Those who reject any belief in a personal continued existence in an after-life have developed a variety of alternative positions. D. Z. Phillips believes that talk of an 'after-life' is not about any realm that exists beyond this life but refers to moral qualities in this. Thus, the 'after-life' would become a term used to describe an idealised world of potential within the human sphere (rather than beyond it). Richards. S. A. 2006
Numerology
Numerology has its roots within the mystical and is a relationship between numbers and living things. the idea of numerology in todays society is highly connected to the area of occultism as well as astrology and divinity arts. St. Augustine wrote that numbers are the universal language offered by the deity to give truth to everything. the idea of numerology has given me the number of 25 believed to be the number of rebirth, although skeptical about it being correct as in the modern world it has been proven not to exist. i have chosen to incorporate it in to the practice as i feel that it shows another area of giving a purpose to life.
The Number 25 and that of 11 are very closely linked and of extreme importance, choose the PURITY(11) of your Spiritual Self, let the Energy of the Eternal and that of your sister who is of the Eternal be the force that will indeed be your REBIRTH(25) and set you free of the negative influences of your environment, of others and of Society in general. TRUTH(33) and PURITY(11) are the way unto complete FULFILLMENT(12) in Life unto ETERNAL LIFE(86).
White Noise
The Light
White noise highlights the aspect of a near death experience,the man taking his own life but being brought back on the operating table, the experience he undergoes, makes him visit avenues of his life similar to the suggestion of Rudolf Steiner and his philosophical suggestions of reliving your whole life in a matter of seconds. the aspect of beings of light and all the other descriptions of near death ca be seen within the film, although its not done to its best the imagery is unconvincing and the film works on the aspect of being blessed or cursed in being able to see the unfortunate events of the prediction of peoples deaths. EVP plays a vital and key part of reflecting the afterlife, unlike the film poltergeist white noise had no inner depth or hidden secret that would be reveal something additional. everything were cast has written in text, which in a way it would of been better to read a book on the subject. the area of heaven and heel played a huge part in the film with the area being focused on the devil reclaiming he lost souls, and causing sin within the world.
Afterlife
Hirokaza Koreeda
Afterlife challenges the audiences perception of life after death and the questioning of how and why. Using the notion of limbo, the dead people are there to relive one memory which has been their best memory in life they are given seven days to decide on one memory which they will live for the rest of eternity, this seems quite sad really, from all the events of one's life you have to live just one event. The deceased are questioned on the memory and why it is so significant to them. the setting of the film is of intrigue walking into a waiting room, a bell ringing in the background; a smoke filled reception. Staff invite them to talk about their life and the event of their death, the information given to the staff is then recreated for the deceased to live out the last memory before they disappear forever into eternity.
The documentary style of the interviews is intriguing given the fact that the actors used are not professional, applying a real sense of struggle with a single memory, over the duration of the seven days it is seen how each decides on a single memory to take them into eternity. the processing staff also are also deceased who were unable to decide on a single memory therefore they have been resigned to stay at the processing center until the time when they can decide on a single memory.
The interesting part of the film is how in no instance is the thought or association of heaven used within the film, yet they themselves are still defined in the world of the living, like ghosts trapped.
Afterlife Beliefs
In Greek mythology Charon was the ferryman of Hades the ferryman who would cross the newly dead across the river to the land of the dead. The dead was expected to pay the ferryman for this duty, those who did not have the coin was left stranded for a hundred years or more, the aspect of Greek mythology shows another such belief of the area of the afterlife, through history the belief has been varied and debatable but through each culture there seems to lie there own cultural beliefs and processes and rules and regulations that they are to abide by. The area of the afterlife is seen as a continuation of existence although mainly spiritual in belief, or experiential the major areas derive from within religion, esotericism, metaphysics and science.
The area of metaphysics is of great intrigue with its philosophical study of ontology, addressing questions that have no definite answer , like the question what is the meaning of life. With its concern to explaining the nature of reality, being and the world. The scientific view turned the investigations towards the study of matter.
