Recap

In Search of the Soul

Author Howard Bloom (website), returned to C2C as the main guest on Thursday night, discussing the nature of the soul, and the intersection of science and religion. The word soul has 23 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary, Bloom reported, and he related the importance of the soul to one's passions (like in "soul music") which can be imprinted at an early age.

While Bloom defined himself as an atheist or a "pantheist," he recounted an out-of-body experience he had, where his consciousness floated up to the ceiling as he was dancing in front of a group of 350 people. He conceptualized this transcendant experience as possibly connected to an unusual outflow of energy, rather than being a religious incident per se.

By way of explanation, he cited the work of scientist Michael Persinger who concludes there is a neuropsychological basis for the belief in God. His experiments have shown that when a certain area of the brain is stimulated, people were induced into having religious experiences.

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Portrait of Howard

Above is a caricature of Howard Bloom, drawn by the illustrator Will Robertson.

Chat Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from a half-hour Q & A with Earthfiles investigator, Linda Moulton Howe, who was the special guest in our Live Chat with George this past Tuesday. Streamlink members can read the entire transcript here.

houstonsusie
Linda, what in your opinion makes crop circles?

Linda Moulton Howe
Crop formations are for me one of the most profound mysteries on the planet. As I write this, I am thinking of patterns like the 1996 fractals at Windmill Hill, Stonehenge and those that have emerged since. I am also thinking of the importance this summer of 2003 in both Wiltshire and Ohio where the intelligence behind several patterns used markers in the landscape, but away from the patterns, to line up lines or other features.

For geometry specialists, this is significant because the skill involved and the awareness of large scale relationships of patterns to the landscape is something beyond most human ability. I would like to more clearly understand what that intelligence is behind the mystery that has gone on in the modern age since the late 1980s and remains even MORE baffling today to most of us who have been to England repeatedly.

ozz
Linda, do you think you would ever be interviewed by someone like Larry King on CNN? It would be satisfying, I think, to see you efforts getting more "mainstream" media coverage.

Linda Moulton Howe
I would enjoy talking with Larry King and would welcome that opportunity. I was on Bill O'Reilly's "The Factor" a couple of summers ago to talk about crop formations. I expected him to bite my head off, but instead he seemed intrigued and that segment has been repeated several times on the "Factor" program.