Response by Shana Dahlin

Whether the story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict is valid, is that for the
reader to decide.  When reading the article, I was surprised at such
detail that was used to describe his experience.  It is surely well
thought out for being a span of an hour and a half in a “dead” state.  A
lot of the article focused on the importance of self, and how we control
our entire universe.    The article was also tinged with religion or at
least the notion of a “higher being.”  In this case, the thing that was
guiding Benedict on his “trip” was referred to as the Great Light, which
can be identified as God.  The Great Light seemed to be all-knowing and
was patient enough to answer all of Benedict’s questions.  One part that
caught my attention was when the Great Light told Benedict that no person
is inherently evil, and human souls aren’t evil.
Light plays an important role in the article.  In the beginning Benedict
talks about wanting to go towards, and being drawn to the light.  In
nature, many things are attracted to light (i.e. moths).  It is
interesting that Benedict was conscience enough to realize that if he did
go to the light, then he would be dead.  Astrophysics is talked about,
particularly the span of time, the Big Bang Theory, the universe,
galaxies, and black holes.
Fact or fiction, I found this article to be very enlightening.  It gives
the reader an insight to what it’s like on the “other side.”  It’s a
fantasy ride of things that the average human could not even fathom.  The
universe, like many other things is an abstraction of the mind, and
Benedict tries to describe their meanings.

Response by Ashley Patane

Ashley Patane    9/15/06
Light Fantastic    Transforming Darkness into Light
When you open the curtains in the morning, when you flip that little
switch, or when you strike that match, you are transforming darkness into
light. Light is all around us. It is necessary for so much, yet we often
take light for granted. When there is no light, we tend to need it the
most. Only in complete darkness is when many people recognize the
importance of light.
In the even of a blackout, you can’t read your book, you can’t do your
homework, you can’t even see your own hand. Darkness inhibits our ability
to do many things. A blackout can be compared to a person who is feeling
overwhelmed or stressed. Having a negative attitude about something can
limit one’s abilities, just like darkness. Being optimistic and having a
positive outlook can help one work hard, show dedication, and accomplish
goals. When that candle is lit, or the flashlight is turned on, a
blackout does not seem as bad. We must make it our responsibility to
“shed light on the situation”, by being optimistic or actually taking the
initiative to produce light. This transformation from darkness to light
helps us overcome obstacles and achieve goals.
I still remember the big thunderstorms and long blackouts we had when I
was younger. I was in sixth grade, visiting my grandparents. It was
pouring rain, the thunder was deafening, and the lightning lit up the
entire sky. Everyone at my grandparents’ house was going about their
usual business. I was playing checkers with my brother, sister, and
friend. When the lights went out, we all got frustrated and angry. I felt
helpless and bored. No lights, television, music, computer…what is a
child to do? I appreciated light so much
more after going an entire two days without it. I had a negative attitude
at first. We ended our checker tournament and just sat around the house.
My mother lit some candles and gave us a flashlight, so we continued
playing board games. We ended up having more fun playing in the dark. I
was angry with the darkness, but the light helped me look at the
situation from another point of view.
This long blackout I experienced as a child reminds me of how I feel now
when I get stressed. Being a college student, I have several
responsibilities to stay on top of, while still learning to be on my own
and take care of myself. When I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I sometimes
doubt myself and my abilities. When I am stressed there is darkness. This
idea relates to a theme in the book, Catching the Light, by Arthur
Zajonc. Zajonc discusses the importance of an inner light. According to
Zajonc, “Without an inner light, without a formative visual imagination,
we are blind” (5). Without inner light, or self-confidence, there is
darkness. If I am optimistic, things do not seem so difficult and I am
less stressed.
The word darkness has a negative connotation. Darkness can put people at
a disadvantage or inhibit their ability to do something. For example, the
lack of light during a blackout makes several tasks more difficult.
Whether we are in darkness or light, we will have limitations while
trying to accomplish something. The word light has a positive
connotation.  It gives people strength and hope; light makes tasks
easier. Inner light also makes difficult jobs seem more simple. When
candles were lit during the blackout, the situation did not seem so
terrible. It became more exciting and memorable. When there is light
during a dark, or stressful, time I have a more positive outlook on the
situation as well.
In conclusion, darkness often inhibits one’s abilities, while light helps
one to achieve. I found this to be true in my own experience with
transforming darkness to light. Without the pain, suffering, and hard
work, success would not be as great. Without darkness, there would be no
light.

