In the first half, medical intuitive and board certified psychiatrist, Dr. Judith Orloff, talked about conquering the fear of death, and concepts of the afterlife. Death is the ultimate surrender that everybody has to go through, but there is so much fear around it as the great unknown, she noted. Yet, by practicing a meditation experiencing death, they can learn to overcome their fears, she said. In the meditation, she asks people to get quiet and centered, and then picture death as an energy that's maybe 10 feet away. Gradually bring death closer so you can sense it at a distance, and then finally invite it into your body, and that is the revelation and surrender, she explained.
Death is a part of our own consciousness that we can explore-- you could think of it like a parallel universe that exists all the time, and isn't something that comes and takes you, she continued. Orloff said that many of her physician colleagues are fearful of death, and don't accept the idea that humans exist beyond physical forms, and that their spirits travel on after the body dies. Often when terminally ill patients get near the end, and get ready to leave, they feel the enormous well being of their spirit, she added.
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In the latter half, writer Mark Pilkington discussed his research into how for over 60 years, teams within the US Air Force and Intelligence services have exploited and manipulated beliefs about UFOs and ET visitations as part of their counterintelligence programs. In so doing, they spawned a mythology so powerful that it captivated and warped many brilliant minds, including several of their own, he contended. One of the most notable cases, which he presented in the new documentary Mirage Men (view trailer) concerned engineer Paul Bennewitz, who in the late 1970s and early 80s was targeted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and fed disinformation that the area near Kirtland AFB in New Mexico was under attack by hostile extraterrestrials. Bennewitz ended up being institutionalized for several months.
The reason behind the disinformation campaign was to throw suspected Soviet moles off the scent of the Stealth fighter program, which was in its early days, Pilkington surmised. Calling the MJ-12 papers "one of the greatest hoaxes in 20th century history," he suggested they were related to the same efforts that took in Bennewitz, and were developed around discussions between counter-intelligence agent Richard Doty, ufologist Bill Moore, and National Enquirer journalist Bob Pratt. Filmmaker Roland Denning joined the conversation for a segment, and pointed out what a curious character Doty is as "both a believer and a debunker," who seemingly fulfilled the government agenda of taking people's mind off hot button topics like cattle mutilations, by both encouraging beliefs, and undermining them at the same time.
News segment guests: John R. Lott, Capt. Kelly Sweeney