WOW, JUST WOW...........

[Horus]

Hi Bianca,

I watched the film "What Dreams May Come" recently. That seemed to help.

Blessings,
H

[Bianca]

Thank you, Horus!

I don't have a movie rental store near anymore and I don't drive.

I googled the title and wiki said it was from a novel:



So, I went to Amazon and, yes, they do have it.  I much prefer reading the original
story than seeing the movie.  The movies always disappoint, save probably for 'Gone
With The Wind' and "Auntie Mame" (both versions).

From the wiki analysis of both movie and novel, it seems to be the best choice.  I will get the movie
or see it when the occasion arises.  My imagination will do the rest and it will be a great addition to
my Spiritualist collection of books.

Thanks again, Horus and
blessings!

Bianca



P.S.


According to Amazon's Rewiewers, I made the right choice. 
There are 130+ reviews.
Here's the link if you'd care to read them:


http://www.amazon.com/What-Dreams-May-Come-Novel/product-reviews/0765308703/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1


Here's one of the  best:


By  Kylopod (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Dreams May Come: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
This novel is the most vivid, complex, and surprisingly convincing depiction of afterlife I have ever encountered in a work of fiction. Nothing else I have seen on the subject, in literature or in film, comes close--certainly not the 1998 film. Before I read the novel, I had no idea that a story about Heaven and Hell could have such a profound effect on me.

In the metaphysics of the film and the book, dying involves shedding your physical body and entering a mental environment shaped by thoughts. Your fate in such an environment is largely self-imposed. That much of the movie intrigued me, the first time I saw it. The problem was the schmaltz. I mean real schmaltz, piled on in large mounds, in place of strong narrative.

It's hard for me to convey just how very different the novel is. Of course there are major differences in the plot. One such difference is the ending. (Even Roger Ebert, who heaped high praise on the film, was disappointed by the ending.) Another is the beginning, where the film adds Chris's children to the list of characters who die and go to Heaven. In doing this, the movie (1) makes the early scenes so depressing they become surreal (2) needlessly clutters the story with extra characters (3) introduces a silly and confusing subplot about Chris's attempts to find his children, who are in disguise.

In the book, Chris's children are adults, not youngsters, and they're minor characters who never die in the course of the story. The details of Chris's life on Earth differ so greatly between the book and the film that it's like reading about a completely different person. Even though I saw the movie first, the image of Robin Williams completely vanished from my mind as I read, because he was so unlike the character described in the book.

The entire feel of the book is different, telling a touching love story that uses real characterization, not cheap manipulation, to move the audience. And Matheson's vision of the afterlife truly comes alive on the page. The Hell scenes are actually terrifying, reminding us, as the movie does not, why Matheson is primarily famous as a horror writer.

I won't overlook the movie's gorgeous visual effects, which earned the film a well-deserved Academy Award. They just aren't put to good purpose. The movie's vision of the afterlife as like being inside giant paintings fails to evoke a sense of reality. The book, in contrast, bases its afterlife imagery (vividly brought to life by Matheson's skillful prose) much more on Earth-like scenery. This approach ironically leads to far more exotic ideas, such as architects who build things using their minds, and a library containing history books more objective than those on Earth.

One of Matheson's unique qualities as a fantasy writer has always been his almost scientific approach to the supernatural. Here, Matheson makes Heaven and Hell seem like a scientific, natural process, and one of the joys of the book is discerning all the intricate "rules" of how everything works. (That's another area where the movie falls short.) What needs to be kept in mind, however, is that Matheson doesn't do this just for entertainment purposes. In the novel's introduction, he tells his readers that the characters are the only fictional component of the novel, and that almost everything else is based on research. The book even includes a lengthy bibliography. Thus, the afterlife that Matheson describes isn't some fantasy world he concocted from his own head, but something he believes to be an accurate description of reality.

Some people may wonder, at this point, about Matheson's religious background. He was raised a Christian Scientist, but gradually developed what he calls his own religion, taking elements from many sources. One of the book's main influences, I believe, is eighteenth-century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.

From what I've seen, people react negatively to this book based on how far it departs from their personal beliefs. Christians complain about the absence of Jesus, while those who don't believe in any afterlife consider the story too nonsensical to accept. Most readers, it seems, are put off by the New Age terminology and concepts scattered throughout the book.

