threats we can thank our modern scientists for include various dangerous medications, genetic mutation, electromagnetic radiation, pesticides, toxic waste, air pollution and global warming. These modern threats more than replace any of the protective benefits of our technology.

The most brutal part of living in this physical environment is the loneliness. As we pretend to casually relate to our friends and relatives, underneath we are lonely. Why? We feel alone here in this physical world, where everyone is out for themselves. Those that seem to care tend to care sometimes and not care other times.

We feel alone when we discover that our friends are not real friends after all. We are lonely when we find out our friends are actually acquaintances out of convenience. When it is no longer convenient for them, we don't hear from them.

We feel alone when the family and relatives we depended upon for love go away or break up.

Just when we think we have adapted to this hostile physical environment, we are forcefully yanked away by death. Death rages in without notice to remove all of our attachments: our spouse, our friends, our family, our house, our car, our wealth or lack thereof—everything—is taken like a thief in the night.

Death creates a dread for every living organism. Death will snatch us away from everything. Some like to pretend to have joyous burials and wakes full of remembrance for the person who passed away. Beneath these masquerades are family members and friends who are in shock. They cannot believe that we are gone. They cannot believe that death is that close. This is because most of us feel that we will never die. Only others die.

So now we must ask again: How far away from hell is this? Does the constant state of alternating anxiety, illness, injury, sadness, anger, frustration, hate, loneliness, violence, and fear not qualify as hellish enough? Does the terrorism, torture, violence or starvation, hatred, prejudice and rape not qualify as hellish enough?

Or does the momentary fleeting absence of physical pain or brief neural surge qualify this world as being better than hell? And if it is above hell, how far above hell is it?

### Sorry, but this is part of hell.

Yes, some of us live in a worse hell than others. And there are certainly other regions of hell.

But some of us—especially those living in lower forms of life—are living in a brutally more hellish hell than most of us. A living being subjected to a physical body designed for various levels of pain, old age, disease and death is in hell. The level of pain and suffering varies to species. The species in turn varies to consciousness.

Now what about that depiction of hell as a hot, fiery, burning place? We've all heard someone describe a particular pain as a "burning pain." We have also heard of situations where someone is "burning with anger," or "burning with desire." The 'burning fire' of material existence can range from these physical pains to the suffering related to the various fears of the world and the heated nature of selfish competition, violence and torture.

This is not to say that there are not other hellish planets worse than ours, to one degree or another. We can simply review the various species of life here on this planet to see just how variegated suffering can be among different life forms. Simply picking up a rock will reveal a tiny world of predators and violence among the insect world.

What? You don't believe that you could ever occupy a body of an insect? Think again.

The cause-and-effect mechanism within the physical world also explains the cycle of evolution and de-evolution. Yes, it is possible for a person to descend into the lower species of life. This is the very meaning of "going to hell."

One might consider, for example, the life of an African-American slave during the 19th Century. That was certainly a hellish life to live. Those black slaves were brutalized. They were chained up, they were imprisoned. They were beaten. Many of the women were raped.

Is such a lifetime not hell? Surely a black slave in the South experienced hell during that lifetime.

We find that other species of life can also be imprisoned. For example, the life of a dog that was caged and harshly trained in order to defend a compound or provide other benefits to the owner. Surely being an imprisoning a dog is not nearly as cruel as imprisoning a human being. But such a soul living within that dog's body is also experiencing hell.

It is critical to consider other species. Because other species of life also contain a soul. That soul might not be as advanced as a soul in a human form of life.

But what is to say that a soul living in a human form of life could not descend into the body of an animal in a lower form of life after being in the human form?

### As a matter of going to hell

The possibility of such a transition is critical, because we must understand that our actions and associations have consequences. We may not always realize the consequences of our actions in the immediate future. But we will indeed bring upon ourselves the consequences of our actions during our next lifetime if not during this lifetime.

The suffering we bring on to others is returned with our future suffering. Some have referred to this as the law of cause and effect. Others have referred to it as "as you sow, so shall you reap." Still others have referred to it as the law of karma. And others have referred to it as "going to hell."

The later referral, "going to hell" has been described by many scriptural verses. If we examine each one, we find that each is describing the results of self-centered activities. Things that we do have consequences—and selfish things we do that harm others eventually harm our bodies in the same way.

In other words, could that white slave owner who was so brutal to his slaves during the 19th century end up having to take on the body of a person who is enslaved in another situation?

Or could that white slave owner end up taking on the body of a dog that is caged up, beaten and chained up during that lifetime?

That would, in other words, be a form of going to hell.

### Can we avoid going to hell?

This brings us to the natural notion of avoiding descending into a worse hell than we are already in.

This is understood through simple observation.

For example, if a person is less aggressive and more caring toward others, that person will typically be rewarded with kindness by others. This is the way the physical world has been designed, in order to educate us. There is a price for any selfish action.

If we decide we want to try to control others for example—utilizing some sort of governorship or business ownership: this will require us to pay a stiff price for the opportunity and the results of such leadership. If we want to become comfortable at the expense of others, there will be a cost for that comfort.

This is the perfect design of the physical world. Everyone receives what they have dealt out when they had a choice. The human lifetime provides choice and intelligence not afforded by many other species. Therefore, how we utilize our human form is critical.

This also explains the age-old question of why some people are born into suffering in the world. Those who are born into suffering undoubtedly inflicted suffering upon others during their previous lifetimes. This is not to say that we should not be compassionate about others and try to help others.

We should always have mercy upon others in less fortunate situations. But at the same time, we should not be blaming God or anyone else for the suffering of this world. The suffering of this world has been brought upon us by ourselves. We are the captains of our own ships, and collectively, members of the same ship.

Withdrawing from the world is only a temporary fix. Many propose that we need to transcend this painful world by withdrawing from our attachments. Many supposed spiritual practices teach we should meditate in an effort to withdraw from the sensory world—the goal being to merge into "nothingness" or "everything."

However, methods that attempt to eliminate desire will not be successful. The living being is perpetually active, and must be attached to something (or stated more correctly, someone). The inner self cannot simply disconnect from desire.

This attempt to withdraw is no different than alcoholism or drug abuse in an effort to escape the pains of life. Suicide is also a form of withdrawal. None of these attempts to withdraw will result in any solution. As for suicides and lives spent inebriated, this simply results in taking on a ghost body for the duration of time that was cut short by the withdrawal.

Our bodies have an intended lifespan depending upon our past activities (which can also be changed with activities of this lifetime). If we cut our physical lifespan short by committing suicide, drinking or drug-taking, we will be cutting short the lessons and the growth that is derived from living a lifetime in a physical body.

And what we don't learn while we are here, we will have to learn it sometime in the future.

Rather than try to withdraw and disconnect, the real solution is to become attached to the Supreme Person. This is our natural constitution, and the only way that we can permanently become detached from this hellish environment. Becoming attached to the Supreme Person solves a number of problems: Because He will protect and deliver us from suffering (and ghosts), we can depend upon Him.

Because He is our Best Friend, we no longer need to experience the distress of loneliness. Because He is always there for us to console us, we do not have to be concerned with any future stresses of the physical world.

Because He is from the transcendental world, with Him we can transcend our various physical miseries by focusing our senses, efforts, and results towards Him. By becoming attached to the Supreme Person, the various anxieties caused by being attached to these physical bodies will gradually evaporate.

### Why is this place Hell?

Why is this place such a hellish place? Is God not kind? Why, if he were kind, is the world not a better place?

The fact is, this place was set up by God to house those of us who have rejected their loving nature, and rejected the spiritual realm, rejected God and our relationship with God.

Yes, we have each fallen. We are the fallen ones \- fallen angels so to speak. We don't need to find the devil because we are each devils, and that is why we are trapped within the confines of the physical world - because we have rebelled against God. We became jealous of God's enjoyment and His controllership.

In essence, we want to be God. This is why the citizens of the physical world are mostly fighting for control. We are fighting to control the things around us. We are trying to own and possess things. We are trying to be the boss. We are trying to become famous. We are trying to become wealthy and powerful. Why? Because we want to be in the position of controller - of dominator.

Yet none of us are. No matter what our temporary physical position is here, we will lose it. We might think we own so much but none of it is ours and it will be taken away from us at some point - if not the time of death.

So God set up this virtual dimension for us to be able to ignore Him and even pretend to be Him. He gave us these temporary physical bodies to occupy and gave us these temporary lifetimes to play out our desires.

But we are here in this hellish physical realm not just to get away from God and play out our self-centered goals: The Supreme Being also set this world up to teach us. This is a rehabilitation center.

And this is why there is so much suffering here, and consequences to every action we take. This is why there are so many natural disasters, such as flooding, earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, sickness, chronic disease, and eventually death.

In fact, we suffer from the time we are born into this world to the time we leave it. At any stage of our lives we are suffering from some kind of negative situation that stresses our bodies physically or our minds emotionally. We toil our lives away hoping that one day we will retire in comfort, only to find that retirement is plagued with body pains and eventual death - if we even see retirement. And this is among the wealthier places in the world. Those from less advantaged places face a fate far worse as they age.

Despite our illusion that it is, this world is not our playground. It is not a place where we "make our mark." It is not a place where we enjoy life and live forever.

#  Chapter Five: Are We Being Rehabilitated?

### Is this a rehabilitation center?

Just imagine if a social worker came to a high security prison where all the prisoners were hardened criminals. And the social worker's goal was to try to get some of the prisoners to change so they could be let out of prison. So he comes to jail and lives within a cell, trying to invoke change in others.

What will likely happen to this social worker? He would likely be beaten up and possibly even murdered in prison.

This is the status of Jesus. He has descended into hell to try to save people. He took on a temporary physical body to walk the earth teaching about God. And indeed, he did save many with his teachings.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are." (Matthew 23:15)

We can conclude that Jesus did indeed describe himself as the servant of God. Indeed, he is a special servant of God: A loving, compassionate servant of God who came to rescue us from the depths of hell.

But God's loving servant Jesus was also brutally tortured and murdered by humanity, due to the self-centered objectives of not only the Jewish priests and the Roman government at the time, but the very people Jesus was trying to rescue.

This is what Jesus is trying to communicate here, and why he said to his disciples, _"Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you:"_

We see here that traveling far and wide on a mission to convert others is not limited to the ecclesiastical sectarian missions of today and over the past few centuries. Some call this Salvationism.

"You travel over land and sea to win a single convert..."

Over the centuries, missionaries have traveled by boat and by land, and now by air to distant locations to convert those of other beliefs to their particular sect. By Jesus' statement, this was also taking place in those times among the Jewish sects.

If we consider these "salvation" efforts over the centuries, including the many Crusades of the middle ages, we find that not all were intended to pass on Jesus' teachings. Many of these supposed Christians often incorporated violence and intimidation to convert natives in foreign lands to Christianity. While there may have been those who sincerely wanted to bring Jesus' teachings to others, there were many others who simply sought the glorification and acceptance of others from being able to claim that they have converted so many.

Most of the violent Crusades, for example - where millions of innocent people were slaughtered for the sake of supposedly being saved - were organized by the ecclesiastic Roman church, which dominated the Christian world with an iron fist. They burned and pillaged any family or village that did not succumb to being mass converted to the Roman church and Roman government. Was this pleasing to Jesus? Certainly not. As we can see from Jesus' statement, conversion can also be condemned, depending upon who is doing the converting.

".. and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."

Jesus confirms that the 'missions' of these sectarian Jewish priests were worthless, and their converts become as lost as they are. This is confirmed by the Greek phrase υἱὸν γεέννης, which has been incorrectly translated to "son of hell."

The more appropriate translation for υἱὸν γεέννης would be:

A follower of those who will suffer.

The word υἱὸν has been incorrectly translated as son. While υἱὸν can mean 'son' in the context of a father and his physical son, this is not the correct context. This context indicates the translation, as confirmed by the Greek lexicon, υἱὸν should be "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." So a person who becomes converted by one of these hypocritical pharisees, becomes one of their followers.

The next word in the phrase is γεέννης. γεέννης has been translated to "hell," and this is not altogether wrong, but Jesus' concept of hell should be clarified.

The Greek word γεέννης, transliterated as 'geenna,' is an allegorical reference to a location south of Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom, called 'Gehenna.' Here there were ghastly sacrifices of children and animals to an idol called Moloch. The animals and children were thrown into the fire.

This place and its practice was abhored by the Jews, and they used reference to this as a place of suffering, where people followed a demoniac god and suffered as a result. Therefore, this place (Gehenna) became referred to allegorically as a place of suffering.

Many people have been lulled into a concept prognosticated by ecclesiastical Christian teachers that hell is a place under the ground, where a fiery devil named satan lives and tortures people who are chained up on cavern walls. This erroneous teaching has even been taken to the extent that the entrance to hell are among certain volcanoes.

This of course has been proven wrong by those who have explored these volcanoes, and by those who have drilled many miles deep into the surface of the earth. There are no caverns where people are being chained to walls and tortured.

### Can we be rehabilitated?

But in a rehabilitation center we see something else. We see lessons being learned from dealing with practical realities. What causes us to experience those practical realities?

These practical realities are reflections of the lessons that we are being given to learn.

Consider this question, asked of Jesus by his disciples:

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:1)

This question was very logical. Why did Jesus' disciples ask this question? The question arose from an understanding of Jesus' teachings. In other words, it was assumed that before the man was born, he had the ability to sin, and this sin caused his current suffering. In order to have the ability to sin, the man must have had a previous physical body. Why? Because as Jesus also taught that sinning was an activity executed through the flesh. In other words, the person must have had a prior physical body in order to have sinned before he was born.

In the alternative, they asked if the man was born blind because his parents sinned. This is also a pertinent question, as it assumes that a parent's activities can also result in a particular condition, which they will have to deal with.

Note also that Jesus did not ridicule or criticize this question. He accepted it. He did not say, "what a stupid question." What he said was:

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me." (John 9:2)

As he admits this was a special case, Jesus accepted the fact that a person could suffer in his next life from sins of the past life.

This means that the situation that the man was in could potentially be caused by things that the man had done in a previous life. This means that being blind was potentially a lesson.

In this situation, the blind man provided a lesson for Jesus' students. But we can see that Jesus' teachings included the reality that our future lifetimes may provide rehabilitation for the things we have done in this lifetime.

This is also confirmed here in Matthew 23:15, as Jesus confirms that the Pharisees will suffer, and so will their converts. Jesus is not threatening a fictitious place called hell. He is simply telling them that they and their followers will suffer in the future for what they are doing now.

This of course indicates that we should be very careful about who we chose to follow. We should not blindly accept a teacher just because they wear the robes and have a title in a particular sect or have many followers. We must investigate whether they are teaching what Jesus and the prophets taught.

We can look around us each day and see how in the physical world there serves up a reaction for every action. All of us suffer our particular situations for the activities we did in the past. Consider a person sitting in jail. They are in that hellish situation because of their past activities. Or a person who has lung cancer from smoking. Their smoking addiction caused their current suffering. Or a person who is beat up by another person after starting a fight.

All of these indicate that the physical world is a place of consequence. Everything we do has consequence here: Good or bad.

Why is this? Did God put us here to suffer? Actually, God set up the physical world as a place of learning. This is a rehabilitation center, where we have the opportunity to grow.

### "A Place with the Hypocrites"

" _He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:51)_

So where is this place that Jesus compares to _"a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth"_? Is this hell? Most interpreters agree that Jesus is describing hell.

But where would this be? In some dungeon deep beneath the earth's surface where people are chained up and beaten by a horned red devil - causing them to weep and gnash their teeth? Why haven't we found this place as we've drilled miles into the crust of the earth then?

The word "gnashing" comes from the Greek word βρυγμός (brygmos) which means, according to the lexicon, "used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair."

And this also fits with the word "weeping," as those who are in extreme anguish and utter despair often also weep.

Where do people weep and have extreme anguish and utter despair? We can see this all around us. We can turn on the news on any day of the week and see people weeping and in extreme anguish and utter despair.

Yes, right here, in the physical world, we find weeping and utter despair. While it may not affect each of us at the same time and in the same way, each of us will have a good measure of weeping and utter despair at some point in our lives.

For those in the West, there is much less physical despair, but much mental despair and anguish. Among those in poorer countries, we find rampant weeping, utter physical despair and extreme anguish.

In other words, hell is the physical world, although some environments and species within the physical world undergo worse hell than others.

### Why hypocrites? What is a hypocrite?

A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be who they are not. In Jesus' context, he is speaking of those who were pretending to be devoted to God but were in fact thinking of their positions, and their relative respect, and their wealth. This is diametrically opposed to what they presented themselves as – devoted to God.

But within this world we find hypocrisy is rampant in many other ways. People pretend to be kind, generous, thoughtful and caring. Meanwhile, they seek to cut others down and take advantage of others. This is material society, where everyone is competing for the same limited resources.

The result is a hellish environment where the resources are damaged and depleted, and people go crazy to fight each other for the remainder. While people act nice, calm and cool, underneath they seek to take others' positions and wealth.

This is materialism. It is wrought with hypocrisy. And we are subject to this as long as we engage in this world, seeking the illusion of happiness.

### The illusions of Hell

The physical world is real, but it maintains an illusory energy. This tricks us into a reality that this hell is our home and God does not exist. Let's look at this a little further.

There are four central illusions of the physical world, designed by the Supreme Being:

\- The illusion that we are these physical bodies;

\- The illusion that this world is our home;

\- The illusion that we are permanent here;

\- The illusion that the possessions of the physical world will fulfill us.

We might compare this to a movie. Let's say that a person goes to a movie theater and pays $10 for a movie ticket and sits down in the dark theater and watches the movie. Is the movie reality?