Response by Lia Stelljes

Lia Stelljes                   9/16/06
Light Fantastic                 Near-death experience
From what I have learned so far in this course, and from my own personal
experience with light, I associate light with growth, happiness, positive
outcomes, a new day. But what about the idea that when you die, when you
crossover, you enter the light? I have never found the idea of death to
be a positive one, so why is light also connected with that experience
when we so often associate light with harmony and life? Due to Mellon-
Thomas Benedict’s experience with death, he gained a new perspective on
life. Communicating with the light as he entered the void, he learned
that death is about life. We are immortal beings, part of a natural
system of endless recycling. It is with our experiences with death that
we learn to value our lives, ourselves, others, and the entire universe.
Every atom is made of light and all light is energetic life, therefore
everything is living. Benedict now studies quantum biology, the
multifaceted connections between light and life.
When Benedict died, he had an incredible experience with light. He
described it as shining and alluring, calling like the arms of an ideal
mother. He could feel the light; he spoke with the light. Not yet ready
to die, he asked the light to explain reality. The light revealed that
your personal beliefs shape the feedback you receive from the light and
the universe. It showed a Higher Self matrix in which we are all
connected as “different aspects of the same being”. Benedict saw how
human beings are all beautiful at the core and it changed his negative
outlook on the human race.
I find it fascinating that death can be described in such warm,
comforting words. You want to enter the light, but this path will lead to
your death. But it seems, from Benedict’s paper, that death is a
comforting place of personal revelation and universal discovery, a place
where all questions are answered. Completely enveloped by the light, we
find peace, love, and fulfillment. Perhaps to find personal peace here,
we need to embrace the light of life. In the light, Benedict became at
one with absolute life and consciousness. He perceived forever, without
beginning or end. His journey taught him to turn to his personal star of
light for help. It insulated him from fear and pain. To find inner peace,
we must learn to pay attention to our own stars of light.
Through this paper, I am able to see the connection between positive
light and death. I think that the significance of light during death is
an awakening, a return to a safe place, and self-understanding. Light
touches our entire planet, brings life, and unifies us in this complex
universe and beyond. I hope that I am able to fully understand appreciate
its power and simple peace.

Response by Alexander Smith

Transforming darkness into light is seemingly an easy task. It takes
nothing more than flipping a switch
or sparking a match, or if one is extremely skilled- rustling some wood
together. This is of course if
you know where said items are. My excerpt comes from a truly tragic
night.
Picture the storm of the century (or of an extremely wrapped up class
three hurricane) with wind
gusting the screens off windows and trees slicing through walls of
adjacent houses like a knife through
butter. Due to my mother’s insistence, the computers and other electronic
devices had been shut off
many hours before the first indications of treacherous weather began.
Thus, our entertainment was a
pack of cards.
Enough exposition. The lights are out and a family priding itself on
preparation in times of tragedy
finds itself without any light source. The suggestion to all find our way
to bed is pooh-poohed due to
the knowledge that it hasn’t even reached ten o’clock yet.
Let the search begin. The obvious thoughts are that we could simply feel
our way to the candle
and match stash, locate the batteries and flashlights, or use the indiglo
feature on our watches.
However, I left out one key tidbit of information- we just moved into the
house and, as of yet, such
items were buried in boxes and none of our watches had an indiglo
feature.
When the power is out, the only true source of light that is emitted
naturally is that of the moon,
certainly obscured by the night’s stormy skies, so the only option at the
moment was the car’s
headlights. Due to the hurricane blowing outside of the house, all
resisted my idea. Other ideas sprang
forward- some better than others. My father’s brilliance (going out to
catch fireflies) certainly was used
to break the tension rather than seek out a conclusive end to our
suffering. My sister rang in with her
own inspiration, “why don’t we just bring in a couple of our computers.”
The immediate stubbornness
swung into action as my mother reminded us of the storm to which I
replied that we certainly didn’t
need to plug the computers in to muse at their radiant light. My comment
was not appreciated but
accepted.
Feeling my way around a new and foreign house brought many accidents my
way- mostly
involving book boxes. But to skip to the goods, turning on the two
computers I managed to bring safely
to the kitchen table was like Prometheus giving man their first flame.
The awe of a shining apple in the
midst of a pitch-black room was a shock to the system. As the screens
fully loaded my family realized
that the world we live in does not allow for complete darkness, there is
always a way to create light,
even in the most disastrous of circumstances. I do understand that we
were trapped in the dark in a
house with seemingly infinite means of producing light and that someone
in a cave, whose light had
gone out, might have a rougher time of it. Light is everywhere, and if
you disagree, just remember that
the darkness IS light, only it is black not white.