In metaphysical models, theists believe that some sort of afterlife awaits for them once they die, atheists believe that there is nothing more, agnostics believe but doubtfully, its this area that I fall I can’t believe through the lack of evidence that has been shown to me, but I hope for an afterlife, with all my might I do. Theists believe that god is eternally existent, on one hand god my exist in a timeless eternity where past, present and future are all the same thing
Modern science in general may describe the universe and human being without reference to a soul or an afterlife existing. With most avoiding the subject one scientist Duncan MacDougall sought to measure the weight after death. MacDougall weighed patients as they died in an attempt to prove that the soul was material, tangible therefore measurable. Although the experiment had very little scientific merit, they was a consistency in his findings of a weight loss of 21 grams therefore the soul has been classed as a weight of that amount.
With the area of near death experience it has been found that it may fail to transcend the confinement of the brain, as experiments in a hospital were conducted by placing a written note, that could only be seen from the ceiling of the room, out of all the experiences not one person saw or mentioned the message when explaining that they were having the near death experience.
Theology is the study of god and is off understanding to be the term placed on the context of religious doctrines and beliefs.
In the Ancient Egyptian religion arriving to the afterlife is a demanding ordeal, the test of the weighing of the heart against a feather says you have the right to enter if not Ammit will devour you. The ancient Egyptians had a strong belief in the afterlife and would mummify the dead. The book of the dead were a high influence to the beliefs they held and each should know of the book to be allowed into the afterlife. The spiritual understanding and commitment to the book would show the dedication of the individual. There bodies would be embalmed and there organs removed and placed within the tomb. If the soul were proved to be defunct they were allowed to live in the fields of Yalu, if found faulty they would be eaten.
One aspect found in religions such as occultism, spiritualists and Hinduism is reincarnation, the act of reincarnation is to be made flesh again, the doctrine or religious belief is meant to be the belief in an essential part of the self surviving death and being reborn into a new body. Known as the spirit or soul the I or ego, accordingly this gains a new personality but always holds an aspect of the past lives within it, sometimes others shining to the surface. According to Hinduism the soul is immortal and while the body is just a shell nearing the birth and death of the physical life.
The Bhagavad Gita states that
Worn our garments are shed by the body; worn out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body. New bodies are donned by the dweller, just like garments.
This quote suggests the notion of transforming appearances from one into another the destiny unknown, and the life probably unexpected. The idea of reincarnation is linked to the aspect of karma, its with the karma of ones actions that assigns you your new life. The Hindu idea suggests of how man is born through there desire to be born for the desire to live in the human existence. Hinduism believed that it is not a sin to long for worldly pleasures but teaches that they can not bring everlasting happiness or peace. The bringing of the realisation that materialism can not bring all happiness and the person searches for a higher force, the person becomes aware that it is the true self, the soul that is immortal and once they gain the spiritual awareness they will be reborn no more, they have gained the ultimate eternity.
Within the Tibetan book of the dead it is has been highlighted how an historical text may have had such significance in the belief with its dazing accounts of the life between death the transcended realm of eternal existence. The Bardo Thodol consists of three states after death and its for the deceased to succeed every level before moving to the next. This accounts have also been compared to the process of near death experiences that people have encountered.
Within certain Buddhist teachings that with a progression of the mind it is possible to see consciousness as being a sequence of conscious moments rather than a continuum of awareness.
Image Music Text
Roland Barthes
Death of the Author
In his essay, Barthes criticizes the reader's tendency to consider aspects of the author’s identity—his political views, historical context, religion, ethnicity, psychology, or other biographical or personal attributes—to distill meaning from his work. In this critical schematic, the experiences and biases of the author serve as its definitive “explanation.” For Barthes, this is a tidy, convenient method of reading and is sloppy and flawed: “To give a text an Author” and assign a single, corresponding interpretation to it “is to impose a limit on that text.” Readers must separate a literary work from its creator in order to liberate it from interpretive tyranny (a notion similar to Erich Auerbach’s discussion of narrative tyranny in Biblical parables), for each piece of writing contains multiple layers and meanings. In a famous quotation, Barthes draws an analogy between text and textiles, declaring that a “text is a tissue [or fabric] of quotations,” drawn from “innumerable centers of culture,” rather than from one, individual experience. The essential meaning of a work depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the “passions” or “tastes” of the writer; “a text’s unity lies not in its origins,” or its creator, “but in its destination,” or its audience.