No. It is an illusion of reality. The movie is a reproduction - a film - that has been made of actors who are pretending to be certain characters in the movie. Meanwhile the movie is filmed on a set that is a facade of a real place. The buildings and scenes are green screen backdrops or facades of real places. In other words, the movie is staged: It is not reality. It maintains an illusion of reality.

Furthermore, the movie is on film and it is showing up on a flat screen in the front of the theater. With the combination of music and great film scenes, the moviegoer is being tricked into thinking that the movie is real - and the characters and the events are to some degree real. Thus the moviegoer is pulled into the movie and begins to relate with the "reality" of the movie - by crying when things get sad and laughing when things get funny.

Meanwhile, the "real" world is outside the theater, and even within the theater. This is why theater rooms are darkened. So people will change their focus from the people and life all around them to becoming focused upon the illusion of reality within the movie.

This is what is taking place here in this physical world. We are not these physical bodies. They are machines that we temporarily occupy. These machines, along with the world around us are made of moving atoms and molecules: These atoms and molecules - and this physical body - is not who we are in reality. They bring us the illusion of identity and reality. Each of us has a real identity and existence separate from this body and this physical world.

We can easily see this physical world is not real in the sense that it is not permanent - when see things changing, degrading and decomposing. A baby body grows into a teenager body and then to an adult, then an old body and then dies and decomposes. Which of these bodies are we? The baby body? The teenager body? The old guy body? How about the decomposed body?

We see bodies dying and decomposing all around us. Where does the life and personality animating each body go after that body dies? Where do we go?

The person - the real person - is not visible with the senses of the physical body because the real person - each of us - is made of another substance and comes from another realm. This is the spiritual realm - the genuine, permanent realm. It is reality - while this physical world is a temporary illusion of reality.

Yes, the physical world does exist. And these bodies do exist. But they are not permanent. They are temporary shapes made of molecules. The visual forms of our bodies are produced by the reflection of light upon those molecules. Our eyes don't actually see the molecules that make up our bodies: Our eyes only 'see' the lights and colors that reflects off of those molecules.

So we can better compare our physical world and our personal situation to acting in a play. We have put on some temporary costumes (these physical bodies) and we are assuming temporary identities for the duration of the play. Once the physical body dies, the play is over and we move on. Where do we go?

Well, it depends upon how we play it out here: Should we focus our lives upon real existence within the spiritual realm - by focusing ourselves upon our eternal relationship with the Supreme Being - then we can return home after this physical body dies. Otherwise - should we focus upon materialism and our self-interests - we are destined to continue our existence in hell within whatever species that reflects our current consciousness and the consequences of our prior actions.

### The Graduating Law of Consequences

Why does Jesus and other teachers teach that hell is a place we can go after death then? This is because Jesus and others from his lineage all taught transmigration: If we do not return to the spiritual world at the death of this body, we assume another physical body. Again we note that Jesus and his disciples confirmed this when they asked him why a man had been born blind:

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)

This very question assumes that both Jesus and his disciples accepted that a person could sin prior to being born. In order to sin, the person must have the facility to sin: a physical body.

We also find that many early church teachers, such as Origen Adamantius (184 – 253 AD) - assumed transmigration in their teachings. Several centuries later, after Christianity became dominated by the Romans and its surrogate the Roman Catholic Church, the teaching was banned because it did not threaten parishioners enough - who understood they'd have another change to regain spiritual perfection if they failed in this lifetime.

And therein lies the answer to where hell is. How we live during the lifetime of this body determines where we go at the time of death - as Jesus indicates in this parable. Should a person hurt others and live selfishly, we will take on another body \- one that precisely experiences (both good and bad) the results of our activities of our current lifetime.

This of course solves the oft-asked question many ask: If God exists, why is there so much suffering? Why are some children born in poverty or with diseases?

There is so much suffering because some of us choose to hurt others and cause pain. We cause the suffering. The physical world is simply a place of consequence - meant to teach us and help us rehabilitate from our disease of self-centeredness.

Those who cause pain to others simply receive that same pain in kind. The same goes for pleasure or good fortune. In other words, whatever situation we find ourselves in is due to the consequences of prior activities. And those born in a situation of suffering caused others suffering in their previous lifetime(s).

Transmigration and suffering, however, must be understood within the context of who we are and what is our identity. The bodies we wear are simply vehicles. They are not us. The body we wear changes from a baby body to a teenage body to an adult body to an elderly body and then dies.

We remain the same person despite all these changes in the body. It is like a car - we sit down in it and drive it for awhile. It is not actually us. Therefore, the pain and pleasure that take place in the body is not happening to us, much as a dented fender on a car doesn't necessarily affect the driver. (Though we - the spiritual being - is affected by what we learn in our occupation of a physical body.)

The physical world was set up for those who decide they want to enjoy life away from God. Here we can pretend to be independent, and try to accomplish our self-serving goals without God. This is symbolized in the analogy of Adam in Genesis:

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, "The man has now become one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on (in front of) the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:21-24)

The garments of skin spoken of in Genesis are our temporary physical bodies. Because we decided to choose not to do God's will, desiring instead to become like Him (to "become one of us, knowing good and evil"). As a result, God banished us from the spiritual world (the Garden of Eden), and put up a border between the physical and the spiritual worlds (cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life).

The creation of the physical world might be compared to Dad building a young boy a treehouse in the backyard. The boy can now get away from the seeming control of the parents and feel that he is independent. In the treehouse, he feels that he is independent of his parents. The parents still keep a close watch on that treehouse, however. The boy never really is free from their control, however. But the treehouse gives him the illusion of independence.

In the same way, this physical universe is set up with the illusion that God isn't around. He is around, however. He is always there, watching and waiting patiently for us to reconsider our decision to abandon Him.

The treehouse analogy is a little weak because the treehouse is usually a simple box nailed into a tree with a ladder. The physical universe is designed with elaborate mechanisms that precisely reflect our consciousness and teach us along the way. At every step, we are given a physical body that matches our goals, desires and activities.

Every activity in bodies of higher consciousness (i.e., human form) has a consequence. Just as parents often give their children who do bad (or even good) consequences to learn and grow from their actions, God sets up a consequential relationship between our activities and our future.

For example, child psychologists are now saying, after many years of research, that the best way of teaching a child is to set up reflective consequences for their actions. Say a child throws some food against the wall. As a consequence, the child will have to clean up the wall, clean up the room, and do chores to earn enough money to pay for the food that was wasted. This exercise, according to behavioral scientists, more thoroughly teaches the child than, for example, a spanking might.

Rather than it being a selective (prone to error) method as parents might apply in a consequential situation, God's physical universe is set up with an automatic mechanism of reflective consequences. In other words, He does not have to intervene and set up a consequence for us. Our bodies and physical environment are automatically programmed to do that, just as a video game might be programmed to respond to certain activities of its game players.

For example, let's say that we slapped someone at work. This sets up an immediate consequence for us to experience. Most likely, the immediate consequence is that we will precisely experience the pain we inflicted upon the other person when the other person slaps us back.

Now should the other person not slug us back, we experience an array of other consequences as we get fired by the boss for our actions. Then we might have difficulty finding another job because we got fired for being violent at work. This might end up in us taking a construction job or other hard labor job—one that 'slaps us back' in different ways.

We discussed this before. In many instances, the full effect of our consequences will not be seen until the next lifetime. This is because sometimes this is the only way a precise consequence can be set up. For example, if we are wealthy, and we use that wealth to take advantage of poor people, then it would not be possible for us to experience the full effect of our actions without becoming poor. So we take on a physical body in a poor family or society during our next lifetime, and we are taken advantage by wealthier people. This gives us the full experience of how our activities affected others.

This reflective consequence mechanism of the physical world is perfect and completely fair. Many of those who question the existence of God ask the fundamental question: Why do some people suffer more than others? And why is there suffering in the world in the first place?

God created a perfect mechanism. It is perfect because God set it up with love in mind. Just as a parent has our ultimate benefit in mind when they issue consequential discipline, God is seeking our ultimate benefit with the design of the physical universe. God wants us to grow. He wants us to learn and reclaim that wisdom we once had before the fall. We must ultimately remember that these physical bodies are not us. They are temporary, virtual machines we drive around for a few decades. We get away unscathed (outside the wisdom we gain).

Why does God want us to gain wisdom? Because He wants us to enjoy the relationship we once had with Him. Like any of us, God is motivated by love. Because He loves us, He wants us to be happy. And He knows that returning to our relationship with Him will make us happy.

God's process of creation utilizes time to pace with our evolution. God programmed DNA to reflect the individual's consciousness, so that our particular physical body at a particular time would reflect our personal evolution - our level of rehabilitation.

If we compare this to the grade system in school, each progressive grade has different activities. Kids in the seventh grade, for example, can now pick course electives, because they have advanced through the first six grades where they had no choice in the subjects. So these seventh graders utilize a school that is set up differently - with more choice.

In the same way, as we advance through the lessons of the lower forms of life, we eventually arrive at the human form, where we have higher consciousness and more choices. Now we can choose how we make our living - or survive. We can also choose whether we want to be nice to people or be mean to people. These choices are permitted because we rose through the lessons that the lower forms of life taught us: Such as the value of survival, the fact that others exist besides us, and others experience pain like we do and so on.

This process of growth - our rehabilitation - is symbolically represented in the six days of creation. God created the elements first, and put into motion with the element of time. Then He designed and stimulated the process of evolution by creating the bacteria and aquatic plant life with specialized DNA, which evolved into the more complex creatures by design. With each passing "day" the creatures became more complex.

Why? Because those living beings within those bodies were going through their rehabilitation process, and with each progressive body they learned more progressive lessons. As we rose in our evolutionary process, we eventually have the chance to gain the human form of life. This occurs on the sixth day, because it is the height of the evolutionary process - the point where we are given greater consciousness, and the choice of whether we want to return to God.

Why We were Sent Here

Why are we here in this hellish physical world? Those of us in this physical world are here because we became envious of God. We wanted to be God rather than love and serve God (our natural constitution). So we were sent down to this physical world and given virtual temporary physical bodies in order to 1) exercise our right to try to enjoy away from God and try to pretend to be God; and 2) to learn.

And since these bodies are temporary virtual shells, the miseries they suffer are also virtual. We might compare this with an icon in a video game. The icon may get shot, but we are still sitting there handling the video game controller.

This virtual world has a purpose, however. We have been sent here to take on these virtual physical bodies because God wants us to learn once again how to love. He wants us to return to Him and His loving kingdom. In order to return, however, we must have a change of consciousness. We must be willing to give up the idea that we are going to enjoy as if we were God. We learn what it means to love and care for someone other than ourselves.

Isn't this what the physical world constantly teaches us? That loving and caring for others brings happiness, while self-love and selfish behavior brings us misery? Is this a coincidence? No. It is intentional. God programmed the physical universe to teach us about love.

You see, our disease at the moment is self-centeredness. When we are self-centered, we want to fill ourselves up - we want to be self-satisfied. Because of the illusions related to misidentifying ourselves as these bodies, we think possessions - or sex, or the acclaim of others - will make us happy.

Once we arrive at this self-centered conclusion, there is no end to our search for pleasure because we never find it by gaining the things of the physical world. So we keep looking - all the while becoming more desperate because we are still empty.

Thus greed can come in many forms: For wealth, possessions, achievements, fame, sexual or other physical pleasure and so on.

When greed advances without fulfillment it can turn into anger. From there it can turn into violence.

Who Suffers in Hell?

This suffering is happening to the physical body, not us. We are each spiritual persons 'driving' a temporary physical body.

In other words, we do not physically suffer - only our virtual, temporary physical bodies suffer. They suffer by design. Our bodies suffer - each uniquely, depending upon our past actions - during birth, when teething, when hungry, when sick, when hurt, when cold, and when hot. They also suffer from diseases, aging, and eventually death.

Second, this system of 'consequence learning' is designed to teach us, in order to raise our consciousness. Should we ignore the opportunity to raise our consciousness, we are plunged into species of ignorance - precisely to the extent we want to ignore reality. But if we embrace the lessons physical life teaches us, and we seek the wisdom from them, then our consciousness becomes raised, as we learn more and more about who we are and what our purpose for existence is.

And finally, most importantly, the Supreme Being has set up an escape valve for us. We might compare this to the old cartoon, "Tooter the Turtle" - about the turtle who asks the wizard to get sent into different situations. Then, when the turtle gets into a tough situation, he shouts "Mr. Wizard, Mr. Wizard, help me!" and the wizard then pulls the turtle out of the situation and back home. The Supreme Being has a similar escape valve set up for each of us. At any time, at any place, regardless of our situation, we can call the Supreme Being and He will pull us out of this 'consequence system' and bring us back home to Him. This is His promise - His covenant - with each of us.

Plus He is always calling us back home through His representatives and through scripture.

We are like children who have run away from home. But in this case, our parent happens to control everything. So He designed a place - this physical world - where we could feel that we are really away from home. This place He designed gives us independence and the facilities to act out our desires.

He also programmed the physical world with facilities that teach us. We might compare this to a Dad who builds a tree-house for his son, so his son could get away from the house and pretend he has his own house. But like the good Dad who built the tree-house, the Supreme Being is always there for us, lovingly waiting for us when we want to return to Him.

### What is the Purpose of Hell?

Most of us see hell as this place of suffering. This of course assumes that since God ultimately created everything, God wanted us to suffer. This is not correct.

We can also see this situation in the life of Cain, who killed his brother. Cain must deal with symbolizes the law of consequences existing within the physical world. We must each suffer the consequences of our actions, whether good or bad.

It also illustrates how we continued our fall into the physical realm through the different species. Being "a restless wanderer on the earth" symbolizes our wanderings from one physical body to the next, and even one species to the next - as we have descended into the depths of hell in a progression of one physical body after another.

The design of the Supreme Being is that whatever self-centered action taken in the physical world has a reaction that is perfectly reflected back to us, either in this life or a future physical lifetime. This includes things that we do that might help others - which effect us positively in the future. The balance between the two, combined with the state of our consciousness (desires), determines our future fate.

This provides for what we might call 'consequence learning.'

The Supreme Being's design utilizes the best way to learn. Child psychology research has even illustrated that 'consequence learning' is the best way for a child to be trained. This is because we learn best by experiencing the consequences of our actions.

The Supreme Being's consequential learning system programmed into the physical world has certain definitions. It only impacts us to the degree of our awareness and the awareness of those we affect. Thus humans will receive clear consequences, because we humans have the awareness of how our actions can help or hurt others. Animals, fish, insects, plants and microorganisms are generally in survival mode. They do not suffer consequences because they are not aware of how their actions affect others.

If we hurt another without realization then there is less consequence. But to the degree we know our actions will hurt another, there will be a corresponding reaction. This is also reflected in our justice system, which punishes crimes of premeditation (such as "murder") more than accidental crimes ("manslaughter").

Some have called this "as you sow, so shall you reap."

Others have called this 'consequence system' the "law of karma."

Still others have referred to it as "going to hell."

In fact, every scriptural reference to "going to hell" includes the concept of consequence. It is not as if a person "goes to hell" by accident. We "go to hell" because of our activities. "Going to hell" is 'consequence learning.'

Humans also experience hell. This is why one person can be living in Somalia, undergoing torture and rape at the hands of evil mercenaries (devils) while another person is living in Hawaii in a luxurious house on the beach. It is also why some children are born into wealth and inheritance while others are born into abject poverty.

This is precisely why many people think that God is not fair. They put forth an important question:

"If God exists, why does He allow so much suffering?"

The reason most of the organized ecclesiastical religions today cannot answer this is because their professional teachers do not know the answer. This of course leads to intelligent people straying from their faith in God.

Let's review our answer to this question:

First, we are not these physical bodies. Our bodies are temporary vehicles, which we operate for a few decades. They are like automobiles that we get in and drive for a while and then get out. This means those things that happen to our physical body do not actually happen to each of us. It is like a car getting in a fender-bender. The car may be totaled, but we can get out and walk away. (Not the best analogy because people also get hurt in car accidents.)

Better yet, we might compare this world and these bodies to playing a video game. We can sit down at the computer, select an icon, and start playing a video game. Our icon can get shot at, run over or beat up by the virtual reality programming. Our icon might even be killed. No matter what happens to our icon, we can still turn off the computer and walk away, no matter what happened inside the video game.

Just as a person might start identifying with their video game icon, we also begin to identify ourselves with these temporary physical bodies. As we do this, we get immersed in the programming inherent in the physical world, just as a person gets immersed in a video game.

As we get immersed in the physical world, we forget our real identities as spiritual, where we came from, and the fact that our natural position is with the Supreme Being in the spiritual realm. This is, of course, by design, because we wanted to get away from the Supreme Being - which is why Adam, symbolizing each of us, ate the "forbidden fruit" in the first place.

But we must have the choice in order to truly love, so God gave us each a little part of His essence, which contains the desire to enjoy like God. This gives us each the choice to love God or not. For those of us who allowed the "serpent" of envy to gain a foothold in our consciousness, we now need rehabilitation. And that's what the consequence learning system of the physical world gives us.

### Banished to Hell

So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis 3:23)

This verse has been misconstrued and mistranslated. Ecclesiastical professional translators and officials from many Christian sects have interpreted this section of Genesis to be describing a location on the planet earth - the "Garden of Eden" - and Adam and Eve are the first humans on the planet.

This misunderstanding has created many imaginative and speculative journeys to find the location of the Garden of Eden somewhere in the Middle East. Others have suggested that its location is in Asia. Millions of dollars of tithings have been wasted on these hunts, to no avail. They have also performed archaeological digs in hopes of finding the bones of Adam and Eve, again to no avail.

