Richard Smoley

Dec 15, 2015 5:48 AM EST

The Near-Death Experience phenomenon is covered similarly, especially in connection to discussion of the nature of consciousness. There has been a lot of blustering headlines about the NDE being finally explained by materialism but, when you read the article, it's little more than a handwaving editorial seeking to discredit the mounting evidence that puts the lie to physicalism.

This brings to mind Luke Dittrich's Esquire "expose" on Eben Alexander which was pretty thoroughly debunked by Robert Mays of IANDS and Alexander himself, but which seems to have been embraced as the final word on the matter. It's a shame that you essentially have to be your own investigative journalist in order to get any light on nearly any issue related to non-mainstream ideas. Getting an accurate picture of the facts when it comes to these sorts of topics is basically a full-time career! I can sympathize with folks who prefer to spend their energy otherwise, but laziness and lack of curiosity should not entitle one to parrot the latest mainstream headline or debunking exercise as the final word of any aspect of the anomalous.

- K. Hoffman

Dec 15, 2015 6:13 AM EST

Wow. Luke Dittrich's article. What a low point for Esquire. Most of what that article did was to recount Alexander's malpractice suits. Let's assume this part was accurate enough. It doesn't contradict Alexander's own account, because he himself mentioned several years of personal and professional crisis before the experience. A malpractice suit would certainly fall under this rubric. And of course he wasn't likely to talk about them, if only because settlements of that sort forbid the parties from discussing the cases afterwards. Not much else was left in Dittrich's article except a meteorological investigation of whether a rainbow actually appeared on the day Alexander awoke from his coma. If that's all you come up with after several months of investigative journalism, Alexander comes off pretty well.

- Richard Smoley

Dec 09, 2015 3:00 PM EST

thanks - well worth the study - "something is going on" for sure. I did a lot of reading on the subject for a book review project about 20 yrs ago and was quite surprised by the quality and depth of a lot of the research. it is being suppressed by ridicule, a very low-budget tool!

- douglass truth

Dec 09, 2015 3:08 PM EST

Seriously, Richard?

- Anonymous

Dec 09, 2015 5:56 PM EST

Fairly sure at least one person running for President is an alien. Watch them. One of them is trying but not quite succeeding in acting human. I will give you a clue. He has an unusual hair style that can't possibly be human.

- Bill Stegall

Dec 14, 2015 11:52 AM EST

Thank you, Richard! An excellent summary of important information on the subject.

For the open-minded, I recommend a exhaustive discussion of the subject presented by Dr. Steven Greer at:

http://fktv.is/dr-steven-greer-nov-21-2015-how-the-secret-government-works-the-most-explosive-expose-27466

There is something very serious going on that demands our attention...

Thanks for showing light on the UFO phenomenon!

- M K V

Dec 19, 2015 10:25 AM EST

re the President's UFO thing-- the Pres is 1) a science fiction nerd. He likes Star Trek, and all good science fiction films. 2) the President is a comedy nerd. He loves comedians and is a pretty good one. Put that together and you see why he's joking. This is the guy who does a whole written out comedy routine every year at the Press Club

- John Shirley

Dec 21, 2015 8:05 AM EST

Thanks to MKV for the link to the Steven Greer presentation. I watched it with great interest. Not a lot in it would have to be true to completely upturn our notions of what is going on--at many levels.

No doubt Obama was joking, at least to some extent. Maybe he was joking because he doesn't know what the hell is going on either.

- Richard Smoley