Consciousness
Consciousness in western science has its roots within the mind, according to the neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux there is a furious amount of editing to fine tune our brain content. And its suggested that the human brain is the only organ that does not grow new cells to replace that are lost. The are of consciousness coincide in the brain with memory and emotion and according to Jean-Pierre the area of memory goes back to the void before material creation. The first concept associated to consciousness is awareness, suggesting that we are conscious when we become aware of something although awareness is only a part of consciousness, other areas associated are free will, reasoning, visual imagery, recalling and making choices.
When coping with reality the brain can sometimes see things not as they really are, inventing things that do not exist and can fail to see things that are really there. The aspect of not identifying something as it has not yet been explained to us has an interesting avenue to whether people believe in life after death as I have not personally seen anything that proves to me that there is life after death. Joseph Pearce explains this as “mans mind mirrors a universe that mirrors mans mind” relating to how man creates an idea which can grow for the man to later decides to confirm or deny the idea.
Apparently consciousness needs an external environment, it needs language, an interaction with something outside of its self. Consciousness presumes an entity that is aware of something, including itself. But to understand something we need to have evidence of its existence, and according to Gödel understanding our own minds is impossible. In an average day we are conscious of several million things and this links to the levels of consciousness and Colin Wilson suggests that there are at least 8 degrees. Richard Burke’s book the cosmic consciousness explains that an individual that attains the state of understanding its place in the world can be described ass a person who has been enlightened, which may then link to the avenue of spiritualism and the believes they hold about there status in the world. Within unity consciousness there becomes a capability of magical powers. The idea of collective consciousness is the notion that the idea consists within a small to global population that results from a consensus.
The universe was born from chaos billions of lights years ago and evolved through random selection, and is doing so today. Stars are born and die for no better reason than they simply do. Some stars live longer than others do: some support a host of satellites. Our sun is one of the latter and our fragile planet is just a rock that accidentally came from the sun and eventually became home to an abundance of life forms. As life forms evolved, humans emerged on the top of the food chain and from there, in the blink of an eye, here we are, seriously and consciously looking for answers and meanings in the universe around us.
So the area of consciousness is apparent to consist of the importance of forming the individual we are and the way we react and construct situations. The beliefs we hold as individuals can lay within our own consciousness or that of the collective. The adaptation of phenomenology and the aspects as seeing things as a object representation also links with this research.
Empire of death
Christopher Lee
The willingness to die for a belief.
Ancient civilisation
The Egyptians.
North Africa.
A culture of death
Heads to the east feet to the west. Buried alive a group sacrifice. Kings played out these rituals, mass suicide cults that still last today. Nubia in Sudan. Heavens gate, American death cult, one leader believed that they were to return on the abolt comet, a space ship, people talking about they faith, sacrifice themselves to go straight up to heaven. Cult death Jim Jones committed suicide or where murdered. Where did it all begin. Bizarre rituals of human sacrifice on the banks of the Nile. 100 years ago, Museum of fine arts Boston. Life after death, buries the king with worldly processions. A huge mound where the king was buried, they began to dig and found an entry to the tomb. Pottery, clothes, jewellery,
Entrance to the burial of the Nubian king, find evidence of animal sacrifices, goddess Isis, priceless treasures. Northern Nubia 4th and 6th century BC. Human sacrifice, when the king killed himself so did his servants. Worshipping of gods. Birds with sacred connotations. in order to be carried forward into the next life they committed sacrifices, deceased buried on beds, in tombs, mummified.