The reason no one has found the Garden of Eden on the planet is that the Garden of Eden was never on the planet. And the reason they find no evidence of Adam and Eve is because they didn't exist as portrayed.

The word "banished" is being translated from the Hebrew שלח (shalach), which means to be 'to send away' or 'to let go' according to the lexicon. It can also be described as 'to let loose,' 'to cast out,' 'to dismiss,' or 'to be divorced.'

So is "banished" the right word to use? "Banished" sounds like losing a country club membership or something. It doesn't communicate the event accurately: God is casting Adam (us) out of the spiritual realm. God kicked us out, in other words.

So where is God casting us out of? The Hebrew being translated to Garden of Eden as עדן גן (gan 'Eden). גן refers to an enclosure, a space protected by adequate barriers; and Eden refers to a location of pleasure.

Notice that the depiction of the Garden of Eden does not describe any kind of walls or fortress around this enclosed Garden. If Eden were on the earth, these walls would have to be pretty big to be enclosed. And in order to be cast out, there must be something to be cast out of.

These problems illustrate that the Garden of Eden was never on the earth. Rather, Garden of Eden is a section of the spiritual realm. And the word Eden is associated with 'pleasure' because the spiritual world is pleasurable. In the spiritual realm we experience the ultimate pleasure.

And what is that pleasure? This is being symbolized in the story by the "Tree of Life," located in the "middle" of the Garden. The "Tree of Life" represents love for God. This is the core of the spiritual realm. It is love for God that gives us complete fulfillment and the ultimate pleasure.

Just consider how we all search for true love with so much intensity. Even if we have wealth, prestige and fame, we still pine for true love. Most of us focus our love upon our family members, friends and spouses. But still this is not enough. Most people keep on searching for love, whether it is a new lover, friend or respect (as we want others to love and appreciate us). We perpetually seek that perfect person who will love us unconditionally: that special someone we can give our heart to and care for.

In other words, we are engineered for love. We are all about love. Our most popular songs are about love. Our most popular movies are love stories.

But we are typically frustrated with the love found within the physical realm. It just doesn't do it for us. This is why there are so many divorces and break ups. This is why kids leave home. This is why people get depressed. This is why people feel lonely, even when surrounded by people.

The love in the physical world doesn't work for us. Why? Because the inhabitants of this physical world are just like us - they were also cast out of the spiritual world.

Each of us has been thrown out of the spiritual world. Why? Because we became envious of God. We wanted to be like God. We wanted what the Supreme Being has. The Supreme Being has power, fame, glory, beauty, all the attention, and many other attributes. We wanted all that. We got jealous.

We were each created to love and care for God in our own unique way. But with this, He also gave us the freedom to love Him or not - because love requires freedom. This explains the two symbolic trees of the "Garden." We can either eat from the "Tree of Life" - love of God - or we can eat from the "tree of self-centered pleasure and pain" (see this commentary for a break down of the Hebrew). In other words, we can either love God and act in such a way to give God pleasure, or we can become self-centered and seek our own pleasure - and experience its consequence, pain.

How were we thrown out of the spiritual realm? Were we just cast off into space? No. We were pushed into these physical bodies. We, the spiritual living beings, were each forced to take on a particular temporary physical body within this virtual physical domain, the physical universe.

We could compare this to how a person might get forced into an automobile. Let's say a big person stuffs us into the driver's seat of a car. Because there isn't much else to do in the driver's seat of a car, we start the car and begin driving it. Because cars were built for streets and highways, we find ourselves within an environment of streets and highways. That is akin to finding ourselves stuffed within a physical body born within the physical environment.

Now let's say the car was especially designed by a very smart engineer to be so functional that once we began driving it, we began to identify with it. We forget who we were before we got stuffed into the car, and because the car is so functional, after some time we lose the ability to walk on our own. We become completely dependent upon the car, and forget who we were before we got in the car.

This is our situation with these physical bodies. The verse just before this one says:

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)

What are the "garments of skin"? As we described in the commentary, this is symbolic for our physical bodies. God designed these physical bodies for us to occupy. Then he cast us out of the spiritual realm and into these physical bodies.

This leads us to the real meaning of the rest of this verse, 'to work the ground from which he had been taken.'

The Hebrew word עבד (`abad) means to 'cultivate' or 'work,' but it also means 'to serve', or more complete, 'to serve as subjects'.

The Hebrew word אדמה ('adamah) can refer to 'ground,' but also 'land, territory, country,' or the 'whole inhabited earth.' In other words, the physical world.

The Hebrew word אשר ('asher) is a conjunction or pronoun participle that serves to connect, either with 'which,' 'who,' 'that which,' 'that,' 'when,' 'since,' 'as,' or the conditional use of 'if.' Here it is translated as "from which," but this is speculatively assuming that Adam came from what is being described here as "the ground." This of course would be a contradiction, because God is throwing Adam out. How could Adam be made of the stuff that he is being thrown out into?

The key to the meaning of this last section of the verse comes from the meaning of the Hebrew לקח (laqach) which is assumed to mean "taken from." This, however, is an incorrect usage of the word, as לקח means to be 'taken' in the sense of being 'taken by,' 'taken away,' or to be 'carried off by' something. It has been used to describe how a man might take or snatch away a wife. It is also used to describe being taken away or captured by something.

Yes, we are indeed each captured by the physical world. We are trapped within these physical bodies, and forced to work hard to keep it alive and safe. We have to work to feed the body, keep it warm or cool, and keep it healthy. This means we have to defend our body from danger caused by the physical environment or others - be they other humans, animals, insects or microorganisms. It is not easy to keep the body alive and safe. We have to toil at it.

We are also captured by the physical world. We are enamored with it. We identify with our physical body, and our physical family, house, car, job, community, country and so on. We strive to gain the acceptance of others, and we strive to achieve fleeting sensations of pleasure, amid a constant battle against discomfort, sickness, aging, stress, pain and death.

Even though everything dissolves at the time of death, we are still captured by this world. Even though we will lose our house, money, house, fame, family, friends, position, country and physical identity at the time of death, we are still captivated by them. Even though everyone around us is dying, we live as though we will never die. Now this is being captured.

Ironically, the very mistranslation and misinterpretation of this verse by ecclesiastical professional religious translators and teachers is caused by their assumption that we are these physical bodies, and this physical world is our home. They have also been "captured by" the physical world and its illusion that we are these temporary physical bodies.

The very purpose of this scripture - and all scripture - is to teach us that this world is not our home. God teaches within scripture that the physical world is a temporary place, and our true identity and natural position is as one of His loving care-givers in the spiritual realm. Scripture is trying to teach us that this is where we will find real happiness - not within this temporary physical place surrounded by greed, envy and self-centeredness.

It is sad, this mistranslation of this beautiful and magical text of Genesis into English. This wonderful text that describes, with prose and elegant symbolism, how we each rejected being one of God's loving care-givers by becoming envious of Him, and subsequently fell from the spiritual realm into the physical world and these temporary physical bodies.

The saddest element is that these mistranslations hide the true message being communicated through the text: That the Supreme Being wants us to come home to Him. He wants us back. He doesn't want us to selfishly suffer any longer within this world of greed and envy. He wants us to return to His loving arms.

### Envy and Hell

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)

This statement by God is the crux of the event. By becoming envious of God, we no longer can retain our loving relationship with Him. The pureness of that relationship (symbolized by Adam and Eve's nakedness before eating the symbolic fruit) becomes tainted, and there can no longer be an exchange of love between us and God.

This is common among any relationship. We can't be envious of someone and have a loving relationship with them at the same time. The two emotions are simply not compatible.

Therefore, envy is not compatible with being in the spiritual realm.

The spiritual realm is full of love, humility, kindness, giving, play, laughter, games and so many other events. None of these events are compatible with envy, however. A person who is envious of God - the Supreme Being and the center of attention in the spiritual realm - simply cannot continue to reside in the spiritual world.

God's cursing of the serpent to "crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life" symbolizes the fact that once a person becomes envious of God, and selfishly motivated, we must leave the spiritual world, and this requires us to take on a physical body within the physical world. Thus, "crawl on your belly" symbolizes taking on a physical body, and eating "dust all the days of your life" symbolizes becoming a citizen of the hellish physical world.

"Dust" here is translated from the Hebrew עפר (`aphar), which means, according to the lexicon, "dry earth, dust, powder, ashes, earth, ground, mortar, rubbish." The meaning is clear. Not only are we talking about the physical world here, but it is being described as desolate, burnt and trashy.

This physical world is precisely that. While there is joy, love and play among the loving relationships of the spiritual realm, the physical world is full of war, hatred, violence, crime and greed. Here we are all competing with each other. This physical world is the dark side of existence. While so many worry about going to hell, few realize that this is hell. This is the place where those of us who became self-centered and envious of God were sent to play out our desires to rule over others and attempt to enjoy ourselves.

This hasn't worked out very well. On a worldwide basis we find starvation, disease, drought, and people born into slavery and suffering. Why is this? Why has God permitted so much suffering? Is God a mean God?

What God simply did is programmed the physical world with consequences. This feature makes it so each person must experience - in this life or the next - the results of our activities. Activities that helped the physical bodies or minds of others result in good things happening to our physical bodies or minds, while activities that hurt the physical bodies or minds of others result in a similar suffering to our physical bodies or minds.

It is like looking at a mirror. If we raise our hand as we look in the mirror, the reflection shows a hand raised. This allows us to see what we just did. God programmed the physical world in the same way - our activities are reflected back at us in the form of going through what we put others through.

Thus, we can see that our actions are the cause of the suffering in the physical world. We have caused our own suffering by our previous actions. Each person who now suffers, caused others to suffer previously.

This is meant to teach us. God designed this world with consequences to teach us, just as parents teach children through consequence learning. This form of discipline, by the way, has been found by child researchers to be the most effective way to learn. Why? Because we learn by understanding the consequences of our actions. We learn through experience.

Luckily, no matter how much our physical body might suffer, we are not the physical body. We are spiritual beings temporarily occupying physical bodies - just as a person occupies and drives a car. Therefore, if our body is starving, we are not starving. Our suffering is related to the extent that we identify ourselves as these physical bodies. Once we leave the physical body at the time of death, our connection with it - outside of its lessons and consequences - vanishes.

This physical world is like a virtual classroom. It is meant to gradually teach us that love, kindness, and caring for others is our true nature - and what truly makes us happy. We are not enjoyers by nature. We became envious of God because He is the Enjoyer.

He created us to care for Him and exchange a relationship of love with Him. Thus our natural position is His loving servant, and this is the only thing that will truly fulfill us.

But we must have the choice in order to truly love, so God gave us each a little part of His essence, which contains the desire to enjoy like God. This gives us each the choice to love God or not. For those of us who allowed the "serpent" of envy to gain a foothold in our consciousness, we now need rehabilitation. And that's what the consequence learning system of the physical world gives us.

That is, if we want to return to the spiritual realm. Some of us want to continue ignoring God and ignoring our true nature as spiritual. For those of us, we find all kinds of reasons to convince ourselves that God does not exist. We make all kinds of "scientific" postulations that assume that the universe was created through a big explosion, and everything - including living organisms with the innate ability to love or be envious - was all a big accident. Like a prisoner who believes that jail-time and a life of crime is better than being a law-abiding citizen, God has given each of us the choice to love Him and return to Him, or ignore Him in this prison-like physical world.

### Escaping Hell

So how do we get out of hell? How do we escape?

Today hell is thought of not too differently than its metaphorical use more than 2,000 years ago - as some physical place where people's bodies are thrown into the fire and burnt.

Yes, at the end of this lifetime, our physical bodies will either be doused with formaldehyde and stuffed into the ground in a box or will be thrown into a fire to be burnt.

But before our bodies die, if we are focused upon the illusions of the physical world, we will become slaves to desire and slaves to ugly masters within the world.

We will be essentially chained to these prisons of the physical body and essentially whipped with various aches and pains associated to hunger, disease and ultimately the death of the physical body.

Yet Jesus is clearly stating this place is not where dead bodies go. It is a place where the spirit-person - the person who occupies the physical body temporarily - may go after the death of the physical body. This means - since the physical body decomposes or is cremated after its death - that the spirit-person leaves the physical body and goes somewhere.

In other words, this is where we are now – and if we continue our self-centered lives, we will simply take on another physical body and live another hellish lifetime.

We find that Jesus is clearly stating that one may be sent to this place referred to as hell. But where is it? Is it an underground cavern? If it was, then all the drilling and excavation we have done in recent times would have discovered some underground cavern as described, right?

Rather, we find that under the surface of the earth is soil, rocks and water, then deeper we find hot molten rock, and then lava and so on. Volcano research and excavation projects have found that this hot lava region could certainly not support life as we know it.

All around us is hell. Despite the metaphorical descriptions, we can know that hell is that place where the Supreme Being is ignored, and those of His children who have rejected Him seek their own self-centered enjoyment amongst an environment of pain and suffering.

This means that those who are ignoring the Supreme Being are, in fact, in hell - to one degree or another.

We say to one degree or another because the degree of our hell not only relates to our consciousness, but it also relates directly to the type of physical body we are currently occupying.

This is because the type of physical body we occupy is directly related to the state of our consciousness, along with the results of our prior activities.

Those who want to completely forget the existence of the Supreme Being, and not have the ability to seek knowledge and truth are given physical bodies that allow such a consciousness. What kinds of bodies are these?

These are the bodies of animals, aquatic life, plants, insects, bacteria and so on. With each of these organisms lies a spirit-person. This is why animals display emotion, and even plants, insects and bacteria - though their consciousness is significantly covered with ignorance - still avoid pain and death - because each organism is occupied by a spirit-person. These bodies are like the prison cells of hell.

Specifically a spirit-person who has previously rejected the Supreme Being and wishes to forget Him altogether will receive one of these bodies because they allow the spirit person the ignorance they seek. They wanted to express their freedom to be away from Him. They wanted to ignore their spiritual existence and become ignorant of Him.

Such a decision is made during more conscious lifetimes - such as the human lifetime. In this lifetime we are given the conscious choice of whether we want to become closer with God or not. This is, in other words, our cross-roads lifetime. We make our choices now, and those choices determine what type of body we will take on in the future.

Jesus certainly taught this to his students, though much of these teachings were confidential and not portrayed much if at all in the four Gospels - which cover only a tiny portion of Jesus' confidential teachings.

Nevertheless, we find that Jesus certainly accepted that there were spirit-persons within the bodies of plants. We find, for example, that Jesus talked specifically to a fig tree:

Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it. (Mark 11:14)

If the fig tree were not alive - who would Jesus be speaking to? Who is the "you" within the tree that Jesus spoke to? It is the spirit-person, temporarily occupying the body of a tree.

Furthermore, we find Jesus and his disciples understood that not only can we take on another body in the future \- human or otherwise - but that our actions from one lifetime carry on to the next. This is why Jesus' disciples asked him:

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)

We find within this question two important points: Jesus' disciples accepted that the man's previous sins could have caused his blindness. In order for that to happen, the person who was born blind had to have existed within a prior body - in order to sin previously.

This indicates - as does Jesus' statement in Luke 12:5 - that what we do in this lifetime has consequences that will determine where we go in the next lifetime. Jesus also confirmed this elsewhere:

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." (John 5:14)

Jesus clearly taught the law of consequences: _"As you sow, so shall you reap"_ \- as it has been written.

This is quite obviously the same determinant that sets up the possibility of "going to hell."

While the reality of hell may not be well understood - or taught by ecclesiastical sectarian teachers - the metaphorical descriptions of it do have meaning, and this is why Jesus used the word γέεννα (geenna). Hell is likened to fire and burning because within a state of consciousness where the Supreme Being is rejected produces an emptiness that creates burning desires related to the physical world - greed, lust, anger and violence.

These are related to fire because fire consumes: Just as a body is consumed after being thrown into a fire, the self-centered desires related to greed, lust, anger and violence consume a person.

We can see this as we witness a person who has gone on a rampage and harms others - whether it be in a fist-fight or a bombing or a shooting. Such a person has been consumed by the accumulation of geed, lust, anger and violence to the point where they care not in the slightest for others. Their natural inclination to care for others - which comes from the spirit-person within - has been consumed by their greed, lust, violence and anger \- just as a fire can consume a dead body thrown into a fire.

Further to this point, such a person who has become consumed through their decisions and activities while occupying a human body will go - after the death of their current body - into another body that reflects this consciousness, and further consumes - and covers - ones consciousness.

This is seen amongst the lives of animals who are very violent - such as wolves and jackals - who feast on violence every day. Those spirit-persons who dwell within these hellish bodies got there due to the choices they made in more conscious human lifetimes where the choices were clear. Their consciousness became consumed with violence.

As to the person Jesus is referring to - "Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell." - this is metaphorical and practical at the same time.

The understanding here is that while we certainly make our own choices and thus determine our own future with regard to where we go after the death of this body, we can also be influenced by others who are already heading for worse hells - and want to drag us down with them.

Some might refer to this as peer-pressure. We might be pressured by others to go drinking with them, or to fight others as they would do - or influence us to do a myriad of other things that essentially can lead us further into a consciousness of greed, lust, anger and violence.

Today we also find so many in the world who are focused on territorialism, hostility towards others who might have a different nationality or race, or those even in a different political party. They are always seeking others to join them in their efforts. These endeavors to struggle with others over what is actually God's property essentially pulls us away from being able to focus on our relationship with the Supreme Being.

