I was inspired to read the article on you in the GW. Your strength of spirit and your openness to grow through what life has handed you is beautiful.

I also wanted to share with you about the Suddarshan Kriya breathing technique. It is taught on the Art of Living Part 1 Course, in over 150 countries around the world. Incredible healings and transformations have been experienced through it. There is also a lot of research now done on it, which illustrate the benefits.

See http://www.artofliving.org.au for the courses being run in Australia or http://www.artofliving.org for courses in other countries. I’m not sure where you’re based, but if you’re ever in Sydney then you’re welcome to join us for a course here. I teach it myself; however, wherever you are - the journey will be a valuable and transformational one.

If you’d like to have a chat, feel free to give me a call. My details are on my website.

Wishing you life’s gems.
Meggan

There, isn’t that comforting? (Made me feel better, though folks in the office are now staring.)

Methinks ‘Fleshy DNA Robot’ is an awesome name for a punk band.

More posts and rambling thoughts please. Very interesting sis’.

I apologise, I misread your initial post. However, many healthy (if not altogether carefree) individuals also ponder these very fundamental questions posed by Anna.

Are not our universities filled with philosophers and theologians who mostly enjoy the rudest of good health? I’ll be fifty next birthday and smoke like the proverbial chimney. While not faced with imminent death, I think that you, as a Respiratory Physician, will acknowledge that my chances of seeing 70 are slim. And I also frequently ponder these questions.

I accept that belief (or faith) is not amenable to proof (or disproof), but it is open to scientific and intellectual scrutiny. For instance, in what part of the human cerebral cortex does “belief” originate? I suspect somewhere in one or other of the temporal lobes. But perhaps you as a believer would argue that it is imposed from on high by some ultimate being?

As for religious belief, I’m open to the possibility that Christians (of all denominations), Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., etc., may be right. However, I find it damned hard to see how they can all be right. And, in many ways, I pray to God (you’ll understand the irony) that it’s actually the Atheists who have it right: the notion of a long, deep sleep undisturbed by dreams (pleasant or otherwise) strikes me as having much to commend itself.

Best wishes,

John

This is a fresh post-deconstruction approach to a truth we must all grapple with - “who are we?”.

What you are experiencing with your higher intellect, analytical powers, clear prose and medical knowledge has resonance for us all.

I would like to hear more about your experiences of the power of love.

Andrew

I hope Anna does not mind us arguing in her back yard, so to speak. Nowhere did I deny that existential questions do tax our patients’ minds–on the contrary, I did say that such questions are frequently ignored whilst we are healthy and carefree. I agree that ‘thinking honestly’ one cannot propose (or contradict) any view about afterlife. The latter is a matter of faith, and so, by definition, beyond the domain of scientific or intellectual proof. We acccept it, by deciding that there are limits to the reach of our physical or mental abilities, and in accepting it we also adopt a stance in our life consistent with what we believe that will follow after our departure from this earth.
I hope I have made myself clear this time, and thank you very much for taking the trouble to write.

With all due respects, I’ve met a lot of people with incurable diseases who very much care where they’re going after they draw their final breath. My own mother was a conventional Roman Catholic and as such expected a short spell in Purgatory followed by admission to one of the many mansions that Jesus claimed his father owned for an eternity of happiness.

I myself am Agnostic: I have no faith. For me, the plain “I just don’t know” is the only honest position to take on the very fundamental question as to whether some form of consciousness continues after death. And, again contrary to what you say, in my experience this question is one that exercises greatly many individuals who are close to death.

Best wishes,

John

I am a chest physician with a special interest in palliative care, so I see a fair number of patients with malignancies. Through my discussions with patients I have come to appreciate that a diagnosis of incurable disease is essentially the drawing of the curtain behind which we choose to live our ordinary lives, happily ignorant (i.e. not caring) of such fundamental issues as who we are and whither we are going.

Having grown up in the Orthodox Christian tradition I was interested by your opening comment on the ‘demise of Western theology’. I do not wish to start any kind of polemic against other confessions, but you may find that Eastern Christian theology is alive and well, and may hold answers to some of your very natural and very profound questions. If I were to suggest some good introductory reading on the subject, I would choose ‘The Orthodox Way’ by Bishop Kallistos Ware, who I believe is well known in the Oxford circles.

Please keep up the good fight!

Anthony Papagiannis, Greece

Like so many others, I came across your blog on the internet and I’m so pleased to “hear from you.” It’s wonderful to have news of how you are and what you are up to. I think of you and Michael often and love keeping up with you here. You always make me stop and think and since I have a mindless corporate job, I love the opportunity really to think occasionally!
Much love to you and Michael,
Helen Lawson

I wish you well on your challenging journey - Margaret

A fascinating post and one of particular pertinence to my self - having just been diagnosed with a GBM4. After many years wedded to the logic of Darwin and in the pull of your old colleagues prose, i too find myself again engaging my more spiritual side in the search for meaning and perspective. Ian G has certainly been an inspiration, one i hope more Cancer patients come across, and hence i plow through Sogyal Rimpoche’s readings and casually allow my meditation to venture into the connectedness i feel with so much that is around me … be it through love, chi, force… i know not; but who ever we are i am glad i am here and want to stay longer.

I too have wondered at the relative spiritual dessert that survives in the west; that that remains seemingly cornered by institutions of creed, their honest and inspirational message lost in the grasp to stay relevant. I counsel my Indian friends, those i studied with in India, against a head-long rush in search of all that is affluent in the West (not to say it is all bad) - so long as they don’t loose what makes their world so rich and more able to answer the questions you/i/we are asking - more so as our mortality becomes the message of our day(s).

Much warmth, love, respect and spirit to you on your journey. May you succeed and use your example to further our collective understanding.

Sam

Diciple-”oh Guru ji look !what a beautiful butterfly!

Guru-”My dear pupil,it is just a dream - it is Maya(illusion)”

Diciple-”Is it not possible Guru ji, that we are a dream,being dreamt by that Butterfly”

This is a very powerful thought-It questions our very approach to this world.

No evidence here of literary ineptitude. Quite the opposite. And the subject of this latest blog is of special interest to me. I have found Ken Wilber’s books on the subject of consciousness and spirit marvellously challenging. Maybe you know this work already.

Warmest good wishes,

Lynsey