These reactions are puzzling, if you stop to think about it. Books about elves, fairies, dragons, and wizards remain popular even though nobody believes in any of those things. Why should people be bothered by a fiction book portraying a Heaven and Hell that conflicts with what they believe? The book is perfectly enjoyable whether or not you accept Matheson's metaphysics.

Of course, I personally do think Matheson provides insight into the subject--though I admit I'm a little wary of his acceptance of paranormal phenomena. But it amazes me how so many people refuse to even touch the book, thinking that any story with such a plot must automatically be hokey. In most cases, they'd be right. "What Dreams May Come" is a big exception. It suggests the endless possibilities in a subject that normally is dead weight for fiction. And it really makes you think.

[Horus]

Whoa! "Kylopod" really blistered the film w/ a lot of over-intellectual negative criticism!  Everyone I know loves this film and how it ended. Oh welllllll Different strokes for different folks. 

[Wind]

From what I’ve learned Horus the critics are usually full of it   What dreams may come was one of the best movies that I have ever seen, it is very emotional, so have a box of Kleenexes on hand Bianca, it is worth the tears though.

Wind

[Bianca]

Wind,

Being a Spiritualist, I have a lot of books on the subject, only they are not fiction.  Some of them
are truly 'gut-wrenching'.  It's a good thing that the medium seldom remembers the content of
what they say.  Speaking for myself, every time I have had an 'encounter', the 'suspended
animation' (my term for it) lasts for a while.  It is afterwards that I 'start shaking in my boots'.....

Fortunately, there is nothing more rewarding than the joy one causes when a relative hears from
a loved one.  One word of caution about mediums - beware of charlatans, there are plenty out
there.  MEDIUM = CHANNELER.

From the description of the book, I am most interested in the more spiritual content which a lot
of the commenters were most fascinated by.  I am truly looking forward to reading it.







If anybody is interested in this subject, a good book to start with is 'The Airmen Who Would Not
Die', by John G. Fuller, also author of 'Incident at Exter', 'The Ghost of Flight 401',  'The Day Of
St. Anthony's Fire' and 'We Almost Lost Detroit', to name a few.

Amazon has it quite cheap.   
It's been out of print for a while

[Bianca]

Fact is, my friends....

Even though as a Spiritualist I believe in the survival of the soul and reincarnation
- BTW, my grandaughter literally helped me through the first three days - the pain
and grief are still very potent and, at times, overwhelming......

[Horus]

Fact is, my friends....

Even though as a Spiritualist I believe in the survival of the soul and reincarnation
- BTW, my grandaughter literally helped me through the first three days - the pain
and grief are still very potent and, at times, overwhelming......

I agree - an intellectual understanding of the soul can only ease the process a little bit.  Grieving or mourning is natural, healthy, and crying is a very good cathartic release of stored emotional energy.  This is why I recommended the movie, for as Wind noted, it has tear-inducing qualities that may help the process along.  My clients (and I as well) feel "lighter" and better after discharging in this way and it can be done all at once if the intensity of the thoughts and feelings are raised.  However, in most cases (w/o some kind of process facilitation) it just takes time.
A close childhood friend of mine was murdered in 1998, and it took more than a year for me to get over it.  

[HereForNow]

The last 4 minutes of this video are the most interesting statements I have ever heard from any political leader.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzaLP9dTXhE&feature=player_embedded


I never imagined that Ron Paul was the patriot that this video discloses he is.
Funnier yet. This video was "WAS" banned.
I posted it because it explains alot of what I feel personally about the truth in anything.

JFK, Martin King, and a few others to mention are in this video as well.
I received this via E-mail and had to show all of you this because it represents the difference of what America was to what it's become.

I love this nation for what it was at one time. It's beauty, what it meant to the world of old, and all of it's potential. However, the very financial systems that we once avoided are now our debt.
The liberties we once represented are now threatened.
The freedom this nation once stood for, is now oppressing the world with policies written by the Bush admin.

  Sure it's not a positive message to understand. However, no one is this forum or the world can say this is not true. People, I'm not asking anyone here or anywhere else to pursue this to the level that I do.
I'm just asking everyone to open their mind to the possiblities that we are facing. We are being lied to.