Furthermore, those groups who engage people towards violence in the name of their religious sect also pull others into hell. This is called fanaticism and in no way is the Supreme Being pleased with fanaticism. In fact, fanaticism is diametrically opposed to the Supreme Being's efforts to invite us back to Him because love requires freedom.

Fanatics want to try to force others to surrender to abide by their sect. But this in itself is atheistic, because it assumes that God has lost power and needs others to force us to come to Him. This denies the existence of a Supreme Being who is in full control.

In other words, if God is in control, don't you think He could force everyone to worship Him if He wanted to?

The Supreme Being does not force anyone because love requires freedom. How can a person be forced to love someone?

They can't. Love can never be forced. God wants our love. And this means we have to decide to love Him voluntarily. We cannot truly love Him if we are being forced, nor if we are being threatened with "going to hell."

The fact is, we don't have to worry about going to hell because we are already here. Welcome to hell - that place where people hurt each other and hate each other and commit violence against each other through self-centeredness.

But the Supreme Being - through Jesus, His representative - is inviting us back to Him. He wants us to leave hell and return home, voluntarily. He wants us to return to our loving relationship with Him. This is why, when asked which was the most important commandment, Jesus answered:

" ' _Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27)_

### Going Home

Heaven has been presented to us by spiritual wise men and saints for thousands of years. Heaven's existence has been documented in every theistic scripture of the world. Even still, there is great controversy and speculation about heaven and its location. Why is this?

It is due simply to a lack of trust in those who have already presented heaven to us. While faith is often thought of as joining a particular religious sect or denomination, the real definition of faith is trust: Do we trust what the great saints such as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, David, Jesus, Mohammad, Ramanuja, St. Francis, Vyasadev and many others have written or spoken about heaven? Or do we simply want to speculate?

Here we will present neither speculation nor a sectarian position. We will simply provide the position that is consistent with all the great teachings of saints from every monotheistic discipline. Here are seven key principles to consider:

God is the Original Being and the Creator. God created everything in existence, including us.

God is the All-Powerful Being. He controls every part of His creation. Never is He out of control. God never comes under the illusion of the physical universe. He created the physical universe and its illusions. This means that God does not become subject to the laws of the physical universe. God does not lose control of His creation: that is what makes Him God.

Rebellious living beings like ourselves are given temporary physical bodies as vehicles of learning. Within the body dwells a spiritual being—each of us are individual spiritual beings. When we are dwelling in the physical world, we are not our physical bodies. This does not mean that we do not have a body. We each have a spiritual body, but our spiritual body is non-different from our self. God also has a Body. His Body is spiritual, and thus non-different from Himself.

The spiritual world is a universe transcendental to the physical world. At the same time, heaven is anywhere where God's will is being done. Since God has created everything, and owns everything, the distinction between heaven and hell is that heaven is where God's will is being done, and hell is where God's will is not being done.

In those places where God's will is not being done there is typically greed, hatred, jealousy, violence and pain. This is because selfishness is the driver of this dimension. In God's dimension—where His will is done—there is love, compassion, peace, giving, and devotion. In God's dimension there is no selfishness, because everyone there is in love with God.

To the point about possessions, we can mention that there is a saying that he who dies with the most stuff wins - but is this true? What do they win?

Nothing. Because that's what they will be left with - nothing. All our possessions are taken away from us at the time of death. Everything - all our money, our house, our wife or husband, our family, our job, our reputation, everything - will vanish for us.

What will we be left with? Our consciousness. Our desires and whatever relationship (or lack thereof) we have developed with the Supreme Being.

And it is these desires - and our consciousness \- that will determine where we go at the time of death. And whatever relationship we've developed with the Supreme Being will determine whether or not we take on a new body within the physical world or go to our real home in the spiritual realm with the Supreme Being.

You see, our relationship with the Supreme Being is the only thing that is eternal. It is the only thing that will outlive our physical body. Some people will say our family will be left, but their bodies will all die too.

Our real family is with the Supreme Being. All of His children are our brothers and sisters. And He is not only our Father, but our Best Friend and Soul Mate. He is the Soul Mate we spend our lives looking for (and never find) within the physical realm. He is that Best Friend we seek out among our different relationships of the world - most of which we become disappointed with.

And if we focus our consciousness and point our desires towards coming to know and love the Supreme Being - this will fulfill us. This will complete us and satisfy us.

This is because the inner person - the spirit-person within - is only satisfied by love and loving service. This is the food that fulfills us because we were created to exchange a loving relationship with the Supreme Being. This is why Jesus said:

" _My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." (John 4:34)_

Jesus states that doing the will of the Supreme Being - serving Him with love - is what satisfies Jesus. It is was motivates him. It is what feeds him.

This applies to each of us. We can only become fulfilled when we are tasting love for the Supreme Being and serving Him with love. This is why Jesus' most important teaching was:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

This love for God naturally spreads to all of God's children as well. As a result, everyone in God's dimension is working hard to take care of God and take care of others. This is because God is a nice God. He is a caring God. He wants us to naturally love Him because that is why He created us—to exchange a loving relationship with Him. (Why else would God have created us? Everyone—even God—wants a playmate, friend and lover.)

Time does not exist in the spiritual dimension. Since time does not exist there, none of the rules governing the physical relationships of distance, speed, age and death apply. Like the physical universe, there are a variety of different locations and environments within the spiritual universe. Different living beings inhabit those different locations.

We each have a particular relationship with the Supreme Person, and our home is a particular location within the spiritual dimension where that relationship is expressed. This does not mean that we cannot be within the physical body and still be exchanging that relationship with God. Should we be ready, we can begin to re-establish our original relationship with Him while still inhabiting this physical body.

God has created a number of categories of living beings. The first are His Direct Expansions. The second are His Partial Expansions—those who have some individuality, but will never waiver in their relationship with Him. The third are the free souls. These living beings are individuals who have been given the complete freedom to love God or not.

For these free souls (each of us), God sets up a continual testing process to give us the choice to stay with Him or not. This is the analogy of the "tree of life" from the Garden of Eden. God kindly asked Adam not to eat of the tree. Why was the tree even there? It was there because God was giving Adam the choice to obey Him or not.

While God domiciles within the spiritual dimension, He still pervades the physical dimension through His creative and communication features. God regularly sends messengers in the form of teachers to represent Him. The reason we do not "see" God within the physical world is because we do not want to see Him.

This is also why we spend so much of our lives looking for that perfect mate who will love us, care for us and fulfill us. This is also why we all share this feeling that we belong in a world that is peaceful, where everyone loves each other. Innately it is the Supreme Being we are looking for, and it is the spiritual realm we are trying to return to.

But we must remember that we also have to be ready to return to Him. Most of us are not ready, because we are immersed in the depths of self-centered consciousness. This requires a purification process.

For anyone who sincerely asks the Supreme Being to return home to Him, He begins to guide us and prepare us for our return home. This is a personal training process unlike the consequential learning system, because it is custom-designed for each of us, to help us re-establish our lost loving relationship with Him.

And this is the purpose for all the spiritual teachers that God has sent through the ages. They have been sent specifically to help train those who have requested from God to help them return home to Him.

This is also why the "first and greatest commandment" as taught by Jesus and Moses, focuses on returning to our loving relationship with God.

Consider the so many statements by God in Bible. Consider this statement by God speaking through Malachi:

" _But for you who revere my Name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." (Malachi 4:2)_

Why is God's Name so important? To revere God's Name while in this physical world is to revere God. This is because, while a name of a physical body is different from the spiritual self, there is no difference between God and His Name. There is no duality within the spiritual world. The reference to God is non-different than Himself. This is why in multiple places in the Bible it is said:

" _Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD."_

### A Creation of Love

God's process of creation also utilized time, to pace with our evolution. God programmed DNA to reflect the individual's consciousness, so that our particular physical body at a particular time would reflect our personal evolution - our level of rehabilitation.

If we compare this to the grade system in school, each progressive grade has different activities. Kids in the seventh grade, for example, can now pick course electives, because they have advanced through the first six grades where they had no choice in the subjects. So these seventh graders utilize a school that is set up differently - with more choice.

In the same way, as we advance through the lessons of the lower forms of life, we eventually arrive at the human form, where we have higher consciousness and more choices. Now we can choose how we make our living - or survive. We can also choose whether we want to be nice to people or be mean to people. These choices are permitted because we rose through the lessons that the lower forms of life taught us: Such as the value of survival, the fact that others exist besides us, and others experience pain like we do and so on.

This process of growth - our rehabilitation - is symbolically represented in the six days of creation. God created the elements first, and put into motion with the element of time. Then He designed and stimulated the process of evolution by creating the bacteria and aquatic plant life with specialized DNA, which evolved into the more complex creatures by design. With each passing "day" the creatures became more complex.

Why? Because those living beings within those bodies were going through their rehabilitation process, and with each progressive body they learned more progressive lessons. As we rose in our evolutionary process, we eventually have the chance to gain the human form of life. This occurs on the sixth day, because it is the height of the evolutionary process - the point where we are given greater consciousness, and the choice of whether we want to return to God.

Those who decide they want to return to God enter the symbolic seventh day, where they begin learning how to devote themselves to God. This is the holy period. It is also a day of "rest" because during this stage of our lives we can stop focusing our consciousness upon survival issues - which relate to the desires to eat, have sex, and defend ourselves. In this advanced stage, we can refocus our consciousness towards serving God.

This is why, for example, Jesus did not stop his work serving God on the seventh day.

Should we arrive at this point in our existence, we can re-establish our loving relationship with God, and after the end of this lifetime, return to God in His spiritual dimension.

Those who do not use this human form of life to advance spiritually are sent back to the lower forms of life. This is because they have not learned those lessons they were supposed to learn. For example, if an individual in a human form has not learned to treat others with kindness and fairness, and they hurt others, they will suffer the same consequences of their treatment of others, either within another human form (if they made any advancement) or within the form of an animal.

Depending upon their consciousness, they may fall within the species to the point where their rehabilitation process can be renewed. This is what is described in the scriptures as "hell." Lower forms of life live within a hellish world of constant fear and violence.

The six days of creation and the seventh day being a day of rest are both allegorical. As we've discussed, we know scientifically that God did not produce the universe and all the creatures in six 24-hour days. But we do know that the process of creation took place in a gradual, stepped process.

This gradual pacing illustrates God's process as He designed and programmed an epic physical universe replete with the pacing of time to allow for an evolutionary rehabilitation process. "In all their vast array," the physical universe is massive and complex. We cannot even begin to fathom it with our minds, let alone fathom the spiritual dimension.

What we can fathom, and why this creative process is boiled down to six days - with the seventh day being a day that is to be spent focused upon our relationship with God - is that we really don't need to know all the minute details about this atomic element or that atomic element, or this DNA gene or that DNA gene.

We only have a limited amount of time within this human form, and we need to use it wisely to re-develop our relationship with God. This was realized late in the lives of two of the greatest modern scientists, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein.

In his elderly years, Albert Einstein said:

" _I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts. The rest are details."_

And Leonardo da Vinci:

"It is true that impatience, the mother of stupidity, praises brevity, as if such persons had not life long enough to serve them to acquire a complete knowledge of one single subject, such as the human body; and then they want to comprehend the mind of God in which the universe is included, weighing it minutely and mincing it into infinite parts, as if they had to dissect it!"

In other words, knowing God is the only true knowledge worth anything. And to know God is not like knowing an inanimate object. God is a Person. Therefore, just as we cannot really know another person unless we have a relationship with them and they allow us to know them, we also cannot know God without having a relationship with Him and Him allowing us to come to know Him.

In other words, knowing God is the only true knowledge worth any-thing. But knowing God is not like knowing an inanimate object. God is a Person. Therefore, we cannot really know another person unless they allow us to know them. And in God's case, we are introduced by someone who already enjoys a relationship with Him. This is why Moses, Jesus and all of God's representatives introduced their students to God and taught this most important instruction:

" _Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:5)_

" _Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, His decrees, His laws and His commands always." (Deuteronomy 11:1)_

" _So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:13)_

" _If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow – to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him – " (Deuteronomy 11:22)_

"... _because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today – to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways – " (Deuteronomy 19:19)_

" _For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws" (Deuteronomy 30:16)_

"... _and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life...." (Deuteronomy 30:20)_

" _But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Joshua 22:5)_

" _So be very careful to love the LORD your God." (Joshua 23:11)_

" _Love the LORD, all His saints!" (Psalms 31:23)_

" _Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalms 97:10)_

"' _Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)_

"But seek His kingdom..."

"And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well." (Luke 12:29-31)

Why is Jesus telling his students not to worry about what they will eat or drink? Is Jesus saying that they shouldn't work to feed themselves?

Putting it another way: Don't most of us in the physical world worry about survival in one sense or another? If not specifically getting enough to eat or drink, at least be concerned about keeping healthy and keeping our job? Or making sure we have enough to retire on?

For many people of the world, the concerns are more direct: Getting the next meal is a concern for many in third world countries. And during Jesus' time, many were living in this manner of subsistence. They were farmers or fishermen or laborers, and their next meal was often the result of hard work.

Jesus is not telling them not to work. Nor is he telling them not to eat. Rather, Jesus is speaking of their focus: What are they focusing their lives upon? Let's discuss the translation to understand Jesus' statement more clearly:

"And do not set your heart on" is translated from the Greek phrase καὶ ὑμεῖς μὴ - actually translates literally to "And seek not..."

While "do not set your heart on..." is substantially different than "seek not" - such a translation does indicate that Jesus was not advising his students not to feed their bodies or work to feed their bodies. He was speaking of where they place their focus. Where their consciousness is focused upon.

This is confirmed by the word "worry" - being translated from the Greek word μετεωρίζομαι (meteōrizomai) - which means, when used metaphorically as Jesus was, "to cause one to waver or fluctuate in the mind," "to agitate or harass with cares," and "to make anxious."

Why is Jesus asking his students not to be anxious or agitated by food or drink?

The key to understanding this is identity. Understanding our identity means knowing that we are not these physical bodies. Our physical body is a vehicle for the spirit-person within. And like any vehicle, once the driver gets out, the vehicle no longer functions.

As such, we can compare our physical body to an automobile. We drive this body for a few decades and then we leave it behind at the time of death.

Jesus stated this clearly in his teachings. This is a key point, but the word "kingdom" is not what Jesus is speaking of. If he really said this, then he would be telling his students to be focused upon gaining access to a physical place -a self-centered goal.

And isn't this the objective of many ecclesiastical sectarian institutions and their teachers? They wanna be saved so that they can get to this place called heaven. Why? Because they want to enjoy life.

So we must ask - why would Jesus tell his students not to enjoy life here on earth but instead seek to enjoy life in heaven? Does that make any sense? Why not just enjoy life here if enjoying life was the goal?

Oh - is it because if we don't enjoy life now we will be rewarded by being able to enjoy life even more later?

This is, in fact, the proposal of many ecclesiastical sectarian teachers - that if we join their club and make some sacrifices now, we will get to enjoy life in heaven. Some sects even promise their followers they will be able to enjoy a bunch of virgins in heaven if they make sacrifices now. Others speak of "inheriting the earth" - enjoying heaven right here - after all the people who didn't join their sect are knocked off of course.

This is nothing but trickery - it is fraud. And this is not what Jesus said at all.

Jesus used the word βασιλεία (basileia) - which according to the lexicon, does not refer to a physical kingdom at all: "royal power, kingship, dominion, rule;" "not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom."

The word is followed by the word αὐτοῦ - meaning "His" - referring to God. This means that Jesus was speaking of accepting God's royal power and God's dominion, and God's kingship. What does this mean?

It means to accept the Supreme Being as being in charge of my life. It means to surrender myself to the Supreme Being. It means to surrender my will to the will of God.

Jesus wasn't promising his students that they would enjoy life later. He was advising them to focus on surrendering their lives to the Supreme Being here and now. Why?

Because this is our natural position. Each of us is the spirit-person within this physical body. Each of us is a child of God - created by the Supreme Being to love Him and serve Him. As such, this and only this will give us fulfillment.

So why - if the lexicon is clear that the word does not mean "kingdom" - do they insist on translating the word to "kingdom" - not only in this instance, but in many other instances among Jesus' teachings?

Because that is what they want Jesus to say. They want to pretend that Jesus was promising that they could enjoy life even more later.

Because the people who have been translating these words over the centuries - among the various versions of the Bible - have not been interested in surrendering their lives to the Supreme Being. They were interested in getting paid for their translation work, so they translated it as others in the institution did.

In other words - ironically - they were more concerned about what they "will eat or drink" than they were about understanding Jesus' teachings.

When a person accepts someone else's "dominion" over their lives, they are surrendering themselves.

This type of phraseology - accepting another's dominion or rule - comes from a time when tribes or individuals within a tribe might surrender themselves to another tribe or leader after a conflict. Such a position would be to accept control \- to come underneath the control of the other.

But Jesus uses this term to speak of a loving surrender - not a forced surrender. Jesus is speaking of falling in love with the Supreme Being and devoting our life to Him. To surrender our life at the feet of the Supreme Being means to give ourselves in love to Him: To live our lives to please Him. This is what Jesus was doing:

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me." (John 5:30)

Jesus' focus was upon pleasing the Supreme Being. For example, when most of us are driving our car, we are focused upon the car as a means to transport us from point A to point B. And the fuel the car needs is seen as a means to keep the car running as it gets us to point B.

But what if instead, our purpose for getting into the car and driving it was to drive it to the gas station to get some fuel? Would that make any sense?

Most people would laugh at us if the main reason we drove our car was to drive it to the gas station to get some fuel. In such a case, having a car would be purposeless.