Response by Jason Diaz

Mellen Thomas’ near death experience was quite interesting to read, and
resonated deeply to what I have come to believe about the nature of the
universe over the past few years.  His entire experience deals with light
and darkness, specifically the light of our spiritual selves.  He
describes, soon after dying, being surrounded by darkness, with a
beautiful light shining upon him.  This light is the manifestation of
love and of healing, just as most religions describe the “divine light.”
Throughout his experience he questions the light, which is really a part
of himself, and receives knowledge and wisdom.  This is also a common
theme in many religious teachings.  In Buddhism, it is taught that the
mind is a great light of wisdom, but which is obscured by the desires,
thoughts, and attachments we develop throughout life.  Removing these
obstructions and revealing the light within us is the attainment of
“nirvana.”  He also speaks of this light being connected to all living
things, to originate from nowhere and everywhere at once.
I was really interested in the discussion of the void, which was
discussed in passing in his article, but which had a link to a more
detailed article within it .  This article describes the void
as the absence of light, love, and god.  It is a place where we are able
to see ourselves as we truly are, and the light (or absence of light)
within our souls.  A recurring theme throughout both articles is the fact
that we are all capable of divine love and light, if we choose to
cultivate it through actions and thoughts while we are still alive.  This
is also a common theme throughout many religions, and can be found in the
Ten Commandments of Judaism and Christianity, the Koran of Islam, and the
8-Fold path of Buddhism, to name a few.  What is truly interesting about
this mindset is the fact that your experience within the void is a direct
reflection of the kind of mind and spirit you developed while alive.  If
you spent your life cultivating life and light, then your time in the
void is small because your compassion is reflected in the void.
Likewise, those who became selfish, self-centered, and cruel experienced
a reflection of their mind and spirit, and experienced hell.  The overall
emphasis of these articles is the fact that the spiritual world is full
of light, and then we should spend our time on earth cultivating
compassion and love.

Response by Chris

Crossing the Ocean
The following true story happened to and was written by a former Ithaca
College student, Chris Bergnoli who is currently living in Washington
state. A few weeks
before his graduation Chris came to me and shared his dream of sailing
around the world (his father happened to own a small yacht). After a few
month of training a
preparation Chris and six other crew members were ready to cross the
atlantic ocean. Following is the letter that Chris wrote after that
experience:
I am having a fantastic time and my life is full of adventures. I feel
like a bird that lifts its feathers to the wind, not knowing how far it
will fly or when it will touch the
ground. Sometimes sailing is very difficult. Sometimes being on a shore
that is strange to me is difficlult. Nothing that I have seen is what I
expected to see. I am living
in a strange world. It is good because it is simple. I have very few
clothes - that makes washing them easier. I have very little money, and I
don't need it. No
television, I rarely listen to the radio. My focus has changed to an
accute awareness of the boat and the environment. I use all my senses to
understand my world. I
know all the sounds; the sails, the wind, the sea - a small change in any
sound lets me know if everything is going well - or not.
I am happy that I am learning. People are the most interesting creatures.
It seems like the birds and whales and dolphins are smarter. They don't
destroy things, and
they take only what they need.
Crossing the ocean was ominous. It was very cold, very foggy and wet. For
the first ten days we had light wind. I remember thinking that I was in
control of the
boat; I was in control of the seas. Then we had a sever change in the
weather. The sky turned black, and seas also turned black. Each day the
wind became
stronger. The waves got higher and higher until they were higher than the
top of the masts. We fought and fought. It seemed like the more we fought
against the
storm, the more it tossed us around like we were a cork. Finally it was
too danegrous to be outside; the waves were hitting with such force that
they were tearing
things off the deck. After one large wave smashed my head into the wheel,
and swept a crew member into the front of the boat, we tied the wheel to
one side and
closed ourselves in the cabin to wait helplessly. It was apparent that we
were not in control. We were able to make repairs and continue to Irland
after the storm
finally passed. I had a concussion, and two gashes on my eye and nose.
Karin chipped a bone in her knee. I have a very deep respect for the sea,
both for its power
and its tranquility.
We are in the mediterranean now. About two weeks ago Slim and I got to
swim with whales. At first they were very shy, and then they became very
curious. I was
afraid at times that they might slap me with their tails by accident. I
felt a real communion with these animals. Dolphins are also wonderful
animals. The same dolphin
would visit us every day on the way accross the ocean. Sometimes when I
was cold or tired or feeling like it was difficult to go on, they would
spring out of the
water and smile and speak. We all got along quite well.

