Question at end of interview: "How do you handle your own paradigm busting truth moments? What was that like for you?"
What I would say is this:
-For me it is mixed up my mental illness (psychosis) in 2009 which featured an overwhelming feeling that God was real. So, I suppose you could say that my brain didn’t handle my paradigm busting moment very well :-) Actually - more complicated than that. I had signs of illness in other aspects (i.e. I was obsessed by the 2008 financial crash) so I don’t believe there is a causal relationship.
-Skeptiko has been key since then. Alex, your show and your guests have had a big impact on my life. I am not sure it is positive because I do believe life would be simpler and easier if my paradigms weren’t busted but they are. Not your fault. I was truth seeking before I encountered Skeptiko. Skeptiko just sort of organised things and lead me to sources and, sadly, the data is persuasive. So, therefore my paradigms are busted. I am just now working through being more open about this with friends. It has been locked away because it was wound round my mental illness. This stuff sounds crazy to people and it sounds even crazier when you admit you really do have a mental illness. So, the result was that I didn’t speak about any of it. I am now changing that.
When I was acutely ill, I was believing in the Revelation (a classic grandiose/religious delusion). In a way, I still do in that I see Skeptiko (and similar websites) as being at the forefront of a slow “revelation” (lower case “r”) where certain mysteries are being solved by the magic of the internet. Really, it is just collation. The internet allows people to study these very rare things which was very difficult/impossible before. Why is it a “revelation”? Well, because I think implicit in so much of this stuff is God. Can one imagine reincarnation without God? Can one imagine the Spirit World without some kind of organisation or levels? Who the heck is that light in the NDEs? God is woven into all this stuff (though not sure how he/she fits into the UFO weirdness).
This is the ultimate paradigm being busted. God moving from being a matter of faith to a matter of fact. The world being transformed by this knowledge. It is happening albeit slowly. Dr. Julie Beischel is proving that something is going on with mediums. Dr. Jim Tucker is expanding on Ian Stephenson’s work and, slowly, proving that there is something to reincarnation. Data is being collated on many fronts. It is accumulating. It cannot be ignored forever. This is something new. It is, ultimately, knowledge of God on the basis of evidence rather than faith.
Where does it end? If we KNOW that God is there, will s/he step out of the shadows? How would you really feel if you could email God at
god@heaven.org and get a reply?