But that is precisely why it makes no sense to utilize the resources of this physical body and mind simply for the purposes of getting food and shelter, and protecting the body from danger. Just as we wouldn't drive a car just to get fuel, why use this body just to keep it alive?

Jesus is speaking of using this precious human form of life - a life that comes with the intelligence to investigate spiritual life - to learn about God and make a choice on whether we want to return to our relationship with the Supreme Being.

#  References and Bibliography

Ackerman D. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Aissa J, Litime MH, Attis E., Benveniste J. Molecular signalling at high dilution or by means of electronic circuitry. J Immunol. 1993;150:A146.

Alexandre P, Darmanyan D, Yushen G, Jenks W, Burel L, Eloy D, Jardon P. Quenching of Singlet Oxygen by Oxygen- and Sulfur-Centered Radicals: Evidence for Energy Transfer to Peroxyl Radicals in Solution. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 120 (2), 396 -403, 1998.

Amassian VE, Cracco RQ, Maccabee PJ. A sense of movement elicited in paralyzed distal arm by focal magnetic coil stimulation of human motor cortex. Brain Res. 1989 Feb 13;479(2):355-60.

Ammor MS, Michaelidis C, Nychas GJ. Insights into the role of quorum sensing in food spoilage. J Food Prot. 2008 Jul;71(7):1510-25.

Anderson GC, Moore E, Hepworth J, Bergman N. Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(2):CD003519.

Appleman P ed. Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1970.

Aronne LJ, Thornton-Jones ZD. New targets for obesity pharmacotherapy. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2007 May;81(5):748-52.

Asimov I. The Chemicals of Life. New York: Signet, 1954.

Askeland D. The Science and Engineering of Materials. Boston: PWS, 1994.

Aspect A, Grangier P, Roger G. Experimental Realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell's Inequalities. Physical Review Letters. 1982;49(2): 91-94.

Aton SJ, Colwell CS, Harmar AJ, Waschek J, Herzog ED. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide mediates circadian rhythmicity and synchrony in mammalian clock neurons. Nat Neurosci. 2005 Apr;8(4):476-83.

Avanzini G, Lopez L, Koelsch S, Majno M. The Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2006 Mar;1060.

Aymard JP, Aymard B, Netter P, Bannwarth B, Trechot P, Streiff F. Haematological adverse effects of histamine H2-receptor antagonists. Med Toxicol Adverse Drug Exp. 1988 Nov-Dec;3(6):430-48.

Bach E. Heal Thyself. Saffron Walden: CW Daniel, 1931-2003.

Bache C. Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life. New York: Paragon House, 1994.

Backster C. Primary Perception: Biocommunication with Plants, Living Foods, and Human Cells. Anza, CA: White Rose Millennium Press, 2003.

Bader J. The relative power of SNPs and haplotype as genetic markers for association tests. Pharmacogenomics. 2001;2:11-24.

Bai H, Yu P, Yu M. Effect of electroacununcture on sex hormone levels in patients with Sjogren's syndrome. Zhen Ci Yan Jiu. 2007;32(3):203-6.

Baker DW. An introduction to the theory and practice of German electroacupuncture and accompanying medications. Am J Acupunct. 1984;12:327-332.

Ballentine RM. Radical Healing. New York: Harmony Books, 1999.

Bannerjee H. Americans Who Have Been Reincarnated. New York: Macmillan, 1980.

Banyo T. The role of electrical neuromodulation in the therapy of chronic lower urinary tract dysfunction. Ideggyogy Sz. 2003 Jan 20;56(1-2):68-71.

Baranauskas G, Nistri A. Sensitization of pain pathways in the spinal cord: cellular mechanisms. Prog Neurobiol. 1998 Feb;54(3):349-65.

Barber CF. The use of music and colour theory as a behaviour modifier. Br J Nurs. 1999 Apr 8-21;8(7):443-8.

Barker A. Scientific Method in Ptolemy's Harmonics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Barron M. Light exposure, melatonin secretion, and menstrual cycle parameters: an integrative review. Biol Res Nurs. 2007 Jul;9(1):49-69.

Bastide M, Doucet-Jaboeuf M, Daurat V. Activity and chronopharmacology of very low doses of physiological immune inducers. Immun Today. 1985;6: 234-235.

Bastide M. Immunological examples on ultra high dilution research. In: Endler P, Schulte J (eds.): Ultra High Dilution. Physiology and Physics. Dordrech: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994:27-34.

Bates DW, Cullen DJ, Laird N, Petersen LA, Small SD, Servi D, Laffel G, Sweitzer BJ, Shea BF, Hallisey R, et al. Incidence of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events. Implications for prevention. ADE Prevention Study Group. JAMA. 1995 Jul 5;274(1):29-34.

Becker R. Cross Currents. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1990.

Becker R. The Body Electric. New York: William Morrow, 1985.

Beckerman H, Becher J, Lankhorst GJ. The effectiveness of vibratory stimulation in anejaculatory men with spinal cord injury. Paraplegia. 1993 Nov;31(11):689-99.

Beeson, C. The moon and plant growth. Nature. 1946;158:572–3.

Bell B, Defouw R. Concerning a lunar modulation of geomagnetic activity. J Geophys Res. 1964;69:3169-3174.

Beloff J. Parapsychology and radical dualism. J Rel & Psych Res. 1985;8, 3-10.

Benedetti F, Radaelli D, Bernasconi A, Dallaspezia S, Falini A, Scotti G, Lorenzi C, Colombo C, Smeraldi E. Clock genes beyond the clock: CLOCK genotype biases neural correlates of moral valence decision in depressed patients. Genes Brain Behav. 2007 Mar 26.

Bennett GJ, Update on the neurophysiology of pain transmission and modulation: focus on the NMDA-receptor. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2000;19 (suppl 1):S.:2-6.

Benor D. Healing Research. Volume 1. Munich, Germany: Helix Verlag, 1992.

Bentley E. Awareness: Biorhythms, Sleep and Dreaming. London: Routledge, 2000

Benveniste J, Aïssa J, Guillonnet D. A simple and fast method for in vivo demonstration of electromagnetic molecular signaling (EMS) via high dilution or computer recording. FASEB Jnl. 1999;13: A163.

Benveniste J, Aïssa J, Guillonnet D. Digital Biology : Specificity of the digitized molecular signal. FASEB Jnl. 1998;12: A412.

Benveniste J, Aïssa J, Litime M, Tsangaris G, Thomas Y. Transfer of the molecular signal by electronic amplification. FASEB J. 1994;8:A398.

Berk M, Dodd S, Henry M. Do ambient electromagnetic fields affect behaviour? A demonstration of the relationship between geomagnetic storm activity and suicide. Bioelectromagnetics. 2006 Feb;27(2):151-5.

Bertin G. Spiral Structure in Galaxies: A Density Wave Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.

Bishop B. Pain: its physiology and rationale for management. Part III. Consequences of current concepts of pain mechanisms related to pain management. Phys Ther. 1980 Jan;60(1):24-37.

Bishop, C. Moon influence in lettuce growth. Astrol J. 1977;10(1):13-15.

Bitbol M, Luisi PL. Autopoiesis with or without cognition: defining life at its edge. J R Soc Interface. 2004 Nov 22;1(1):99-107.

Blackmore SJ. Near-death experiences. J R Soc Med. 1996 Feb;89(2):73-6.

Bockemühl, J. Towards a Phenomenology of the Etheric World. New York: Anthroposophical Press, 1985.

Bodnar L, Simhan H. The prevalence of preterm birth varies by season of last menstrual period. Am J Obst and Gyn. 2003:195(6);S211-S211.

Boivin DB, Czeisler CA. Resetting of circadian melatonin and cortisol rhythms in humans by ordinary room light. Neuroreport. 1998 Mar 30;9(5):779-82.

Boivin DB, Duffy JF, Kronauer RE, Czeisler CA. Dose-response relationships for resetting of human circadian clock by light. Nature. 1996 Feb 8;379(6565):540-2.

Bose J. Response in the Living and Non-Living. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902.

Bottorff JL. The use and meaning of touch in caring for patients with cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum. 1993 Nov-Dec;20(10):1531-8.

Bourgine P, Stewart J. Autopoiesis and cognition. Artif Life. 2004 Summer;10(3):327-45.

Bowler PJ. The Eclipse of Darwinism: Antievolutionary Theories in the Decades Around 1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1983.

Brasseur JG, Nicosia MA, Pal A, Miller LS. Function of longitudinal vs circular muscle fibers in esophageal peristalsis, deduced with mathematical modeling. World J Gastroenterol. 2007 Mar 7;13(9):1335-46.

Braude S. First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind. Landham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995.

Britton WB, Bootzin RR. Near-death experiences and the temporal lobe. Psychol Sci. 2004 Apr;15(4):254-8.

Brodeur P. Currents of Death. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Brown V. The Amateur Naturalists Handbook. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980.

Brown, F. The rhythmic nature of animals and plants. Cycles. 1960 Apr:81-92.

Brown, J. Stimulation-produced analgesia: acupuncture, TENS and alternative techniques. Anaesthesia &intensive care medicine. 2005 Feb;6(2):45-47.

Browne J. Developmental Care - Considerations for Touch and Massage in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Neonatatal Network. 2000 Feb;19(1).

Buck L, Axel R. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: A molecule basis for odor recognition. Cell. 1991;65(April 5):175-187.

Buijs RM, Scheer FA, Kreier F, Yi C, Bos N, Goncharuk VD, Kalsbeek A. Organization of circadian functions: interaction with the body. Prog Brain Res. 2006;153:341-60.

Bulsing PJ, Smeets MA, van den Hout MA. Positive Implicit Attitudes toward Odor Words. Chem Senses. 2007 May 7.

Burnham K, Andersson D. Model Selection and Inference. A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach. New York: Springer, 1998

Burr H, Hovland C. Bio-Electric Potential Gradients in the Chick. Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine. 1937;9:247-258

Burr H, Lane C, Nims L. A Vacuum Tube Microvoltmeter for the Measurement of Bioelectric Phenomena. Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine. 1936;10:65-76.

Burr H, Smith G, Strong L. Bio-electric Properties of Cancer-Resistant and Cancer-Susceptible Mice. American Journal of Cancer. 1938;32:240-248

Burr H. The Fields of Life. New York: Ballantine, 1972.

Buzsaki G. Theta rhythm of navigation: link between path integration and landmark navigation, episodic and semantic memory. Hippocampus. 2005;15(7):827-40.

Calvin W. The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks. Boston: MIT Press, 1995.

Campbell A. The role of aluminum and copper on neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's disease. J Alzheimers Dis. 2006 Nov;10(2-3):165-72.

Capitani D, Yethiraj A, Burnell EE. Memory effects across surfactant mesophases. Langmuir. 2007 Mar 13;23(6):3036-48.

Cassileth B, Trevisan C, Gubili J. Complementary therapies for cancer pain. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2007 Aug;11(4):265-9.

Cavalli-Sforza L, Feldman M. Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1981.

Cengel YA, Heat Transfer: A Practical Approach. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Chaitow L. Conquer Pain the Natural Way. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002.

Choi DW. Glutamate neurotoxicity and diseases of the nervous system. Neuron. 1988;1:623-34.

Churchill G, Doerge R. Empirical threshold values for quantitative trait mapping. Genetics 1994;138:963-971.

Chwirot WB, Popp F. White-light-induced luminescence and mitotic activity of yeast cells. Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica. 1991;29(4):155.

Citro M, Endler PC, Pongratz W, Vinattieri C, Smith CW, Schulte J. Hormone effects by electronic transmission. FASEB J. 1995:Abstract 12161.

Citro M, Smith CW, Scott-Morley A, Pongratz W, Endler PC. Transfer of information from molecules by means of electronic amplification, in P.C. Endler, J. Schulte (eds.): Ultra High Dilution. Physiology and Physics. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1994;209-214.

Cocilovo A. Colored light therapy: overview of its history, theory, recent developments and clinical applications combined with acupuncture. Am J Acupunct. 1999;27(1-2):71-83.

Cohen S, Popp F. Biophoton emission of the human body. J Photochem & Photobio. 1997;B 40:187-189.

Cohen S, Popp F. Low-level luminescence of the human skin. Skin Res Tech. 1997;3:177-180.

Conely J. Music and the Military. Air University Review. 1972 Mar-Ap.

Contreras D, Steriade M. Cellular basis of EEG slow rhythms: a study of dynamic corticothalamic relationships. J Neurosci. 1995 Jan;15(1 Pt 2):604-22.

Cook J, The Therapeutic Use of Music. Nursing Forum. 1981;20:3: 253-66.

Corkin S, Amaral DG, González RG, et al: H. M.'s medial temporal lobe lesion: findings from magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci. 1997;17:3964-3979.

Cox CB. Emory-led Study Links Metals to Alzheimer's and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases. Emory Univ Mag. 2007 Aug 10.

Craciunescu CN, Wu R, Zeisel SH. Diethanolamine alters neurogenesis and induces apoptosis in fetal mouse hippocampus. FASEB J. 2006 Aug;20(10):1635-40.

Crick F. Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.

Crofford LJ. Neuroendocrine abnormalities in fibromyalgia and related disorders. Am J Med Sci. 1998;315:359-66.

Cross ML. Immune-signalling by orally-delivered probiotic bacteria: effects on common mucosal immunoresponses and protection at distal mucosal sites. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2004 May-Aug;17(2):127-134.

Cruccu G, Aziz TZ, Garcia-Larrea L, Hansson P, Jensen TS, Lefaucheur JP, Simpson BA, Taylor RS. EFNS guidelines on neurostimulation therapy for neuropathic pain. Eur J Neurol. 2007 Sep;14(9):952-70.

Cummings M. Human Heredity: Principles and Issues. St. Paul, MN: West, 1988.

Curtis LH, Østbye T, Sendersky V, Hutchison S, Dans PE, Wright A, Woosley RL, Schulman KA. Inappropriate prescribing for elderly Americans in a large outpatient population. Arch Intern Med. 2004 Aug 9-23;164(15):1621-5.

Cuthbert SC, Goodheart GJ Jr. On the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing: a literature review. Chiropr Osteopat. 2007 Mar 6;15:4.

Dalmose A, Bjarkam C, Vuckovic A, Sorensen JC, Hansen J. Electrostimulation: a future treatment option for patients with neurogenic urodynamic disorders? APMIS Suppl. 2003;(109):45-51.

Darrow K. The Renaissance of Physics. New York: Macmillan, 1936.

DaVinci L. (Dickens E. ed.) The Da Vinci Notebooks. London: Profile, 2005.

Dawkins R. Climbing Mount Improbable. New York: Viking Press, 1996.

Dawkins R. River out of Eden. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1995.

Dawkins R. The Blind Watchmaker. Essex: Longman Scientific and Technical, 1986.

Dawkins R. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1977 (1989 edition).

Dean C. Death by Modern Medicine. Belleville, ON: Matrix Verite-Media, 2005.

Dean E, Mihalasky J, Ostrander S, Schroeder L. Executive ESP. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.

Dean E. Infrared measurements of healer-treated water. In: Roll W, Beloff J, White R (Eds.): Research in parapsychology 1982. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983:100-101.

Defrin R, Ohry A, Blumen N, Urca G. Sensory determinants of thermal pain. Brain. 2002 Mar;125(Pt 3):501-10.

Deitel M. Applications of electrical pacing in the body. Obes Surg. 2004 Sep;14 Suppl 1:S3-8.

Delcomyn F. Foundations of Neurobiology. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1998.

Dement W, Vaughan C. The Promise of Sleep. New York: Dell, 1999.

Dennett D. Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind & Psychology. Cambridge: MIT Press., 1980.

Dennett D. Consciousness Explained. London: Little, Brown and Co., 1991.

Depue BE, Banich MT, Curran T. Suppression of emotional and nonemotional content in memory: effects of repetition on cognitive control. Psychol Sci. 2006 May;17(5):441-7.

Dere E, Kart-Teke E, Huston JP, De Souza Silva MA. The case for episodic memory in animals. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2006;30(8):1206-24.

Devulder J, Crombez E, Mortier E. Central pain: an overview. Acta Neurol Belg. 2002 Sep;102(3):97-103.

Dhond RP, Kettner N, Napadow V. Neuroimaging acupuncture effects in the human brain. J Altern Complement Med. 2007 Jul-Aug;13(6):603-16.

Dieter JN, Field T, Hernandez-Reif M, Emory EK, Redzepi M. Stable preterm infants gain more weight and sleep less after five days of massage therapy. J Pediatr Psychol. 2003 Sep;28(6):403-11.

Dimitriadis GD, Raptis SA. Thyroid hormone excess and glucose intolerance. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. 2001;109 Suppl 2:S225-39.

Dobrowolski J, Ezzahir A, Knapik M. Possibilities of chemiluminescence application in comparative studies of animal and cancer cells with special attention to leucemic blood cells. In: Jezowska-Trzebiatowska, B., et al. (eds.). Photon Emission from Biological Systems. Singapore: World Scientific Publ, 1987:170-183.

Dolcos F, LaBar KS, Cabeza R. Interaction between the amygdala and the medial temporal lobe memory system predicts better memory for emotional events. Neuron. 2004 Jun 10;42(5):855-63.

Duke M. Acupuncture. New York: Pyramid, 1973.

Dunlop KA, Carson DJ, Shields MD. Hypoglycemia due to adrenal suppression secondary to high-dose nebulized corticosteroid. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2002 Jul;34(1):85-6.

Dunne B, Jahn R, Nelson R. Precognitive Remote Perception. Princeton Engineering Anomalies Res Lab Rep. Princeton. 1983 Aug.

