Fringe Knowledge for Beginners

I did a search and didn't see this. Unless it's under a different name.

But anyways, I found this somewhere and thought this would really be the best place for this.

From "The Basics" chapter (1):

We start with the simple and obvious. You see through your eyes,
hear through your ears, feel through your body, and think through
your brain. But you are not your eyes, ears, body, or brain—these
are just things you experience the world with. So then, what are
you? Remember that anything that can be taken away from you
cannot be you. Like your clothes or hair—without them you
would be bald and naked, but you would still be you.
Now take away your body and brain. Is there anything left? Did
you know that people have come back from being dead for a few
minutes, remembering all they did while they were gone? Yes,
sometimes they recall floating above their own lifeless bodies, seeing
and hearing the doctors and nurses working on them, maybe
floating away and exploring what’s around before being brought
back to life.* Even without their bodies and brains, they were still
alive somehow, aware and experiencing. This shows that they are
not their bodies, and neither are you.

Here's a piece from the "Aliens" section:

According to modern science, humans naturally evolved on earth
from ape-like ancestors to become the most intelligent species on
this planet and possibly this universe since there has been no evidence
of intelligent life elsewhere. But the truth is completely
opposite: humans are not alone in the universe, are not the most
intelligent species, and did not evolve naturally on earth.

And from the "Consciousness" section - talking about reincarnation:

If your mind can exist without the body, then where was the mind
before you were born? And what happens to the mind after the
body dies? See, life is like a dream where being born is like falling
asleep and dying like waking up again. In between, your mind
thinks, feels, and lives through a temporary character just as you
might in a dream. Being born is similar to how an actor takes on a
temporary role for a movie. The same actor plays different roles in
different movies, and likewise the mind is born into different bodies
in different lifetimes.

And one more:

Religion gives people a feeling of security in exchange for unquestioning
obedience. On the positive side it encourages devotion to
ideals higher than just material success, like helping others or serving
a divine cause. On the negative side religion can be horribly
misused to program people like robots and make them do stupid
things like hate and kill those of a different religion.

I have a lot of reading to do tonight.

Here's a link to the table of contents (so you can decide if you want to download the .pdf or not).

montalk.net...

Here's the link to the .PDF:

montalk.net...

Enjoy!

Edit: Wrong link, duh.

[edit on 2/10/2010 by impaired]