Response by Michelle Kohn Obut

Response to Thomas Benedict – Near Death Experience
I think that this essay is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking.
I haven’t been able to come to a conclusion on whether or not I believe
it. Half of me really wants to believe it because Benedicts insights are
spectacular, and give a lot of inspiration. And the other half of me
(which is an atheist, and does not believe in any kind of afterlife)
thinks that maybe he somehow fabricated this whole thing, either
unconsciously or consciously. However, I realize that the ideas which
Benedicts puts forth can be taken as a kind of truth whether or not I
believe that he really had this experience.
The core of his experience was with the Light which embraced Benedict,
spoke to him, and showed him the truth. He speaks of the Light’s warmth
and comfort, explaining that their really are no words to describe the
feeling he got from it. In the past when people spoke about the light
that people go towards during death, I imagined more of a metaphorical
light. Or I thought that upon dying one would walk toward the light, but
not necessarily get to the light before reaching the destination. In
Benedicts experience, the Light was all encompassing and was itself not
just the destination, but everything. He says that the light is in and
around everyone, all the time, and not just after death, but in life as
well.
This is interesting with regard to our class for a few reasons. For one,
the mere fact that a class is being offered about light strikes me as
interesting. Clearly, we humans realize that there is something
fascinating about light - that is it everywhere, and has some kind of
impact. We try to analyze it and make sense of it, but Benedict says that
we should just embrace it because it is everywhere and we do not need to
search anymore. It is also interesting because when I think about it,
light really does affect us in so many ways. Living things need the
sunlight to survive, we use it as a vital element in art, religion,
science, philosophy, and so on. And yet according to Benedict it is not
just an element of anything, but it is our very being, in each and every
atom. And when we die, we are engrossed in it. It is as though we should
just stop talking about the Light and trying to understand its meaning,
and just embrace it for what it is, which is everything.
Another interesting aspect was his explanation of other galaxies and life
systems, and the fact that we are not alone, after all. We always look to
the stars and wonder about such things. We look to the stars, which are
just a glimpse of light out in the middle of darkness. But we think that
if there is other life, that is will exist somewhere out there, among
them. And Benedict’s encounter with the Light informs him that there are
other more advanced civilizations and we are only a small part of
something huge. It seems like all of the answers that we search for are
answered in exactly the ways that we would wish for them to be. And it
all somehow goes back to the Light, being the thread that holds
everything together in a very positive way.
This is the main reason that I have such a difficult time believing
Benedict. In the beginning he explains that the light kept changing forms
between different religious icons (because he did not have any specific
religion, himself) and heaven can take any form – so the light
essentially shows you what you want to see. So how do we know that this
whole thing wasn’t just a manifestation of Benedicts expectations and
hopes of what he would hope to learn about in death? Couldn’t he have had
some kind of revelation in his awakening, without actually having those
experiences? And isn’t it possible that since he believed that light
plays an important role in life, his revelations included the light as a
major theme?