The Egyptian images show the deceased mummified then in the afterlife, reborn. A pyramid for each ruler, carved images with symbolic imagery. Looking for cult deaths. A death culture in Kerma 2500 BC, animal sacrifices. Shrines high parts allowed them to connect with gods, fine crafted jewellery. Funeral decoration of animals, the kind of kush. The king died the rest of the people was buried alive, the doors of the chambers are closed, all movement is still and then buried for there religious beliefs. The images are shocking the people laying together, the end of a culture, crucial milestones in history, the formation of early states, political and religious power over there people, an hierarchy of power. Individuals power of society.
1997 heavens gate. One individuals power, a new creature is born, believed that they are going to the next level, 39 bodies, the deaths planned in ever detail, a farewell video. Did the people die voluntarily or was they murdered, sacrificed themselves for there country or group, or for there husband or wife, existence only with the other and could show why they died. Teeth being knocked out in life, as membership to the party. Go directly to the afterlife if they were not dead to be able to directly serve the king in the afterlife. The victims were either drugged or went willingly to their deaths. the conception of death has changed, death can be transcended that there is another world we gave to and this is mirrored in the world we live in, a quarter of the world believe in reincarnation, there is still belief in something after life. The thought of an afterlife causes relief in this world.
This relates to the terrorist bombers, that blow up the world trade towers, believing that they would become some kind of hero within there religion.
This particular idea has allowed me to gain understanding in the notion of cult suicide and how cultural societies were completely wiped out with the idea of serving their king or god within this life and also within the next, supposed to be free willing, being buried alive. This process were in honour of their leader, an individual who laid out the law of the land and guided the civilisation into the suicidal pact.
Chatting to death
Video
Channel 4
Reinforcing the area of death.
Suicide methods
Virtual suicides over the internet, case studies of people who have looked for information on suicide on unregulated websites, a community of people preparing to take their own lives in the world of suicide chat rooms. Talk about personal things. It’s hard to kill yourself, its’ about having the guts.
People’s options of desperation constantly thinking about how they will die.
The parents don’t always pick up the signs. One built a website for his death putting it on line just before he died. Putting a time of when they are going to die, publicity in the papers. The area of advertising to get attention, hiding of the sadness. No trace on the internet, researched how to die on the internet. Suicidal people talking to suicidal people, convincing each other to do it.
This seems really weird, why did Simon advertise the fact of his death. People were then discussing of he had really done it, failure was not an option the hanging suicidal notes to the people he wanted to have them, what about the people left behind, friends, family, but the whole thing were being broadcast on the internet. Living in different worlds.
Hiding their true feelings to the people they know.
Should I be looking at the newspapers to see the social areas of death. Social.
Schrummery website, people did not believe him, telling him to do more, family and friends could not believe how people told him to do it. Afterwards told the people to call the cops but no one did. What state has the world come to when they are egging the victim on to do it and then not contacting anyone. This does not happen in all cases, why are people doing this when really they don’t want to die. A lot of people try but fail.
The video has given me an insight into the feelings that suicide victims feel and how they try to commit suicide. These people that talk over the internet connect and worry about each other and how they form relationships. But this is happening all over the world, depending on how they are feeling themselves they can talk them into there own suicide and other peoples. The friends and family are stuck they have to live with a dreadful unknown. How would you feel if you found one of your loved ones dead? The people are left with guilt and a questioning of how things could have been different. Better not to think about it, think about the positives. Get back into a social situation and get on with life. Its hard to believe anyone of the internet, they don’t see the internet as a reality, the great world web of liars, can’t take anything of value on the internet as it’s just a game.
Maggie Bowler screened on the video has allowed me to gain an understanding into the modern day of how suicide has become a network amongst the internet, the world wide web has produced a generation of people who can find information on the procedures of killing themselves without fail, as well as forming a society of people talking and communicating their personal feelings and emotions on how and why they plan to take their lives. The world within worlds, its seems strange and uncalled for how people can egg others on to take their own lives, giving a joke and disbelief a way of playing games with other people’s lives. It also highlights the need people have to share their inner most feelings with others, they say suicide is a cry for attention, but in this game no one really is bothered about the other. The way people constantly feel depressed to the state that they no longer want to live anymore is quite disturbing.
Voices from another dimension.
Whitfield. R.
