Proof of Heaven Author Eben Alexander States This World A School For Souls.

Vancouver, June 13, 2013.  A white-haired lady from Squamish lined up behind a freckle-faced blonde in capris, while at the front of the line, a dark haired young man tucked his motorcycle helmet under his arm and hurried up the steps of the Memorial United Church on Fifteenth Avenue West.  We were a varied lot, this amalgamation of people who had come to hear Dr. Eben Alexander, noted neurosurgeon, speak to us of his personal experience of heaven.

Brain dead, and in a coma for days, Dr. Alexander had a very unique near-death experience. He spoke of images so impressed upon him that they are literally unfading and unforgettable, unlike images we see with our conscious mind.  He said he experienced knowing without words, without hearing or seeing; a form of conceptualization.  His explanation?  

"The conscious mind is the veil through which we experience reality." 

And this world?  Is a school for souls.  A learning opportunity.  A preparation for our next realm, for our soul's ascendency.

What is real?  Emotions. Love.

According to Dr. Alexander, love is "so much bigger than anything else, than any other force in life."

Love, he said, is tremendously healing.

Good news for those of us who came to the light from a dark portal.

Emma Donoghue's ROOM: Rare Insight Into A Dark Portal.

Have you read Emma Donoghue's book, Room?  If not, you're missing a powerful insight into a dark world.

Donoghue was born in Dublin in 1969, and now lives in London, Ontario.  It takes guts to devote an entire novel to such dark subject matter.  I found that I had to think about reading the book for about a year before I could bring myself to approach it.

To research and write on such a dark situation must be a daunting task.  Yet Donoghue does it formidably well.

In Room, Donoghue explores the world of an abducted teen, now grown, who births a child in captivity.  With the recent headlines regarding Amanda Berry and her daughter, the book couldn't be more timely.

In spite of the grisly subject matter, Donohue writes with an arresting humour, describing the world of the room in the only innocent voice available, that of the child born therein.

Five year old Jack, who was conceived, born and raised in the eleven by eleven foot room, has known no other world, and it is his ingenuous voice that narrates the story.  

Using Jack as a vehicle allows Donoghue to apply humour and show how love can bring hope and purpose even to a person stranded in seemingly hopeless circumstances.

The ending is unexpectedly powerful and moving.  I highly recommend the book, which seems a perfect expression of Hope From a Dark Portal.

Life More Horrific Than Fiction...Amanda Berry.

"Two women who were kept for years against their will in an Ohio house finally returned home on Wednesday.

Amanda Berry, 27, was brought under police guard to her sister's home in Cleveland and was welcomed by a huge cheer from hundreds of neighbours. The house was festooned with balloons and placards, one saying "We never lost hope" and another reading "We missed you very much". Gina DeJesus, 23, had a similar rapturous welcome home. A third woman who was imprisoned, Michelle Knight, 30, remained out of the spotlight on Wednesday. When they went missing, Berry was 16, DeJesus 14 and Knight 21.

Berry burst free from the house on Seymour Avenue on Monday, with a six-year-old daughter born in captivity, leading police to the grisly scene where they discovered ropes and chains. Since their release, the women had been staying at an undisclosed location with expert investigators". (UK Guardian)

Recently, I finally resigned myself to reading "ROOM" Emma Donoghue's fictional account of a girl growing into womanhood while being imprisoned in an underground room.  In the course of her confinement she becomes pregnant and bears a son, whom she raises inside the dungeon-like enclosure.  

But that was fiction.  These headlines are reality.  A horrific and intolerable reality.  

One of the captors was a school bus driver, which brings me back to what I was once told about pedophiles:  They will always find jobs or professions in fields where they can work with children.

As a school bus driver, Ariel Castro had plenty of opportunity to develop a bond of trust between himself and various female students.  In addition, he would be able to identify those who were special needs, and whom he would possibly find eaiser to lure away.  I doubt that there was anything random about this crime.

I applaud Amanda Berry.  She is a heroine of the first water.  And like Ma in Donoghue's Room, she never gave up not just hope, but planning for that day when she would again be free.

May God go with you, Amanda, you and your daughter.

Life With Pi: Titanic? or Blindside?

The photography in the movie, “Life with Pi”, is evocative of both The Titanic and The Black Stallion, and that’s the kind of movie I was prepared to see last night.  

It’s the kind of boy meets tiger saga that fills you with certain expectations:  the boy and the tiger will be soulmates, and the movie will end with a heartfelt friendship that makes all those hours of watching them circle each other in the lifeboat worthwhile.  It is not the kind of movie that leads you to anticipate a twist at the end.

But in fact there is a twist, and it is that twist in Life of Pi that to me is more reminiscent of the Michael Oher fact-based movie Blindside.  

At the end of the movie we learn that there is another, darker possibility than the light hearted one we have watched as it played out.  We learn that the entire movie may well be just a metaphor for the unbearable reality of what happened on that lifeboat.

And that reminded me of the moment in Blindside when Sandra Bullock’s character asks Michael Oher how he survived the brutal reality of his childhood.  He explains that when “bad things” are happening, his mom tells him to close his eyes and think of something nice.  And when the bad things are over, he is to open his eyes and pretend nothing bad ever happened.

Creating a metaphor for the unbearable to make it bearable; closing your eyes and mind to an unacceptable reality, and creating another interior reality are coping mechanisms. 

I wonder how many different coping mechanisms childhood abuse survivors employ, and how successful we are in changing our lives through these methods? Or maybe we manage to live our lives because of them? If you've been there, talk to me.

Katie Beers in a CNN Interview

Today on CNN Katie Beers emerges, another author writing about an abusive past. Katie suffered horrific abuse, chained by the neck, confined to an underground box for seventeen days while she was sexually abused. 

The fact that this took place over twenty years ago does not make the experience or news of it any less compelling.  Katie talks about her experience in “Buried Memories”.

An amazing child and woman, Katie tells journalists that the abuse she suffered day to day living with her Godmother, was actually the very thing that ‘prepared’ her to withstand and survive the treatment during her captivity.

She believed that her abductor, whom she knew well, had been planning the abduction for quite some time.  This is apparent when we see the box he built to keep her in, with it’s chain, toilet and TV.  

The wiring for the TV, the plumbing or arrangements for the toilet, the careful construction of the box, clearly indicate he planned to keep a person in its confines.

It is significant to note that the abductor was known to Katie, that he offered to ‘sneak away with’ her and buy her a toy.

She missed significant amounts of school, due to neglect, and this was apparently not noted or addressed by the school system.

Katie is now married and has two children.  She was fortunate to be placed with good foster parents and to have on-going therapy after her rescue. 

“I’ve gone to therapy, I’ve said my piece and now I’ve written a book.  And now I feel I can finally rebury everything.  There’s no point in opening up old scars.”

Congratulations, Katie, on making your way out.  Creating a normal life for yourself and your children.