We are being lied to and forced to beleive what they tell us and blindly we follow.
I wish that was an opinion of my own, yet it's not!
Because in spirit we are all connected, I know that somewhere in all of you is that little voice.
The bells and whistles going off inside each of you when stuff like this is said is the very reason it's important to free your minds.

If you all love humanity and all life in general, you must stop ignoring what your heart is saying.
America is not free anymore. We all are facing a global threat because of policy inforced by New World Order?
All I'm asking is that you all take a moment to think again. If nothing happens I will be the happiest FOOL ever and accepts the title with pleasure. However, if the NWO agenda takes effect, please understand that we are as much to blame for that because we chose to ignore the warning signs.
We made it happen through our own fear!



That is the truth as I know it and see it.
As unpleasent as it seems to hear it, we must face it sooner or later. I for one can't just sit here and force myself to simply ignore this. Spiritually, I must know if this is a precursor to the signs given in the Bible and all world religions about the Revelation. (Reveal)

People should be prepared instead of waiting until it happens and then seeing it.
I know a few of you will disagree with me and I'm expecting that. However I am compelled to follow up on this because in spirit, I do love all life and I want it to continue on. I have talked to most of you for years now and I'm sure you all know that is not like me to just blurt something like this out.

However, I am but one person calling out to you all to atleast research what is really happening.
We are soon going to be facing a change in the world that none of us a few years ago would have even imagined. I refuse to silence myself about this and regaurdless of consequence, FREE WILL is GOD'S gift to humanity. I will not let that gift of God to me, be taken.

Again, I am not expecting you all to feel as I do. I just think that this is something that will one day be a part of history and that you all should at the very least be informed of where this world as a whole is going. I am not alone in how I feel and if their is anyone else here that feels that way. You have only right now to decide your own fate. One chance...

I will not post more on this in this thread out of respect for those who don't want to hear it.
However, I will be ready to discuss this and much more in my own threads here in this forum if some of you wish to talk more on this subject. I really do sincerely care for each and every singal one of you and this is why I say this to you now. If I didn't feel anything deep down about this, I wouldn't have posted this. Yet I do.

I too have been seeing things that I really can't explain. Feelings and mental images and this is daily.
I wish I could just blurt it all out and tell you all what I'm seeing but it moves us away from the point of this one particular post. I'm affraid for those who will not open their hearts and minds......
However it is up to all of you to decide for yourselves to do so.

I'm just trying to explain that we do have a choice right now, and right now might be the only chance we get to make that difference in our own lives. Don't let someone who doesn't care about you decide your fate for you. Take matters into your own hands and learn all you can now while you still can.
This year alone there is so many things that will soon be made obvious for all eyes to see.
Don't miss this chance to stay ahead of the curve and be enlightened by what you find.

Sincerely Harry Retzer Jr.
Namasta


I am seeking a way to enlighten myself past my own fears to only love even the things I fear by confronting them and learning from them to move beyond this state of being.
I don't mean to scare or promote fear. I am trying to encouraging you all to second guess all of what your affraid of.....
2 basic emotions that make all the other emotions within us.

Fear-Love                     

Now that you see them side by side, pick one.........
 Your choice is what you manifest.

[HereForNow]

Fact is, my friends....

Even though as a Spiritualist I believe in the survival of the soul and reincarnation
- BTW, my grandaughter literally helped me through the first three days - the pain
and grief are still very potent and, at times, overwhelming......

I agree - an intellectual understanding of the soul can only ease the process a little bit.  Grieving or mourning is natural, healthy, and crying is a very good cathartic release of stored emotional energy.  This is why I recommended the movie, for as Wind noted, it has tear-inducing qualities that may help the process along.  My clients (and I as well) feel "lighter" and better after discharging in this way and it can be done all at once if the intensity of the thoughts and feelings are raised.  However, in most cases (w/o some kind of process facilitation) it just takes time.
A close childhood friend of mine was murdered in 1998, and it took more than a year for me to get over it.  

I lost a friend of mine as well just last year to suicide and I still can't think about it without it upsetting me. However, I have to agree that mourning for lost loved ones is good. It is a matter of heart vs. thought. As for my dear friend, I will never forget him. I just wish someone would have reached him in time.

[HereForNow]

Looking back through all of history, at no time was there so much fear of everything.
As time went on more and more people begin to appear. More and more emotion changing everything.
If we eliminate the fear factor from ourselves, I am certain that love will heal the Earth and all things.