Eden D, Feinstein D. Energy Medicine. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1998.

Edwards B. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Los Angeles, CA: Tarcher, 1979.

Edwards R, Ibison M, Jessel-Kenyon J, Taylor R. Light emission from the human body. Comple Med Res. 1989;3(2): 16-19.

Edwards R, Ibison M, Jessel-Kenyon J, Taylor R. Measurements of human bioluminescence. Acup Elect Res, Intl Jnl, 1990;15: 85-94.

Edwards, L. The Vortex of Life, Nature's Patterns in Space and Time. Floris Press, 1993.

Egon G, Chartier-Kastler E, Denys P, Ruffion A. Spinal cord injury patient and Brindley neurostimulation. Prog Urol. 2007 May;17(3):535-9.

Electromagnetic fields: the biological evidence. Science. 1990;249: 1378-1381.

Electronic Evidence of Auras, Chakras in UCLA Study. Brain/Mind Bulletin. 1978;3:9 Mar 20.

Ellison CG, Burdette AM, Hill TD. Blessed assurance: religion, anxiety, and tranquility among US adults. Soc Sci Res. 2009 Sep;38(3):656-67.

Erdelyi R. MHD waves and oscillations in the solar plasma. Introduction. Philos Transact A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2006 Feb 15;364(1839):289-96.

Esch T, Stefano GB. The Neurobiology of Love. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2005 Jun;26(3):175-92.

Evans P, Forte D, Jacobs C, Fredhoi C, Aitchison E, Hucklebridge F, Clow A. Cortisol secretory activity in older people in relation to positive and negative well-being. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2007 Aug 7

Falcon CT. Happiness and Personal Problems. Lafayette, LA: Sensible Psychology, 1992.

Field TM, Schanberg SM, Scafidi F, Bauer CR, Vega-Lahr N, Garcia R, Nystrom J, Kuhn CM. Tactile/kinesthetic stimulation effects on preterm neonates. Pediatrics. 1986 May;77(5):654-8.

Forget-Dubois N, Boivin M, Dionne G, Pierce T, Tremblay RE, Perusse D. A longitudinal twin study of the genetic and environmental etiology of maternal hostile-reactive behavior during infancy and toddlerhood. Infant Behav Dev. 2007 Aug;30(3):453-65.

Frawley D, Lad V. The Yoga of Herbs. Sante Fe: Lotus Press, 1986.

Freeman W. The Physiology of Perception. Sci. Am. 1991 Feb.

Frey A. Electromagnetic field interactions with biological systems. FASEB Jnl. 1993;7: 272-28.

Fucile S, Gisel EG, Lau C. Effect of an oral stimulation program on sucking skill maturation of preterm infants. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2005 Mar;47(3):158-62.

Fukumoto H, Tokuda T, Kasai T, Ishigami N, Hidaka H, Kondo M, Allsop D, Nakagawa M. High-molecular-weight {beta}-amyloid oligomers are elevated in cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer patients. FASEB J. 2010 Mar 25.

Fuster JM. Prefrontal neurons in networks of executive memory. Brain Res Bull. 2000 Jul 15;52(5):331-6.

Gabriel S, Schaffner S, Nguyen H, Moore J, Roy J. The structure of haplotype blocks in the human genome. Science. 2002;296:2225-2229.

Galaev, YM. The Measuring of Ether-Drift Velocity and Kinematic Ether Viscosity within Optical Wave Bands. Spacetime & Substance. 2002;3(5): 207-224.

Gambini JP, Velluti RA, Pedemonte M. Hippocampal theta rhythm synchronizes visual neurons in sleep and waking. Brain Res. 2002 Feb 1;926(1-2):137-41.

Gandhi T, Weingart S, Borus J, Seger A, Peterson J, Burdick E, Seger D, Shu K, Federico F, Leape L, Bates D. Adverse drug events in ambulatory care. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 17;348(16):1556-64.

Garcia-Lazaro JA, Ahmed B, Schnupp JW. Tuning to natural stimulus dynamics in primary auditory cortex. Curr Biol. 2006 Feb 7;16(3):264-71.

Gau SS, Soong WT, Merikangas KR. Correlates of sleep-wake patterns among children and young adolescents in Taiwan. Sleep. 2004 May 1;27(3):512-9.

Gerber R. Vibrational Healing. Sante Fe: Bear, 1988.

Gisler GC, Diaz J, Duran N. Observations on Blood Plasma Chemiluminescence in Normal Subjects and Cancer Patients. Arq Biol Tecnol. 1983;26(3):345-352.

Glover J. The Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press, 1976.

Goldberg B. Past Lives, Future Lives. New York: Ballantine, 1982.

Golub E. The Limits of Medicine. New York: Times Books, 1994.

Gomez-Abellan P, Hernandez-Morante JJ, Lujan JA, Madrid JA, Garaulet M. Clock genes are implicated in the human metabolic syndrome. Int J Obes. 2007 Jul 24.

Gould SJ. Eight Little Piggies. New York: Norton, 1993.

Gould SJ. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the nature of history. New York: Penguin Books, 1989.

Grad B, Dean E. Independent confirmation of infrared healer effects. In: White R, Broughton R (Eds.): Research in parapsychology 1983. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1984:81-83.

Grad B. A Telekinetic Effect on Plant Growth. Intl Jnl Parapsy. 1964;6: 473.

Grad B. The 'Laying on of Hands': Implications for Psychotherapy, Gentling, and the Placebo Effect. Jnl Amer Soc for Psych Res. 1967 Oct;61(4): 286-305.

Grad, B. A telekinetic effect on plant growth: II. Experiments involving treatment of saline in stoppered bottles. Internl J Parapsychol. 1964;6:473-478, 484-488.

Grasmuller S, Irnich D. Acupuncture in pain therapy. MMW Fortschr Med. 2007 Jun 21;149(25-26):37-9.

Grasso F, Musumeci F, Triglia A, Rodolico G, Cammisuli F, Rinzivillo C, Fragati G, Santuccio A, Rodolico M. In Stanley P, Kricka L (ed). Ultraweak Luminescence from Cancer Tissues. In Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence - Current Status. New York: J Wiley & Sons. 1991:277-280.

Grasso F, Musumeci F, Triglia A. Yanbastiev M. Borisova, S. Self-irradiation effect on yeast cells. Photochemistry and Photobiology. 1991;54(1):147-149.

Grissom C. Magnetic field effects in biology: A survey of possible mechanisms with emphasis on radical pair recombination. Chem. Rev. 1995;95: 3-24.

Grobstein P. Directed movement in the frog: motor choice, spatial representation, free will? Neurobiology of motor programme selection. Pergamon Press, 1992.

Gupta A, Rash GS, Somia NN, Wachowiak MP, Jones J, Desoky A. The motion path of the digits. J Hand Surg. 1998; 23A:1038-1042.

Hagins WA, Penn RD, Yoshikami S. Dark current and photocurrent in retinal rods. Biophys J. 1970 May;10(5):380-412.

Hagins WA, Robinson WE, Yoshikami S. Ionic aspects of excitation in rod outer segments. Ciba Found Symp. 1975;(31):169-89.

Hagins WA, Yoshikami S. Ionic mechanisms in excitation of photoreceptors. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1975 Dec 30;264:314-25.

Hagins WA, Yoshikami S. Proceedings: A role for Ca2+ in excitation of retinal rods and cones. Exp Eye Res. 1974 Mar;18(3):299-305.

Hagins WA. The visual process: Excitatory mechanisms in the primary receptor cells. Annu Rev Biophys Bioeng. 1972;1:131-58.

Halliday GM, Agar NS, Barnetson RS, Ananthaswamy HN, Jones AM. UV-A fingerprint mutations in human skin cancer. Photochem Photobiol. 2005 Jan-Feb;81(1):3-8.

Halpern S. Tuning the Human Instrument. Palo Alto, CA: Spectrum Research Institute, 1978.

Hamel P. Through Music to the Self: How to Appreciate and Experience Music. Boulder: Shambala, 1979.

Hameroff SR, Penrose R. Conscious events as orchestrated spacetime selections. J Consc Studies. 1996;3(1):36-53.

Hameroff SR, Penrose R. Orchestrated reduction of quantum coherence in brain microtubules: A model for consciousness. In: Hameroff SN, Kaszniak A, Scott AC (eds.): Toward a Science of Consciousness - The First Tucson Discussions and Debates. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.

Hameroff SR, Smith, S, Watt.R. Nonlinear electrodynamics in cytoskeletal protein lattices. In: Adey W, Lawrence A (eds.), Nonlinear Electrodynamics in Biological Systems. 1984:567-583.

Hameroff SR, Watt, R. Information processing in microtubules. J Theor Biology. 1982;98:549-561.

Hameroff SR. Coherence in the cytoskeleton: Implications for biological information processing. In: Fröhlich H. (ed.): Biological Coherence and Response to External Stimuli. Springer, Berlin-New York 1988, pp.242-264.

Hameroff SR. Light is heavy: Wave mechanics in proteins - A microtubule hologram model of consciousness. Proceedings 2nd. International Congress on Psychotronic Research. Monte Carlo, 1975:168-169.

Hameroff SR. The "conscious pilot"-dendritic synchrony moves through the brain to mediate consciousness. J Biol Phys. 2010 Jan;36(1):71-93.

Hameroff SR. Ultimate Biocomputing - Biomolecular Consciousness and Nanotechnology. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1987.

Hameroff, SR. Ch'i: A neural hologram? Microtubules, bioholography and acupuncture. Am J Chin Med. 1974;2(2):163-170.

Hans J. The Structure and Dynamics of Waves and Vibrations. New York:.Schocken and Co., 1975.

Harlow HF, Dodsworth RO, Harlow MK. Total social isolation in monkeys. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1965.

Harlow HF. Development of affection in primates. In Bliss E (ed): Roots of Behavior. New York: Harper, 1962: 157-166.

Harlow HF. Early social deprivation and later behavior in the monkey. In: Abrams A, Gurner H, Tomal J (eds): Unfinished tasks in the behavioral sciences. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. 1964: 154-173.

Hayes JA. TAC-TIC therapy: a non-pharmacological stroking intervention for premature infants. Complement Ther Nurs Midwifery. 1998 Feb;4(1):25-7.

Heinrich H. Assessment of non-sinusoidal, pulsed, or intermittent exposure to low frequency electric and magnetic fields. Health Phys. 2007 Jun;92(6):541-6.

Helms JA, Farnham PJ, Segal E, Chang HY. Functional demarcation of active and silent chromatin domains in human HOX loci by noncoding RNAs. Cell. 2007 Jun 29;129(7):1311-23.

Hernandez-Reif M, Diego M, Field T. Preterm infants show reduced stress behaviors and activity after 5 days of massage therapy. Infant Behav Dev. 2007 Dec;30(4):557-61.

Heyers D, Manns M, Luksch H, Gu¨ ntu¨ rku¨n O, Mouritsen H. A Visual Pathway Links Brain Structures Active during Magnetic Compass Orientation in Migratory Birds. PLoS One. 2007;2(9): e937. 2007.

Hillecke T, Nickel A, Bolay HV. Scientific perspectives on music therapy. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Dec;1060:271-82.

Hobbs C. Stress & Natural Healing. Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, 1997.

Hollwich F. Hartmann C. Influence of light through the eyes on metabolism and hormones. Ophtalmologie. 1990;4(4):385-9.

Hollwich F. The influence of ocular light perception on metabolism in man and in animal. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1979.

Holmquist G. Susumo Ohno left us January 13, 2000, at the age of 71. Cytogenet and Cell Genet. 2000;88:171-172.

Hope M. The Psychology of Healing. Longmead UK: Element Books, 1989.

Hoskin M.(ed.). The Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1997.

Hoyle F. Evolution from Space. Londong: JM Dent, 1981.

Huffman C. Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, philosopher and Mathematician King. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Hull D. Science as a Process: An evolutionary account of the social and conceptual development of science. Chicago: Univ Chicago Press, 1988.

Hunt V. Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness. Malibu: Malibu Publ. 2000.

Hur YM, Rushton JP. Genetic and environmental contributions to prosocial behaviour in 2- to 9-year-old South Korean twins. Biol Lett. 2007 Aug 28.

Inaba H. INABA Biophoton. Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology. Japan Science and Technology Agency. 1991. http://www.jst.go.jp/erato/project/isf_P/isf_P.html. Acc. 2006 Nov.

International HapMap Consortium. The international HapMap project. Nature. 2003;426:789-794.

Jahn R, Dunne, B. Margins of Reality: the Role of Consciousness in the Physical World. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987.

Janssens D, Delaive E, Houbion A, Eliaers F, Remacle J, Michiels C. Effect of venotropic drugs on the respiratory activity of isolated mitochondria and in endothelial cells. Br J Pharmacol. 2000 Aug;130(7):1513-24.

Jensen HK. The molecular genetic basis and diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia in Denmark. Dan Med Bull. 2002 Nov;49(4):318-45.

Ji Y, Liu YB, Zheng LY, Zhang XQ. Survey of studies on tissue structures and biological characteristics of channel lines. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2007 Jun;27(6):427-32.

Johari H. Ayurvedic Massage: Traditional Indian Techniques for Balancing Body and Mind. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts, 1996.

Johari H. Chakras. Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1987.

Johnston A. A spatial property of the retino-cortical mapping. Spatial Vision. 1986;1(4):319-331.

Johnston RE. Pheromones, the vomeronasal system, and communication. From hormonal responses to individual recognition. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1998 Nov 30;855:333-48.

Kandel E, Siegelbaum S, Schwartz J. Synaptic transmission. Principles of Neural Science. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Karis TE, Jhon MS. Flow-induced anisotropy in the susceptibility of a particle suspension. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1986 Jul;83(14):4973-4977.

Karnstedt J. Ions and Consciousness. Whole Self. 1991 Spring.

Keil J, Stevenson I. Do cases of the reincarnation type show similar features over many years? A study of Turkish cases. J. Sci. Exploration. 1999;13(2) 189-198.

Keil J. New cases in Burma, Thailand, and Turkey: A limited field study replication of some aspects of Ian Stevenson's work. J. Sci. Exploration. 1991;5(1):27-59.

Kelder P. Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth: Book 1. New York: Doubleday, 1998.

Kerr CC, Rennie CJ, Robinson PA. Physiology-based modeling of cortical auditory evoked potentials. Biol Cybern. 2008 Feb;98(2):171-84.

Key T, Appleby P, Davey G, Allen N, Spencer E, Travis R. Mortality in British vegetarians: review and preliminary results from EPIC-Oxford. Amer. Jour. Clin. Nutr. Suppl. 2003;78(3): 533S-538S.

Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Graham JE, Malarkey WB, Porter K, Lemeshow S, Glaser R. Olfactory influences on mood and autonomic, endocrine, and immune function. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2008 Apr;33(3):328-39.

Kirlian SD, Kirlian V, Photography and Visual Observation by Means of High-Frequency Currents. J Sci Appl Photog. 1963;6(6).

Klaus M. Mother and infant: early emotional ties. Pediatrics. 1998 Nov;102(5 Suppl E):1244-6.

Klein E, Smith D, Laxminarayan R. Trends in Hospitalizations and Deaths in the United States Associated with Infections Caused by Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, 1999-2004. Emerging Infectious Diseases. University of Florida Press Release. 2007 Dec 3.

Klein R, Landau MG. Healing: The Body Betrayed. Minneapolis: DCI:Chronimed, 1992.

Klima H, Haas O, Roschger P. Photon emission from blood cells and its possible role in immune system regulation. In: Jezowska-Trzebiatowska B., et al. (eds.): Photon Emission from Biological Systems. Singapore: World Scientific, 1987:153-169.

Kloss J. Back to Eden. Twin Oaks, WI: Lotus Press, 1939-1999.

Koch C. Debunking the Digital Brain. Sci. Am. 1997 Feb.

Koszowski B, Goniewicz M, Czogala J. Alternative methods of nicotine dependence treatment. Przegl Lek. 2005;62(10):1176-9.

Krebs K. The spiritual aspect of caring—an integral part of health and healing. Nurs Adm Q. 2001 Spring;25(3):55-60.

Kreig M. Black Market Medicine. New York: Bantam, 1968.

Kübler-Ross E. On Life After Death. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1991.

Kuo FF, Kuo JJ. Recent Advances in Acupuncture Research, Institute for Adnanced Research in Asian Science and Medicine. Garden City, New York. 1979.

Kwang Y, Cha , Daniel P, Wirth J, Lobo R. Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro. Fertilization–Embryo Transfer? Report of a Masked, Randomized Trial. J Reproductive Med. 2001;46(9).

Lad V. Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Press.

Lafrenière, G. The material Universe is made purely out of Aether. Matter is made of Waves. 2002. http://www.glafreniere.com/matter.htm. Acc. 2007 June.

Lakin-Thomas PL. Transcriptional feedback oscillators: maybe, maybe not. J Biol Rhythms. 2006 Apr;21(2):83-92.

Langhinrichsen-Rohling J, Palarea RE, Cohen J, Rohling ML. Breaking up is hard to do: unwanted pursuit behaviors following the dissolution of a romantic relationship. Violence Vict. 2000 Spring;15(1):73-90.

Latour E. Functional electrostimulation and its using in neurorehabilitation. Ortop Traumatol Rehabil. 2006 Dec 29;8(6):593-601.

Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA. 1998 Apr.

Leape L. Lucian Leape on patient safety in U.S. hospitals. Interview by Peter I Buerhaus. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2004;36(4):366-70.

Leder D. Spooky actions at a distance: physics, psi, and distant healing. J Altern Complement Med. 2005 Oct;11(5):923-30.