Tape recording of proclaimed voices picked up from another domain. The book accompanying the book, highlights the processes of human consciousness and how it is through consciousness that the waves and vibrations are picked upon creating the sounds we are so familiar to hearing. It is through thought alone that we communicate with sound and sight and smell and it is an illusion that makes them possible and highlights without consciousness the world would be a very quite place. Apparently its about the vibrations that create and produces sound. New methods have come to light of how the sound can be played backwards to actually produce a sentence that can make sense.
Voices from another dimension has given evidence of people existing in another realm, although it stills lacks the answers to why and how we enter the other world, giving various examples of voices heard through the process of evp’s, one aspect that was made clear and gave me a further questioning was when Whitfield highlighted the fact that many ask for help, why is this where are they that makes them ask for this, could these be the lost souls trapped in a world of limbo never leaving and why are these people there, is it fact that the voices are from different realms, as others do not ask for help but communicate answering questions or commenting on certain avenues of interest.
There also seems a questioning on the approach of he cassette as he highlights and speaks the word three times before actually listening to the recorder. Making a bit sceptical on the possibility of the saying the words in ones own mind, then putting it within the rustling sound of the cassette, although on a few occasions the voices seem absolutely clear, and need no explanation on what is being said. I also assume that with the different grades of recording it becomes obvious why he tells of what is being said, although to be honest some I heard nothing but the muffled recording.
Although through this research it has come to light that there is a possibility that there is something more that exists whether in this dimensional realm or one that exists somewhere else. The voices must show some kind of evidence that soul moves on else where and it seems that it is only through this kind of contact of recordings that opens up the possibilities that open up a whole new questioning about the area of.
Whitfield. R. Voices from another dimension. Exploring the electronic voice phenomenon. New Age Publications. Berwick-upon-Tweed. 1997.
Near Death Experience
The area of near death experience seems varied and debatable, people have spoke of how they have had visions but this can be put down to oxygen deprivation of the brain but the argue than is further debatable to the people who have been conscious during this experience. The people who experience the near death experience are then said to change their view and attitudes towards life, believing entirely that there is somewhere we reside to. Although the people who experience a negative near death experience report a greater fear of death, this to is fascinating as all people most believe that there is something more whether it be a pleasant land or terrifying consequences, it also brings interest to how through having this experience they now believe that there is an afterlife.
There also seems to be many notions and theories connected from religious, scientific and social areas of believing in the afterlife, each having their own explanations on the implications of near death experiences. Conditional survival relates to the philosophy of how the person may or may not survive after death. This theory works with the notion of being spiritual in life and at death depends on how real to the self you have been. This seems to work with the attributes of Christianity , and the notion that if you believe and follow you will enter into the realms of heaven and live forever in eternity. And taking the thought of hell away, with the soul dissolving and becoming nothing seems to me an unsure theory and speculation for saying that it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe, as therefore you cause the end to your own soul. Its thought that that it’s the spiritual that guides the self and survives death to enlightenment, but what is the point of spirituality surviving, can it be seen that we have to believe to be transcended to the perfect land. The symbolic implication is of interest with the avenue of believing that we live on within the name or status we form within this world, within the reality we create for ourselves. This theory relates to the physical aspects and is true within the memories we give others and the lives we touch, but unless you have famous status or have actually gained recognition within the world you truly do not live on, you really are a nobody.
Moody has configured a general consensus that shows of similarities in what the persons underwent in their near death experience, the range of visions and experiences have been documented during his research and he has brought together a collection of narratives that describes in most detail of a near death experience. The first stage is that of the dark tunnel, where the soul/spirit of the person leaves the body, and they then see their physical body, others have accounted how they have heard the doctors or nurses pronounce them dead, while they have been observing everything that is happening.
Life after life by Moody consists of a range of personal narratives on the experience of what happened to them during the encounter with death. Each person finds it hard to directly describe the experiences they are feeling and what appearance they have now taken on, although some explain themselves to be some kind of sphere, weightless although they still seem to believe they have arms and legs but not in the sense of the physical human appearance.
