“I am anxiously waiting For the secret of eternal life to be discovered By an obscure practitioner.” From the poem, “I Am Waiting,” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti While I certainly qualify as an “obscure practitioner,” in spite of many years of tenacious contemplation and unrelenting reflection on the nature of human consciousness, I cannot claim to … Continue reading Mortality and Madness – Part 2
"That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet." --Emily Dickinson According to an article in the Los Angeles Times from September 17, 2011 "Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded … Continue reading Mortality, Mozart, and Madness
I know something of emotional distress. It has been my companion over the years more often than I would have chosen myself. Each person experiences life from a unique vantage point, but as human beings, we experience many similar circumstances. Our common experiences, however closely related in a general sense, are frequently colored by our … Continue reading Thoughts on a Snowy Evening
Recently, knowing of my passion for poetry, my nephew and his intended bride invited me to share in their celebration of love by composing and reciting an original poem about Love and Marriage. It was a wonderful gesture on their part to acknowledge my poetic inclinations, and to invite me to perform an original work … Continue reading The Divine Light of Love
In the introduction to Jonah Lehrer's "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," he sums up the problem with only considering brain physiology as the means to come to terms with consciousness: "Scientists describe our brain in terms of its physical details; they say we are nothing but a loom of electrical cells and synaptic spaces. What science … Continue reading Neuroscience and the Arts
John's Consciousness 