Thank you light workers for telling me.
Message sent.

[Bianca]

THANK YOU, EVERYONE,

for your support and help.  I did not intend to derail the thread, it just came out.....

I love you, dear friends!

Blessings and hugs,


Bianca



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



QUOTE (myself - post #79)




"The 'scare tactics' really bother me - just like this recent one of the SWINE FLU....
It's always been used to 'sway the masses', GWB did it big time, through two terms. 
His 'twin' successor is continuing in the same way. 

LUCKY US!"

[Qoais]

How can you connect the swine flu with Obama?  The doctors and scientists are the ones that make it public to the media.  Obama is as much at risk of getting the flu as anyone else.  This is not a scare "tactic".  It's information put out there so people will take more precautionary measures - like washing their hands more often. 

Scare tactics are when the president says more troops need to be sent to war because some other country has weapons of mass destruction - when there aren't any.

 

[Bianca]

                                               The Great Bank Robbery of 2009







by Brent Budowsky     
www.opednews.com
 
 This week America witnessed Black Thursday for workers and families as the Senate defeated a bankruptcy bill that would have protected distressed homeowners and the House passed a bill that encourages and guarantees banks will continue abuses the bill pretends to remedy for a full year.

Politically and financially, Americans will look back on these years, and judge what happens when a Democratic president and Democratic Congress use the government as an instrument of reform, change and problem-solving. To state my conclusion at the outset, I do not believe Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has carried this mantle well and what I see in current policy is little more than a gigantic transfer of wealth from taxpayers to banks, which is being abused and misused by most banks.

It will be a disaster if this becomes the historic, political and financial legacy of Democrats using government to solve problems, and I believe it is essential for Democrats and progressives to join a great debate on the side of workers and families and against the abuses that are front-page news and continue every hour of every day.

It is outrageous that banks take trillions of dollars of taxpayer money for the purpose of lending to Americans while they raise credit card rates, turn fixed rates to variable rates that guarantee huge additional rate increases when the Fed resumes raising its rates, while they raise banks fees, cut customer lines, and increase foreclosures when trillions of dollars were spent for them to do exactly the opposite.



On Black Thursday the Democratic House (many of whose members take enormous sums of money from banks, as do Republicans) passed a bill to allegedly protect consumers that will not take effect for at least a year. This means the House supports continuing every abusive action the bill claims to oppose for one full year, at least, in a stunning triumph for the banking lobby.

It is time to break ranks with an almost universal Washington consensus about how business is done in this town, a consensus that is leading our country to financial disaster.

My “epiphany” came when I glanced at the recent campaign finance report of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), which shows a stunning lack of support from home-state donors and a deluge of donations from companies doing business with his Senate Banking Committee.

Dodd is a good man in a corrupted system. Both parties profit from this crisis through massive campaign donations. Those who manage troubled institutions profit from it through massive bonuses and compensation.

While Wall Street pay is quickly moving back to bubble levels, the system of speculation for compensation (which creates perpetual bubbles) remains intact. Campaign money still flows like a mighty river in a legalized pay-for-play system that corrupts our financial and political systems alike.

The source of public anger is this: The core policy is fundamentally a multi-trillion-dollar transfer of money from taxpayers to banks, which borrow money from taxpayers at low interest, punish taxpayers by charging them higher interest and pay themselves a king's ransom for doing it.

The president speaks of transparency and accountability, but: Does anybody know exactly how much money the various government agencies have spent rescuing banks that still refuse to lend? Four trillion dollars? Seven trillion? Ten trillion?

What, exactly, have taxpayers received in return? These monies were provided to increase lending, but net lending is down.

When banks receive trillions of dollars to increase lending, they insult the intelligence of taxpayers and the integrity of government by increasing credit card interest rates, increasing bank fees, lowering credit limits, increasing home foreclosures and lowering net lending. Where's the accountability?

Meanwhile, Obama and McCain received huge amounts of money from banks, Wall Street firms, hedge funds and mortgage companies while congressional fundraisers continue ad nauseam.

While money is doled out to banks by Congress, money is doled out to Congress by banks.

It is a direct attack against economic recovery, a direct attack against economic stimulus and a direct attack against economic growth for interest rates to be hiked, credit limits to be cut, bank fees to be raised and lending to be lowered.