Lewontin R. The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. New York: Columbia Univ Press, 1974.

Li KH. Bioluminescence and stimulated coherent radiation. Laser und Elektrooptik 3. 1981:32-35.

Li N, Wang DL, Wang CW, Wu B. Discussion on randomized controlled trials about clinical researches of acupuncture and moxibustion medicine. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2007 Jul;27(7):529-32.

Lipkind M. Can the vitalistic Entelechia principle be a working instrument ? (The theory of the biological field of Alexander G.Gurvich). In: Popp F, Li K, Gu Q (eds.). Recent Advances in Biophoton Research. Singapore: World Sci Publ, 1992:469-494.

Lipkind M. Registration of spontaneous photon emission from virus-infected cell cultures: development of experimental system. Indian J Exp Biol. 2003 May;41(5):457-72.

Lloyd D and Murray D. Redox rhythmicity: clocks at the core of temporal coherence. BioEssays. 2007;29(5): 465-473.

Lovelock, J. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford: Oxford Press, 1979.

Lovely RH. Recent studies in the behavioral toxicology of ELF electric and magnetic fields. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1988;257:327-47.

Lu J, Cui Y, Shi R. A Practical English-Chinese Library of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Shanghai: Publishing House of the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1988.

Lucas A, Morley R, Cole T, Lister G, Leeson-Payne C. Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born premature. Lancet. 1992;339:261-264.

Lucas WB (ed). Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals. Past-Life Therapy. Crest Park, CA: Deep Forest Press, 1993.

Lynch M, Walsh B. Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, 1998

Lythgoe JN. Visual pigments and environmental light. Vision Res. 1984;24(11):1539-50.

Maas J, Jayson, J. K.. & Kleiber, D. A. Effects of spectral differences in illumination on fatigue. J Appl Psychol. 1974;59:524-526.

Maccabee PJ, Amassian VE, Cracco RQ, Cracco JB, Eberle L, Rudell A. Stimulation of the human nervous system using the magnetic coil. J Clin Neurophysiol. 1991 Jan;8(1):38-55.

MacDougall D. The Soul: Hypothesis Concerning Soul Substance Together with Experimental Evidence of The Existence of Such Substance. J Am Soc Psych Res. 1907 May.

MacKay D. Science, Chance, and Providence. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press, 1978.

MacKay D. The Open Mind and Other Essays. Downer's Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1988.

Maes HH, Silberg JL, Neale MC, Eaves LJ. Genetic and cultural transmission of antisocial behavior: an extended twin parent model. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2007 Feb;10(1):136-50.

Magni P, Motta M, Martini L. Leptin: a possible link between food intake, energy expenditure, and reproductive function. Regul Pept. 2000 Aug 25;92(1-3):51-6.

Magnusson A, Stefansson JG. Prevalence of seasonal affective disorder in Iceland. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993 Dec;50(12):941-6.

Mahachoklertwattana P, Sudkronrayudh K, Direkwattanachai C, Choubtum L, Okascharoen C. Decreased cortisol response to insulin induced hypoglycaemia in asthmatics treated with inhaled fluticasone propionate. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Nov;89(11):1055-8.

Marks C. Commissurotomy, Consciousness, and Unity of Mind. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.

Marks L. The Unity of the Senses: Interrelations among the Modalities. New York: Academic Press, 1978.

Mastorakos G, Pavlatou M. Exercise as a stress model and the interplay between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal and the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axes. Horm Metab Res. 2005 Sep;37(9):577-84.

Matutinovic Z, Galic M. Relative magnetic hearing threshold. Laryngol Rhinol Otol. 1982 Jan;61(1):38-41.

Mayr E. Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an evolutionist. Boston: Belknap Press, 1988.

Mayron L, Ott J, Nations R, Mayron E. Light, radiation and academic behaviour: Initial studies on the effects of full-spectrum lighting and radiation shielding on behaviour and academic performance of school children. Acad Ther. 1974;10, 33-47.

McConnel JV, Cornwell PR, Clay M. An apparatus for conditioning Planaria. Am J Psychol. 1960 Dec;73:618-22.

McCulloch M, Jezierski T, Broffman M, Hubbard A, Turner K, Janecki T. Diagnostic accuracy of canine scent detection in early- and late-stage lung and breast cancers. Integr Cancer Ther. 2006 Mar;5(1):30-9.

McTaggart L. The Field. New York: Quill, 2003.

Mead GRS. Thrice-Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis. London: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1906.

Medieval Sourcebook: Fifth Ecumenical Council. Constantinople II, 553

Meinecke FW. Sequelae and rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries. Curr Opin Neurol Neurosurg. 1991 Oct;4(5):714-9.

Melzack R, Coderre TJ, Katz J, Vaccarino AL. Central neuroplasticity and pathological pain. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001 Mar;933:157-74.

Melzack R, Wall PD. Pain mechanisms: a new theory. Science. 1965 Nov 19;150(699):971-9.

Melzack R. Evolution of the neuromatrix theory of pain. The prithvi raj lecture: presented at the third world congress of world institute of pain, barcelona 2004. Pain Pract. 2005 Jun;5(2):85-94.

Melzack R. Pain—an overview. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 1999 Oct;43(9):880-4.

Melzack R. Pain: past, present and future. Can J Exp Psychol. 1993 Dec;47(4):615-29.

Miller GT. Living in the Environment. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996.

Miller JD, Morin LP, Schwartz WJ, Moore RY. New insights into the mammalian circadian clock. Sleep. 1996 Oct;19(8):641-67.

Miller K. Cholesterol and In-Hospital Mortality in Elderly Patients. Am Family Phys. 2004 May.

Mills A. A replication study: Three cases of children in northern India who are said to remember a previous life," J. Sci. Explor. 1989;3(2):133-184.

Mills A. Moslem cases of the reincarnation type in northern India: A test of the hypothesis of imposed identification, Part I: Analysis of 26 cases. J. Sci. Exploration. 1990;4(2):171-188.

Mindell E, Hopkins V. Prescription Alternatives. New Canaan CT: Keats, 1998.

Mineev VN, Bulatova NI, Fedoseev GB. Erythrocyte insulin-reactive system and carbohydrate metabolism in bronchial asthma. Ter Arkh. 2002;74(3):14-7.

Mishkin M, Appenzeller T. The Anatomy of Memory. Sci. Am. 1987 June.

Mishkin M. Memory in monkeys severely impaired by combined but not by separate removal of amygdala and hippocampus. Nature. 1978;273: 297-298.

Mitchell JL. Out-of-Body Experiences: A Handbook. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981.

Miu AC, Benga O. Aluminum and Alzheimer's disease: a new look. J Alzheimers Dis. 2006 Nov;10(2-3):179-201.

Modern Biology. Austin: Harcourt Brace, 1993.

Monod J. Chance and Necessity. New York: Vintage, 1972.

Monroe R. Far Journeys. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1985.

Monroe R. Journeys Out of the Body. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1977.

Montanes P, Goldblum MC, Boller F. The naming impairment of living and nonliving items in Alzheimer's disease. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 1995 Jan;1(1):39-48.

Moody R. Coming Back: A Psychiatrist Explores Past-Life Journeys. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.

Moody R. Life After Life. New York: Bantam, 1975.

Moody, R. Reflections on Lfe After Life: More Important Discoveries In The Ongoing Investigation Of Survival Of Life After Bodily Death. New York: Bantam, 1977.

Moore RY. Neural control of the pineal gland. Behav Brain Res. 1996;73(1-2):125-30.

Moore RY. Organization and function of a central nervous system circadian oscillator: the suprachiasmatic hypothalamic nucleus. Fed Proc. 1983 Aug;42(11):2783-9.

Morick H. Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind: Readings from Descartes to Strawson. Glenview, Ill: Scott Foresman, 1970.

Morse M. Closer to the Light. New York: Ivy Books, 1990.

Morton C. Velocity Alters Electric Field. www.amasci.com/ freenrg/ morton1.html. Accessed 2007 July.

Morton G. Hypothalamic Leptin Regulation of Energy Homeostasis and Glucose Metabolism. J Physiol. 2007 Jun 21.

Motoyama H. Acupuncture Meridians. Science & Medicine. 1999 July/August.

Motoyama H. Before Polarization Current and the Acupuncture Meridians. Journal of Holistic Medicine. 1986;8(1&2).

Motoyama H. Deficient/ Excessive Patterns Found in Meridian Functioning in Cases of Liver Disease. Subtle Energy & Energy Medicine. 2000; 11(2).

Motoyama H. Energetic Medicine: new science of healing: An interview with A. Jackson. www.shareintl.org/archives/health-healing/hh_adjenergetic.html. Acc. 2007 Oct.

Motoyama H. Smith, W. Harada T. Pre-Polarization Resistance of the Skin as Determined by the Single Square Voltage Pulse. Psychophysiology. 1984;21(5).

Muhlack S, Lemmer W, Klotz P, Muller T, Lehmann E, Klieser E. Anxiolytic effect of rescue remedy for psychiatric patients: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2006 Oct;26(5):541-2.

Mumby DG, Wood ER, Pinel J. Object-recognition memory is only mildly impaired in rats with lesions of the hippocampus and amygdala. Psychobio. 1992;20: 18-27.

Murchie G. The Seven Mysteries of Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978.

Musaev AV, Nasrullaeva SN, Zeinalov RG. Effects of solar activity on some demographic indices and morbidity in Azerbaijan with reference to A. L. Chizhevsky's theory. Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult. 2007 May-Jun;(3):38-42.

Muzzarelli L, Force M, Sebold M. Aromatherapy and reducing preprocedural anxiety: A controlled prospective study. Gastroenterol Nurs. 2006 Nov-Dec;29(6):466-71.

Myss C. Anatomy of the Spirit. New York: Harmony, 1996.

Nadkarni AK, Nadkarni KM. Indian Materia Medica. (Vols 1 and 2). Bombay, India: Popular Pradashan, 1908, 1976.

Nakamura K, Urayama K, Hoshino Y. Lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pulse wave rising from pulsations of both the spinal cord and the brain in humans. Spinal Cord. 1997 Nov;35(11):735-9.

Nakatani K, Yau KW. Calcium and light adaptation in retinal rods and cones. Nature. 1988 Jul 7;334(6177):69-71.

Natarajan E, Grissom C. The Origin of Magnetic Field Dependent Recombination in Alkylcobalamin Radical Pairs. Photochem Photobiol. 1996;64: 286-295.

Navarro Silvera SA, Rohan TE. Trace elements and cancer risk: a review of the epidemiologic evidence. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Feb;18(1):7-27.

Nestel PJ. Adulthood - prevention: Cardiovascular disease. Med J Aust. 2002 Jun 3;176(11 Suppl):S118-9.

Nestor PJ, Graham KS, Bozeat S, Simons JS, Hodges JR. Memory consolidation and the hippocampus: further evidence from studies of autobiographical memory in semantic dementia and frontal variant frontotemporal dementia. Neuropsychologia. 2002;40(6):633-54.

Netheron M. Past Lives Therapy. New York: Morrow, 1978.Wambach H. Reliving Past Lives. New York: Bantam, 1978.Fiore E. You Have Been Here Before. New York: Ballantine, 1978.

Newmark T, Schulick P. Beyond Aspirin. Prescott, AZ: Holm, 2000.

Newton M. Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life between Lives. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2000.

Newton M. Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life between Lives. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.

Newton PE. The Effect of Sound on Plant Grwoth. JAES. 1971 Mar;19(3): 202-205.

Nicholson A, Rose R, Bobak M. Association between attendance at religious services and self-reported health in 22 European countries. Soc Sci Med. 2009 Aug;69(4):519-28.

Niggli H. Temperature dependence of ultraweak photon emission in fibroblastic differentiation after irradiation with artificial sunlight. Indian J Exp Biol. 2003 May;41:419-423.

North J. The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology. London: Fontana Press, 1994.

O'Dwyer JJ. College Physics. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1990.

O'Brien SJ, Shannon JE, Gail MH. A molecular approach to the identification and individualization of human and animal cells in culture: isozyme and allozyme genetic signatures. In Vitro. 1980 Feb;16(2):119-35.

O'Connor J., Bensky D. (ed). Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture: A Comprehensive Text. Seattle: Eastland Press, 1981.

Onder G, Landi F, Volpato S, Fellin R, Carbonin P, Gambassi G, Bernabei R. Serum cholesterol levels and in-hospital mortality in the elderly. Am J Med. 2003 Sept;115:265-71

One Hundred Million Americans See Medical Mistakes Directly Touching Them as Patients, Friends, Relatives. National Patient Safety Foundation. Press Release. 1997 Oct 9. http://npsf.org/pr/pressrel/ finalsur.htm. Acc. 2007 Mar.

Oosterga M, ten Vaarwerk IA, DeJongste MJ, Staal MJ. Spinal cord stimulation in refractory angina pectoris—clinical results and mechanisms. Z Kardiol. 1997;86 Suppl 1:107-13.

Ostrander S, Schroeder L, Ostrander N. Super-Learning. New York: Delta, 1979.

Otani S. Memory trace in prefrontal cortex: theory for the cognitive switch. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2002 Nov;77(4):563-77.

Ott J. Color and Light: Their Effects on Plants, Animals, and People (Series of seven articles in seven issues). Internl J Biosoc Res. 1985-1991.

Ott J. Health and Light: The Effects of Natural and Artificial Light on Man and Other Living Things. Self published, 1973,

Park AE, Fernandez JJ, Schmedders K, Cohen MS. The Fibonacci sequence: relationship to the human hand. J Hand Surg. 2003 Jan;28(1):157-60.

Pasricha S. Cases of the reincarnation type in northern India with birthmarks and birth defects. J. Sci. Exploration. 1998;12(2) 259-293.

Pasricha S. Claims of reincarnation: An Empirical Study of Cases in India. New Delhi: Harman, 1990.

Penn RD, Hagins WA. Kinetics of the photocurrent of retinal rods. Biophys J. 1972 Aug;12(8):1073-94.

Penn RD, Hagins WA. Signal transmission along retinal rods and the origin of the electroretinographic a-wave. Nature. 1969 Jul 12;223(5202):201-4.

Penson RT, Kyriakou H, Zuckerman D, Chabner BA, Lynch TJ Jr. Teams: communication in multidisciplinary care. Oncologist. 2006 May;11(5):520-6.

Perry J. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1978.

Perry J. Personal Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.

Persinger M.A. Psi phenomena and temporal lobe activity: The geomagnetic factor. In L.A. Henkel & R.E. Berger (Eds.), Research in parapsychology. (121- 156). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1989.

Persinger M.A., Krippner S. Dream ESP experiments and geomagnetic activity. Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research. 1989;83:101- 106.

Persson R, Orbaek P, Kecklund G, Akerstedt T. Impact of an 84-hour workweek on biomarkers for stress, metabolic processes and diurnal rhythm. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2006 Oct;32(5):349-58.

Pert C. Molecules of Emotion. New York: Scribner, 1997.

Pew Foundation. Are We Happy Yet? Pew Center Publications. February 13, 2006

Physicians' Desk Reference. Montvale, NJ: Thomson, 2003.

Piolino P, Desgranges B, Belliard S, Matuszewski V, Lalevee C, De la Sayette V, Eustache F. Autobiographical memory and autonoetic consciousness: triple dissociation in neurodegenerative diseases. Brain. 2003 Oct;126(Pt 10):2203-19.

Pitt-Rivers R, Trotter WR. The Thyroid Gland. London: Butterworth Publisher, 1954.

Plotkin H. Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge: Concerning adaptations, instinct and the evolution of intelligence. New York: Penguin, 1994.

Polkinghorne J. Science and Providence. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1989.

Popp F Chang J. Mechanism of interaction between electromagnetic fields and living organisms. Science in China. 2000 Series C;43(5):507-518.

Popp F, Chang J, Herzog A, Yan Z, Yan Y. Evidence of non-classical (squeezed) light in biological systems. Physics Lett. 2002;293:98-102.

Popp F, Yan Y. Delayed luminescence of biological systems in terms of coherent states. Phys.Lett. 2000;293:91-97.

Popp F. Molecular Aspects of Carcinogenesis. In Deutsch E, Moser K, Rainer H, Stacher A (eds.). Molecular Base of Malignancy. Stuttgart: G.Thieme, 1976:47-55.

Popp F. Properties of biophotons and their theoretical implications. Indian J Exper Biology. 2003 May;41:391-402.

Popper KR, Eccles, JC. The Self and Its Brain. London: Routledge, 1983.

Prescott J. Alienation of Affection. Psych Today. 1979 Dec.

Prescott J. The Origins of Human Love and Violence. Pre- and Perinatal Psych J. 1996;10(3):143-188.

Pribram K. Brain and perception: holonomy and structure in figural processing. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1991.

Protheroe WM, Captiotti ER, Newsom GH. Exploring the Universe. Columbus, OH: Merrill, 1989,

Puthoff H, Targ R, May E. Experimental Psi Research: Implication for Physics. AAAS Proceedings of the 1979 Symposium on the Role of Consciousness in the Physical World. 1981.

Puthoff H, Targ R. A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer Over Kilometer distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research. Proc. IEEE. 1976;64(3):329-254.

Radin D. The Conscious Universe. San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997.

Rapley G. Keeping mothers and babies together—breastfeeding and bonding. RCM Midwives. 2002 Oct;5(10):332-4.

Rappoport J. Both sides of the pharmaceutical death coin. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. 2006 Oct.

Rawlings M. Beyond Death's Door. New York: Bantam, 1979.

Reger D, Goode S, Mercer E. Chemistry: Principles & Practice. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, 1993.