Response by Emily Mitchell

About Hex and Colors on a Monitor
Hexadecimal notation is a method of counting in base 16 rather than base
10.  “Numbers” in hex run from 0 to F: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F.
Why use hex?  It’s all about bits and bytes and dealing with computers.
There are eight bits to a byte.  Then you think about the byte as being
two groups of four bits apiece.  With four bits, if you are using binary,
you can represent any number between zero and 15.  (15 would be 1111 in
binary, or 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 for those of use who have trouble thinking in
binary.)  Computers really only understand binary.  But for people,
writing in binary is a pain.  So there’s hex.  Instead of writing 1110,
we can write E, and it means the same thing — 14.  When you use hex to
represent a byte, you use two hex symbols to do it.  That can range from
00 to FF.  Since each symbol in hex notation can be any of 16 symbols,
you can represent 256 (that’s 16 times 16) different numbers with two
characters in hexadecimal notation.
Computer monitors really only deal with three colors: red, green, and
blue.  Those are, of course, the colors you see when you get a drop of
water on your computer monitor.  To figure out what intensity of each of
those colors goes into making the color you see on your screen when the
water droplet isn’t there, the computer uses a six-character-long hex
number.  The higher the hex number for a particular color, the more
intense that color is.  FF0000 would be pure red, I think.  000000 — that
is to say, the least possible amount of all three colors — is black.
That makes sense, since a monitor lights up to show us anything at all.
FFFFFF is white.  And of course colors can be anything at all in between.
Wikipedia tells me that 800000 is maroon, and ff00ff is fuschia.  Yellow,
which we might expect to see as one of the three colors the monitor
starts off with (since it is a primary color) is actually ffff00 — a
combination of red and green.  Apparently the red cancels out the blue in
the green somehow; I admit I’m a bit foggy on how that works, never
having actually mixed colored lights before.
Because the computer recognizes colors based on a 6-character-long hex
number, there are 256 * 256 * 256 possible colors that could show up on a
monitor using the RGB scheme.  That comes out to 16,777,216 possible
colors.  I guess I never really gave my monitor the appreciation it
deserved, before.

Response by Santiago Vernetti

Born in Buenos Aires, and raised in Philadelphia, darkness in nature was
a thing unknown to me.  The city lights spill into every "dark" ally and
street.  The stars hidden by a thick fog of street lamps, headlights, and
house bulbs.  Sure, if you turned off the lights in your room and hid
under the shelter of a thick comforter, you might have experienced
darkness in the city.  Darkness was not a threat, it was not likely that
I would turn a corner and there would be darkness.  Of course at the age
of ten I took this for granted.  What was dark for me was actually very
well lit for most, so when my friends dared me to venture into the drain
pipe near a park by my house, I was not prepared for darkness.  It turns
out that neither was my father's old Mag-Lite.  I was out to prove that
no, the Jersey devil did not live in this drain pipe, and no, I wasn't
afraid of anything.  The labrynth of tunnels and pipes were often used by
high school students in search of a safe place to party (use your
imagination), so the walls were covered in graffiti.  Little did I know,
Steve and John had been here many times before, and had arranged before
hand to scream and run through a secret exit pretending to be eaten by
the Jersey Devil.  Although shocked by the echoed screams, I didn’t fall
for the superstition, but my flashlight fell for the ground and broke.
Suddenly, I was experiencing darkness for the first time.  I froze and
remained frozen screaming for the boys for what felt like hours.  Time
was lost.  Light, the heartbeat of time had vanished.  I fruitlessly
searched the floor for the flashlight, grabbing crushed beer cans in the
act.  I did the only thing I could do at that point, crawl in any
direction I could.  As I crawled I remember everything becoming silent
except for my heart and its deafening beat.  I’m not sure how much time
passed between that moment and the one where John found me with his
flashlight.  Light had become precious, a savior almost.  Since then I
have never seen a city street too dark to walk down, but sometimes I look
for that unattainable darkness, that spot out under the waterfalls of
certain gorges at midnight, or that moment under my blankets in a dark
room where I am no longer in control of space, but free of time.

Response by Erin Morrell

Death is probably the hardest topic to breach in American society.  It is
scary, dark, mysterious.  Maybe the hardest part of death is that no one
can be certain that they really know what it is, what lies in it, after
it, around it.  Maybe the nicest thing about this Near Death Experience
is not that it’s an explanation of that but more that it’s an affirmation
of life.  It was explained it terms that maybe I would not have chosen to
explain it, but there are fundamental issues that this paper touches on
that I have suspected are the thread that binds us together as one larger
humanity. We are all part of something bigger than ourselves.  Our
existence is a result of a world that exists simultaneously in the past,
present and future- where all things are in some way bound together- they
depend on each other.  It reminds me for some reason of the book A
Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.  I don’t really remember the book
very well except that there is a force that binds everyone together; the
force of love.  In order to conquer the evils and dangers in the
narrative the main character must confront and defy them with the love
that she has for her brother and in turn for all of humanity.  Love is
the only thing that really binds us as a world, but not the
commercialized Disney movie love that Western culture overly romanticizes
and distorts- a genuine and unadulterated love, much like the innocent
love that a child has for everyone he or she comes across.
It is true that not everyone will fulfill their lives in the same way,
but instead that “everyone has a different set of questions to explore.
[That] Some of our questions are universal, but each of us is exploring
this thing we call life in our own unique way” (13).  My quest for truth
lies in understanding this fundamental sameness that exists in all people
across gender, cultures and continents.  What are the things that are
universal in all of us?  Why are those things kept from some people and
what is the result of this lack on the world we live in?  And, should I
figure these questions out within my lifetime, how will I chose to help
others “into the light” of understanding?