We are Eternal
Robert brown
What the spirits tell me about life after death.
What signs tell us our loved ones are near?
Is it dangerous to deal with the spirit world?
Profound and haunting, these ageless questions have intrigued us all, and its within this book Robert Brown questions and answers this with his own personal experience within this book.
Can we really communicate with the dead?
Robert brown is a medium apparently world class, doing many readings for infamous and famous people. The book highlights his own person journey into the world of clairvoyance and the path he walked into becoming a part of this work. He tells of many stories of other mediums and the many different processes used to contact the dead.
Throughout the book Brown tells of how the dead look just the same as on the earth plane, and suggests many situations of how spirit has told him many stories of what happens at death suggested that before we are born we make a list of the achievements we need to learn while here on earth and that a personal guide keeps this list and once we learn these lessons that is the hour that are time on this earth is over, be have learnt what we set out to do. Apparently the people who do evil within the physical realm like murder of a another person faces the person that they deprived of life and go through a process of
The main reason for being on this earth plane is to learn through the lessons that we are presented with and that we must overcome these and not try to run for if we do not learn to sort them in this life they will be given to us in the afterlife or we may even return to this world to learn about them once again.
An interesting part was of the photos that capture people’s aura or spirit with the case of Roberts friend Sean, when the last photo before his death was taken a light shone around Robert while Sean had a dull brown smoky mist, apparently the last of his energy, clearly indicating that he had achieved what he came to this earth for.
Doing your dirty washing in public.
Fabric and it’s links to memory and craft in the making of art.
Gerald Williams’s short essay is in correspondence to his research carried out at the Henry Moore Institute and is very much his own personal view on the subject matter. The dialogue focuses on the area of textile craft and highlights the significance fabric has had through cultural history and how cloth has strong importance within civilizations. Through time cloth has gathered a range of connotations and has become “a reflection of ourselves”, cloth has therefore accumulated a variety of different needs, by being given a variety of functions and meanings.
Williams indicates the association fabric has to feminine roles and the concept of textiles representing feminine crafts. Previous times have shown how cloth was less acceptable as a persuasive sculptural material when in comparison to the masculine materials of concrete or bronze. During the essay Williams encourages the notion of cloth within sculpture, and brings together a anthology of artists.
A range of artists are discussed regarding their context and historical aspects towards the notions of cloth and are divided into subject matters of their work. The first group of artists create work on a personal collective level although engage a wider audience through historical connotations they contextualize in using the medium of cloth in recollection to memory or craft. Suggesting how cloth becomes allied to life. An array of others artists are also portrayed for their selection of work that has connections either on a social, political or cultural meaning. The final artists Williams brings into context are connected to the area of fabric in craft and how these artists depict this within art.
Williams forms a questioning of how finely crafted do the pieces have to be to justify the ability of a good craftsman. This specifically highlights the belief that the skill of making is not necessarily a major importance in producing a meaningful piece. Williams suggests signifying the idea and not intentionally the making of the piece achieves the objective that the artist is creating. Williams creates a dialogue of questioning about artists work in the context of how particular artists have not necessarily been successful in craftsmanship but the idea has been delivered in a representational visual significance.
The text gives a broad range of meaning, association and understanding to the denotation of how sculptural textile pieces create a wide questioning of the historical, personal and collective memory and gender. Each of the artists has expressed a range of contextualization within their investigation and has given me an understanding of how artists working with cloth create art pieces connected to a context. What’s also interesting is how the process of idea creates the piece and forms substance and works mainly on the process of thought rather than design or in some instances the process of craftsmanship.
Textiles consistently have connections with the female gender due to historical happenings, yet Christian Boltanski has produced work that connects on a variety of different levels and has successfully created a visual account of a contextualization. I personally relate with and appreciate how philosophy and textiles combine, whether through historical happenings, gender or personal and collective memory and how the work stands alone to tell the narrative of the piece. Yet I still question the aspect of the general public’s point of view, as without the understanding of the historical detonations, the piece will represent and mean nothing to them unless they are of some knowledge of the subject at hand.