Empathy and literacy

© Painting by Johannes Bjorner

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Before that time books were mostly written by hand, one at a time and available to only a few.
The literacy rate in the world have changed dramaticly over the last few centuries.
In the beginning of the sixteen century about 10% for men and 1% for women could read, this is 60 years after the invention of the printing press.
Thus the availability of books and people who could read them have developed dramaticly over  the past 500 years. But modern man, homo sapiens, have been around for about 150000 years. 
If we imagine compressing the time mankind has existed into 1 year, the printing press was invented on December 30th, the same day that Columus reached the American continent.
Availability of electric light ocurred during my fathers childhood.  The invention of television, computers, internet and nuclear bombs happened in my lifetime, that began December 31, at 8 PM in the compressed year. 
The spreading of world connectivity and scientific information sharing has exploded in a few decades, which is mostly good. The invention of weapons of mass destruction likewise, which is bad. Thus a few human beings hold the future (if any!) of mankind in their hands.
Only by spreading worldwide emphaty might we prevent a worlwide disaster.
That means freedom of information on a worldwide scale.

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So near the light...

 To experience the light we have to see it with our souls.
I have given an examples in an earlier blog: Our bodies our souls.
About the joy of watching a great work of art, be it visual, music or lyrics.
The happyness that fills our soul, driving out negative thoughs, is clearly visible in people sharing a comon event, like  a concert. Wether the music apeals to your taste, look at the joy in their faces, look at some of Andre Rieus concerts:
See and listen to  "Life is beautiful" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLGzAiSQTDw
Look  at the extassy and joy of thousend of people sharing a the wonderful moment of music together, their sould so near the light.
Psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker at Harvard University thinks it is completely conceivable that wars between countries might go the way of slave auctions, debtors’ prisons and other barbaric customs.(See BBC URL: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121109-is-world-peace-possible)
Also from that BBC URL:
Steven Pinker told BBC Future about how  we are predisposed to be violent but how we are also predisposed to be peaceful.
There are some parts to the brain that impel us to carry out violence, such as the thirst for revenge, feelings of tribalism, or the quest for dominance. But packed into the same skull there are motives that inhibit us from violence, like empathy and reason that allow us to see violence as a problem to be solved instead of a contest to be won."

The power of art

Art can be so powerful in bringing joy to people because it is often a creation of the soul. Look at the paintings of Van Gogh, although the subject matter is often trivial, the message in these paintings often trascend


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The light in life and in the afterlife

Carl Sagan did not believe that there was life after death. As a scientist it is understandable, no proof that could be verified. He is quoted as saying, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Scientists have often been skeptical, and should be. I believe that the soul has an existence of its own and that it will continue in some form. I base that on my own experiences in life.

This blog is not about religion, and is not against religion, it is not about believing that a good exist, or denying a goods existence. I do believe that there is a strong force or energy, which I shall refer to as the light.

I believe that, when our soul has left our body, the soul will travel towards that light, but that we can at times in our live feel the presence of that light.

The light exists at the crossroads between past and present, between the different art forms, between fantasy and reality and between life and death.

For me, the light represents the feeling of complete joy and happiness, when our soul is filled with the joy leaving out negative feelings and thoughts. We can sometimes see that light with our soul.

The evolution of mankind has also developed our souls and, although there are wars and conflicts around the world, there has also been a gradual reduction in crimes worldwide within the last centuries. This is well documented in Steven Pinker´s  book “ The better angels of our nature”.

Countless accounts of near death experiences and the afterlife have been published, but of course, no evidence, as required by science, has been put forward. There is simply a barrier between hands on evidence and the spiritual world. Many scientist do not like to accept somebody’s personal account of their out of body experience. 

In 1975 Raymond Moody, a world renowned scholar, lecturer, and researcher, published a book with the title Life after life. One of the problems that Dr. Moody encountered was first the reluctance of people to talk of their experience, for fear of being ridiculed, second it was difficult to explain in words their profound experience with words. Dr. Moody in his book also discusses the Natural (scientific), Physiological and Neurological explanations. Still, most scientists remain skeptical. 
One of those scientists was Dr Eben Alexander, known worldwide for developing advanced neurosurgical technologies for complex disorders of the brain.

Heaven imagined    @ Johannes Bjorner

Dr Alexander worked at Duke University Medical School and Harvard medical School and authored more than 15o chapters and peer-reviewed papers in neurosurgery. One morning in 2008 he fell into a coma from a rare illness his brain functions were near totally inactive. Totally unexpected he did wake up from his deep coma. His near death experience was so profound that he wrote about it in his book “Proof of heaven”. 
He tells of beautiful colors and music beyond description.
With his many years of experience in neurosurgery and his outstanding credentials, his account is hard to dismiss.

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