[Bianca]

Have they no shame?



Taxpayers pay for the bailout, subsidize the lobbying, underwrite the campaign donations. Then they are taxed by banks through fees and rates that work as regressive taxes. They will be taxed again to pay for the deficit. They will be taxed again when the value of their money declines from the inflation these trillions of dollars will inevitably cause.

Does anybody understand exactly what the Federal Reserve money is used for, exactly who received it, exactly what taxpayers receive in return and exactly how much money has been spent?





Where's the transparency?



Can anyone justify the number of senior Treasury jobs that remain unfilled, or the pay-for-play schemes surrounding state pension funds?

Everyone should read the lengthy story in Monday's New York Times about the career of Mr. Geithner. Did he do his job well, or disastrously, at the New York Fed when he failed to regulate the firms while they were causing this crisis?

Mr. Geithner is without doubt a great power-networker, who spent much time at the N.Y. Fed in endless networking events with the financial powerbrokers who were creating the crisis that Geithner was failing to prevent.

Geithner was not reforming the system, protecting the customers or opposing the abuses that endanger our national solvency. He was cultivating the support of financial powerbrokers who were, and remain, his true constituency.

What does it tell credit card CEOs that the president's chief economic adviser falls asleep at a meeting where he should have been defending taxpayers and consumers like a lion?

The Republicans have virtually nothing to offer except hoping the president fails without serious ideas of their own. The Party of No has earned its 21 percent approval rating. But, as a matter of conscience and concern for my party and my country, I must break ranks.

What is happening is wrong. A whole generation will pay the price for what we do today. The cost will be enormous and incalculable. Both parties owe the next generation far better than either party offers today.

No bank should ever be too big to fail. Instead of taxpayers subsidizing mergers, regulators and legislators should break up any bank so large that its failure endangers the nation as a whole.

It is inexcusable and shameful for even a Democratic House to pass a bill to allegedly combat abuses against citizens, and make that bill effective a full year later, which means all of those abuses will continue for least 12 more months. To call this a consumer protection bill is an abuse of language and a fraud against consumers and voters who do not want these abuses continuing for another year, and supported by Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress for another year.

Banks given trillions of dollars to lend should lend. Those of either party who tolerate these abuses are betraying the largest financial trust ever given to public officials in the history of the nation, the world or any generation.



http://pundits.thehill.com/author/brent-budowsky/

[Bianca]

                          Flu Scare - The ADHD Administration never wastes a good crisis






NewHampster -
Posted on 01 May 2009

We are the ADHD electorate that keeps getting played and distracted by the masters of distraction.



To paraphrase the President's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:

                                                 "Never waste a good crisis".



Now I don't think they started this flu epidemic, nor do they control the WHO, but they do control the media that is trying so hard to over play this seemingly mild flu.  The timing was so good that my distrusting mind does wonder if they did have a hand in releasing the bug in Mexico.

Here we have his Oliness speaking out of both sides of his mouth and getting all tongue tied when TOTUS went to fast.  He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, smack dab in the middle of the Torture episode.  Yeah. Remember that torture thing that was all over the news just before Swine Flu pushed it to page 3?

Somehow this crew running our country, always finds or constructs a good crisis to distract us when the news is not going their way.  We saw Hillary's NH win become the discussions of the Bradley Effect and rotten polling while the media ignored the fact that a woman won a major primary for the first time.  Like flipping off Hillary the day after a good debate for her.  It pissed us off, pissed off the bots because we made a big deal of it and completely distracted us and the media from his crappy performance in the debate.

The examples are numerous and well documented elsewhere.  Obama messes up or there is something they want taken out of the news, then bingo we have a crisis.  Heck, I think Joe Biden is VP just so he can keep putting his foot in his mouth and disctracting the press from real issues.

My only real problem here, speaking as a true ADHD speedster, is I have no idea how the sane among us can counter this.  They are really good at what they do.  Rahm and crew make Danny Ocean look like an amateur.  They conned their way into power and will continiue to con their way into another 4 years of lining their wall street friends wallets.  But how and why does all this help the bama boyz club? 

Prediction. 

Rahm Emauel is CEO of Bank of America in approximately 9 years.



http://www.partizane.com/node/1076