Monday, 9 June 2014

Writing Fiction Update

This blog was originally started because my book 'The Exmoor Yarnies' is on Amazon Kindle and I wanted to bring people's attention to it. I envisaged a blog devoted to children's writing. But I write adult stuff too now. And as my adult work is to a certain extent a reflection of how I feel, (it ideally develops a life of its own) I feel compelled to write about how I feel.
The book I'm writing is a satire about healing. I basically know where it's going but I don't have a clue about how it is going to end. As I said previously, the characters will decide that. The satire is a poke at certain things I have observed, how media and society and government behave, but as for an ultimate point that I'm making...I'm rather pleased that I don't have one - yet. The ending could be happy, tragic or indifferent. This is because the way I feel about life and it's meaning is currently open-ended.
Yesterday, Rik Mayall died. He was my favourite comedian from about the age of twelve. He influenced my whole approach to comedy and took it to another level. I thought he'd be around for years to come and I'm upset that he isn't. This has put my tendency to rather maudlin thinking to the fore and once again I am reflecting on life and death and wondering just what is it all about.
I had total faith in spirituality and was confident that there is life after death. I still have a good feeling about this, I am currently inspired by the likes of John Hagelin and Russell Brand, and their views on consciousness and especially John Hagelin's towering knowledge of Quantum Physics. Also, scientists' findings on NDE (near death experiences). http://www.patheos.com/blogs/drishtikone/2013/09/near-death-experiences-soul-reincarnation-consciousness-and-quantum-interesting-scientific-work-and-new-horizons/ However, there are counter-arguments for this phenonoma. http://io9.com/a-new-scientific-explanation-for-near-death-experiences-1110395345
What I find most interesting about NDE accounts, is that people who have 'died' have apparently risen from their bodies and seen and heard things that they couldn't possibly have were it merely a delusion. There may well be chemical and electrical reactions occurring in the brain, but I conjecture, that perhaps these make it possible for the soul or the eternal consciousness of a subject to experience other dimensions whilst still in the material realm?
My problem with the rise of New Age faith is that there are so many charlatans, such as fake mediums, that potentially perpetuate a false faith in all this wonderment. The fact that so many of us so want all these incredible psychic and spiritual teachings to be true means that there is a lot of money in the kitty for the taking. How many bestselling books about The Law Of Attraction, healing, descriptions and contacts with other spiritual realms etc are written by folk who genuinely believe and have experienced what they are writing about? How many of them are written by people only after a fast buck? I have read accounts of some where money seems to be the prime objective.
I am heartened by people I know and trust who anecdotally share their experiences. Several have told me about a local medium who tells them to say nothing as she does their reading and write down what she is saying. The results have been amazing. She has told them, for instance, the name of a new partner, months in advance of them meeting that person, and about a family reunion, between two alienated parties, that had not spoken for years, and the month they would be reunited. She is right every time on multiple matters, and cold reading or lucky guesses based on demographics or prior knowledge of that person or unconscious signals that person is giving out seem not to be a credible explanation for her amazing accuracy.
However, I watch Derren Brown, with his mind reading tricks and other astonishing feats which seem psychic in nature, but are merely mentalist illusion and misdirection and think, 'Hmmm.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d2hfWKnGGk
So I'm open to all this wonderful stuff but I won't be suckerpunched into anything. My book will not be a New Age endorsement of all that is wonderful, it will be a journey of discovery. Who knows what I may find as I research and get deeper into the story?
I feel quite excited.

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