Retallack D. The Sound of Music and Plants. Marina Del Rey, CA: Devorss, 1973.

Richards R. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior. Chicago: Univ Chicago Press, 1987.

Rieder M. Mission to Millboro. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin, 1995.

Rieder M. Return to Millboro: The Reincarnation Drama Continues. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin, 1995.

Rietbrock N, Hamel M, Hempel B, Mitrovic V, Schmidt T, Wolf GK. Actions of standardized extracts of Crataegus berries on exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with congestive heart failure. Arzneimittelforschung. 2001 Oct;51(10):793-8.

Rindos D. The Origins of Agriculture: An evolutionary perspective. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 1984.

Ring K. Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. New York: Quill, 1982.

Roach M. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.

Rodermel SR, Smith-Sonneborn J. Age-correlated changes in expression of micronuclear damage and repair in Paramecium tetraurelia. Genetics. 1977 Oct;87(2):259-74.

Rosenlund M, Picciotto S, Forastiere F, Stafoggia M, Perucci CA. Traffic-related air pollution in relation to incidence and prognosis of coronary heart disease. Epidemiology. 2008 Jan;19(1):121-8.

Routasalo P, Isola A. The right to touch and be touched. Nurs Ethics. 1996 Jun;3(2):165-76.

Roy M, Kirschbaum C, Steptoe A. Intraindividual variation in recent stress exposure as a moderator of cortisol and testosterone levels. Ann Behav Med. 2003 Dec;26(3):194-200.

Rubin E and Farber J. Pathology 3rd Edition. Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia, PA, 1999.

Russ MJ, Clark WC, Cross LW, Kemperman I, Kakuma T, Harrison K. Pain and self-injury in borderline patients: sensory decision theory, coping strategies, and locus of control. Psychiatry Res. 1996 Jun 26;63(1):57-65.

Russek LG, Schwartz GE. Narrative descriptions of parental love and caring predict health status in midlife: a 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study. Altern Ther Health Med. 1996 Nov;2(6):55-62.

Russell IJ. Advances in fibromyalgia: possible role for central neurochemicals. Am J Med Sci. 1998;315:377-84.

Sabom M. Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near Death Experiences. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1998.

Sabom M. Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. New York: Harper and Row, 1982.

Sacks O. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Sahlin C, Pettersson FE, Nilsson LN, Lannfelt L, Johansson AS. Docosahexaenoic acid stimulates non-amyloidogenic APP processing resulting in reduced Abeta levels in cellular models of Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurosci. 2007 Aug;26(4):882-9.

Sanders R. Slow brain waves play key role in coordinating complex activity. UC Berkeley News. 2006 Sep 14.

Schanberg SM, Field TM. Sensory deprivation stress and supplemental stimulation in the rat pup and preterm human neonate. Child Dev. 1987 Dec;58(6):1431-47.

Schlebusch KP, Maric-Oehler W, Popp FA. Biophotonics in the infrared spectral range reveal acupuncture meridian structure of the body. J Altern Complement Med. 2005 Feb;11(1):171-3.

Schmidt H, Quantum processes predicted? New Sci. 1969 Oct 16.

Schmitt B, Frölich L. Creative therapy options for patients with dementia—a systematic review. Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr. 2007 Dec;75(12):699-707.

Scoville WB, Milner B. Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1957;20:11-21.

Semenza C. Retrieval pathways for common and proper names. Cortex. 2006 Aug;42(6):884-91.

Senekowitsch F, Endler PC, Pongratz W, Smith CW. Hormone effects by CD record /replay. FASEB J. 1995:A12025.

Senior F. Fallout. New York Mag. 2003 Fall.

Serra-Valls A. Electromagnetic Industrion and the Conservation of Momentum in the Spiral Paradox. Cornell University Library. http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0012/ 0012009.pdf. Acc. 2007 Jul.

Serway R. Physicis For Scientists & Engineers. Philadelphia: Harcourt Brace, 1992.

Shaffer D. Developmental Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1985.

Sharp KC. After the Light. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1995.

Shen YF, Goddard G. The short-term effects of acupuncture on myofascial pain patients after clenching. Pain Pract. 2007 Sep;7(3):256-64.

Shevelev IA, Kostelianetz NB, Kamenkovich VM, Sharaev GA. EEG alpha-wave in the visual cortex: check of the hypothesis of the scanning process. Int J Psychophysiol. 1991 Aug;11(2):195-201.

Shupak NM, Prato FS, Thomas AW. Human exposure to a specific pulsed magnetic field: effects on thermal sensory and pain thresholds. Neurosci Lett. 2004 Jun 10;363(2):157-62.

Sicher F, Targ E, Moore D, Smith H. A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population With Advanced AIDS. Western Journal of Medicine. 1998;169 Dec::356-363.

Siegfried J. Electrostimulation and neurosurgical measures in cancer pain. Recent Results Cancer Res. 1988;108:28-32.

Simpson G. The Major Features of Evolution. New York: Columbia Univ Press, 1953.

Smith CW. Coherence in living biological systems. Neural Network World. 1994:4(3):379-388.

Smith MJ. "Effect of Magnetic Fields on Enzyme Reactivity" in Barnothy M.(ed.), Biological Effects of Magnetic Fields. New York: Plenum Press, 1969.

Smith MJ. The Influence on Enzyme Growth By the 'Laying on of Hands: Dimenensions of Healing. Los Altos, California: Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine, 1973.

Smith-Sonneborn J. Age-correlated effects of caffeine on non-irradiated and UV-irradiated Paramecium Aurelia. J Gerontol. 1974 May;29(3):256-60.

Smith-Sonneborn J. DNA repair and longevity assurance in Paramecium tetraurelia. Science. 1979 Mar 16;203(4385):1115-7.

Snyder K. Researchers Produce Firsts with Bursts of Light: Team generates most energetic terahertz pulses yet, observes useful optical phenomena. Press Release: Brookhaven National Laboratory. 2007 July 24.

Soler M, Chandra S, Ruiz D, Davidson E, Hendrickson D, Christou G. A third isolated oxidation state for the Mn12 family of singl molecule magnets. ChemComm; 2000; Nov 22.

Soul Has Weight, Physician Thinks. The New York Times. 1907 March 11:5.

Southgate, D. Nature and variability of human food consumption. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 1991; B(334): 281-288.

Speed Of Light May Not Be Constant, Physicist Suggests. Science Daily. 1999 Oct 6. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/10/991005114024.htm. Acc. 2007 Jun.

Spence A. Basic Human Anatomy. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Commings, 1986.

Spetner L. Not By Chance! -Shattering The Modern Theory of Evolution. New York: The Judaica Press, 1997.

Spillane M. Good Vibrations, A Sound 'Diet' for Plants. The Growing Edge. 1991 Spring.

Squire LR, Zola-Morgan S. The medial temporal lobe memory system. Science. 1991;253(5026):1380-1386.

Stanford, C. B. The hunting ecology of wild chimpanzees: Implications for the evolutionary ecology of Pliocene hominids. American Anthropologist. 1996;98: 96-113.

Steck B. Effects of optical radiation on man. Light Resch Techn. 1982;14:130-141.

Steiner R. Agriculture. Kimberton, PA: Bio-Dynamic Farming, 1924-1993.

Stevenson I, Samararatne G. Three new cases of the reincarnation type in Sri Lanka with written records made before verification. J. Sci. Exploration. 1988;2(2): 217-238.

Stevenson I. American children who claim to remember previous lives. J. Nervous and Mental Disease. 1983;171:742-748.

Stevenson I. Cases of the Reincarnation Type. Charlottesville, VA: Univ Virginia Press. Vol. 1: Ten Cases in India, 1975. Vol. 2: Ten Cases in Sri Lanka, 1977. Vol. 3: Twelve Cases in Lebanon and Turkey, 1980. Vol. 4: Twelve Cases in Thailand and Burma, 1983.

Stevenson I. Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation. Charlottesville, VA: Univ Virginia Press, 1987.

Stevenson I. European Cases of the Reincarnation Type. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2003.

Stevenson I. Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects. (2 volumes). Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers, 1997.

Stevenson I. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. New York: American Society for Psychical Research, 1967.

Stevenson I. Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect. Westport, CN: Praeger, 1997.

Stojanovic MP, Abdi S. Spinal cord stimulation. Pain Physician. 2002 Apr;5(2):156-66.

Stoupel EG, Frimer H, Appelman Z, Ben-Neriah Z, Dar H, Fejgin MD, Gershoni-Baruch R, Manor E, Barkai G, Shalev S, Gelman-Kohan Z, Reish O, Lev D, Davidov B, Goldman B, Shohat M. Chromosome aberration and environmental physical activity: Down syndrome and solar and cosmic ray activity, Israel, 1990-2000. Int J Biometeorol. 2005 Sep;50(1):1-5.

Strange BA, Dolan RJ. Anterior medial temporal lobe in human cognition: memory for fear and the unexpected. Cognit Neuropsychiatry. 2006 May;11(3):198-218.

Suppes P, Han B, Epelboim J, Lu ZL. Invariance of brain-wave representations of simple visual images and their names. Proc Natl Acad Sci Psych-BS. 1999;96(25):14658-14663.

Szyf M, McGowan P, Meaney MJ. The social environment and the epigenome. Environ Mol Mutagen. 2008 Jan;49(1):46-60.

Tapsell LC, Hemphill I, Cobiac L, Patch CS, Sullivan DR, Fenech M, Roodenrys S, Keogh JB, Clifton PM, Williams PG, Fazio VA, Inge KE. Health benefits of herbs and spices: the past, the present, the future. Med J Aust. 2006 Aug 21;185(4 Suppl):S4-24.

Taraban M, Leshina T, Anderson M, Grissom C. Magnetic Field Dependence and the Role of electron spin in Heme Enzymes: Horseradish Peroxidase. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997;119: 5768-5769.

Targ R, Katra J, Brown D, Wiegand W. Viewing the future: A pilot study with an error-detecting protocol. J Sci Expl. 9:3:367-380, 1995.

Targ R, Puthoff H. Information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding. Nature. 1975;251:602-607.

Taylor A. Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond. New York: Penguin, 2000.

Thaut MH. The future of music in therapy and medicine. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Dec;1060:303-8.

The Lost Gospels of Jesus. Anonymous, 2019.

The Timechart Company. Timetables of Medicine. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2000.

Thie J. Touch for Health. Marina del Rey, CA: Devorss Publications, 1973-1994.

Thomas Y, Schiff M, Litime M, Belkadi L, Benveniste J. Direct transmission to cells of a molecular signal (phorbol myristate acetate, PMA) via an electronic device. FASEB Jnl. 1995;9: A227.

Thomas-Anterion C, Jacquin K, Laurent B. Differential mechanisms of impairment of remote memory in Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2000 Mar-Apr;11(2):100-6.

Thompson D. On Growth and Form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Thorogood M, Mann J, Appleby P, McPherson K. Risk of death from cancer and ischaemic heart disease in meat and non-meat eaters. BMJ. 1994 June 25;308:1667-1670.

Threlkeld DS, ed. Central Nervous System Drugs, Analeptics, Caffeine. Facts and Comparisons Drug Information. St. Louis, MO: Facts and Comparisons. 1998 Feb: 230-d.

Threlkeld DS, ed. Gastrointestinal Drugs, Proton Pump Inhibitors. Facts and Comparisons Drug Information. St. Louis, MO: Facts and Comparisons. 1998 Apr: 305r.

Timofeev I, Steriade M. Low-frequency rhythms in the thalamus of intact-cortex and decorticated cats. J Neurophysiol. 1996 Dec;76(6):4152-68.

Ting W, Schultz K, Cac NN, Peterson M, Walling HW. Tanning bed exposure increases the risk of malignant melanoma. Int J Dermatol. 2007 Dec;46(12):1253-7.

Tompkins, P, Bird C. The Secret Life of Plants. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

Toomer G. "Ptolemy". The Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Gale Cengage, 1970.

Trivedi B. Magnetic Map" Found to Guide Animal Migration. Natl Geogr Today. 2001 Oct 12.

Tsong T. Deciphering the language of cells. Trends in Biochem Sci. 1989;14: 89-92.

Tsuei JJ, Lam Jr. F, Zhao Z. Studies in Bioenergetic Correlations-Bioenergetic Regulatory Measurement Instruments and Devices. Am J Acupunct. 1988;16:345-9.

Tucker J. Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005.

Unger RH. Leptin physiology: a second look. Regul Pept. 2000 Aug 25;92(1-3):87-95.

Van Cauter E, Leproult R, Plat L. Age-related changes in slow wave sleep and REM sleep and relationship with growth hormone and cortisol levels in healthy men. JAMA. 2000 Aug 16;284(7):861-8.

Van Wijk R, Wiegant FAC. Cultured mammalian cells in homeopathy research: the similia principle in self-recovery. Utrecht: University Utrecht Publ, 1994.

Vargha-Khadem F, Polkey CE. A review of cognitive outcome after hemidecortication in humans. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1992;325:137-51.

Vierling-Claassen D, Siekmeier P, Stufflebeam S, Kopell N. Modeling GABA alterations in schizophrenia: a link between impaired inhibition and altered gamma and beta range auditory entrainment. J Neurophysiol. 2008 May;99(5):2656-71.

Vigny P, Duquesne M. On the fluorescence properties of nucleotides and polynucleotides at room temperature. In. Birks J (ed.). Excited states of biological molecules. London-NY: J Wiley, 1976:167-177.

Voll R. The phenomenon of medicine testing in elecroacupuncture according to Voll. Am J Acupunct. 1980;8:97-104.

Vyasadeva S. Srimad Bhagavatam. Approx rec 4000 B.C.E.

Wachiuli M, Koyama M, Utsuyama M, Bittman BB, Kitagawa M, Hirokawa K. Recreational music-making modulates natural killer cell activity, cytokines, and mood states in corporate employees. Med Sci Monit. 2007 Feb;13(2):CR57-70.

Wade N. From Ants to Ethics: A Biologist Dreams of Unity of Knowledge. Scientist at Work, Edward O. Wilson. New York Times. 1998 May 12.

Walker M. The Power of Color. Gujarat, India: Jain Publ., 2002.

Walsh DM, Selkoe DJ. A beta oligomers - a decade of discovery. J Neurochem. 2007 Jun;101(5):1172-84.

Watson L. Beyond Supernature. New York: Bantam, 1987.

Wayne R. Chemistry of the Atmospheres. Oxford Press, 1991.

Weaver J, Astumian R. The response of living cells to very weak electric fields: the thermal noise limit. Science. 1990;247: 459-462.

Wee K, Rogers T, Altan BS, Hackney SA, Hamm C. Engineering and medical applications of diatoms. J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2005 Jan;5(1):88-91.

Weinberger P, Measures M. The effect of two audible sound frequencies on the germination and growth of a spring and winter wheat. Can. J. Bot. 1968;46(9):1151-1158.

Weiss B. Many Lives, Many Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Weller A, Weller L. Menstrual synchrony between mothers and daughters and between roommates. Physiol Behav. 1993 May;53(5):943-9.

Weller L, Weller A, Roizman S. Human menstrual synchrony in families and among close friends: examining the importance of mutual exposure. J Comp Psychol. 1999 Sep;113(3):261-8.

Welsh D, Yoo SH, Liu A, Takahashi J, Kay S. Bioluminescence Imaging of Individual Fibroblasts Reveals Persistent, Independently Phased Circadian Rhythms of Clock Gene Expression. Current Biology. 2004;14:2289-2295.

White J, Krippner S (eds). Future Science: Life Energies & the Physics of Paranormal Phenomena. Garden City: Anchor, 1977.

White S. The Unity of the Self. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.

Whiten, A. and E. M. Widdowson (eds.). Foraging Strategies and Natural Diet of Monkeys, Apes and Humans. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

Whitfield KE, King G, Moller S, Edwards CL, Nelson T, Vandenbergh D. Concordance rates for smoking among African-American twins. J Natl Med Assoc. 2007 Mar;99(3):213-7.

Whittaker E. History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity. New York: Nelson LTD, 1953.

Whitton J. Life Between Life. New York: Warner, 1986.

Williams G. Natural Selection: Domains, levels, and challenges. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press, 1992.

Winchester AM. Biology and its Relation to Mankind. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969.

Winter L, Dennis MP, Parker B. Preferences for life-prolonging medical treatments and deference to the will of god. J Relig Health. 2009 Dec;48(4):418-30.

Wixted JT. A Theory About Why We Forget What We Once Knew. CurrDir Psychol Sci. 2005;14(1):6-9.

Wolf, M. Beyond the Point Particle - A Wave Structure for the Electron. Galilean Electrodynamics. 1995 Oct;6(5): 83-91.

Woolger R. Other Lives, Other Selves. New York: Bantam, 1988.

Wyart C, Webster WW, Chen JH, Wilson SR, McClary A, Khan RM, Sobel N. Smelling a single component of male sweat alters levels of cortisol in women. J Neurosci. 2007 Feb 7;27(6):1261-5.

Yang HQ, Xie SS, Hu XL, Chen L, Li H. Appearance of human meridian-like structure and acupoints and its time correlation by infrared thermal imaging. Am J Chin Med. 2007;35(2):231-40.

Zhang C, Popp, F., Bischof, M.(eds.). Electromagnetic standing waves as background of acupuncture system. Current Development in Biophysics - the Stage from an Ugly Duckling to a Beautiful Swan. Hangzhou: Hangzhou University Press, 1996.

Zou Z, Li F, Buck L. Odor maps in the olfactory cortex. Proc Natl Acad of Sci. 2005;102(May 24):7724-7729.