Response by Luke Franek

Luke Franek
Light Fantastic
Reading Response #2
9/20
I found Mellen Thomas’s essay describing his near death experience highly
intriguing.  It reaffirms so many of my own understandings and
conclusions about spirituality as I have come across the same or very
similar descriptions of a majority of what Mellen describes in this
higher realm.  Sources such as Jose Argüelles Surfers of the Zuvuya,
Edgar Cayce’s writings, and many others overlap these concepts of what is
beyond our physical three-dimensional realm.  It is incredibly
encouraging and captivating to find such intense overlaps in detail.
First, the concept of being able to observe his entire house all at once
and move through it immediately is how most psychics or visionaries
explain their experiences.  Another similarity with psychic perception
was the telepathic nature in which he would ask and be answered in the
higher realm.  I’ve often heard people describe the same difficulty he
had in translating these messages for other people as ‘there’s no way to
really explain it with words.’
Above all I found the points about the atom bomb and the jump in
consciousness the most appealing.  The point about the evolution of
consciousness is my own personal area of study.  My goal as a filmmaker
is to make a highly accessible film that presents this issue of
collective conscious evolution.  This evolution has been discussed by
various religions and cultures throughout time, and the key connection is
how commonly the different groups overlap about this concept.  What I
appreciated the most about this article was this point about the atomic
bomb that drew global awareness to one point, combining the collective
consciousness.  I find it an incredibly exciting concept, the power of
one event to pull global consciousness together.  Unfortunately that was
a utterly tragic action, and the most recent globally centering actions
have been; natural disasters or terrorist attacks that peak many
attentions.  But what is the positive action that will draw global
consciousness to one point and draw upon this evolution?

Response by Martin Tomov

I can’t say that I have some groundbreaking experience in transforming
light into darkness, but even the small everyday actions that I do seem
to be geared toward creating light, or at least banishing darkness. At
night, the last thing I do before I go to bed is to switch off the
lights. In the morning, I wake up and the first thing I do is switch on
the lights. It seems that there is an almost hard-wired desire in me to
be surrounded by light. I have not known anyone that has not been at
least a little afraid of the dark, be it as a little kid or still
nowadays. Even recently, when me and some friends were coming back from a
house, we were picking the path that was lighted the most, even though it
was about twice longer than the shortcut we usually take during the day.
The main difference was that the usually convenient shortcut was pitch
dark. It wasn’t a deliberate decision we made after talking about it, it
was one of those things when we all looked at each other and as one we
took the lighted path. On another occasion, the only way to get the whole
group of about ten people to take a trail by the football field at ten at
night was to have as much light as possible. It is not that we had
anything physical to fear, we were many people and mostly guys, but it
was still unsettling to look at the black darkness and to know that we
might have to go this way. In any similar situation that I can think of,
the only way we ever take the darker path is if we have our own light.
Somehow, the light we can produce makes it more acceptable to go into the
darkness. Perhaps it is because with the light at our command there is
the feeling that we are stronger than the darkness and have nothing to
fear from it on that subconscious level that has been with us since the
time people were living in caves and were as often as not the prey rather
than the hunters. I think that that subconscious fear is still with us
and that is why most people prefer to have light rather than live in
darkness. The act of transforming darkness into light is one of the ways
that people can assert their superiority and convince themselves that
they are in control. Not a bad thing to have light really.

Response by Through EMail

In the narrative of his near-death experience, Mellen-Thomas Benedict
tells of a strong, entrancing light that guides him away from his earthly
body and towards a spiritual realm of understanding and peace.  The
experience transformed him from a cynical person, discouraged with the
behaviors of mankind, to an individual captivated with life and the human
experience.  His encounter with the light essentially validated his
existence and gave him hope.  If Benedict’s experience is truly the
manner in which everyone will cross over from one life to the next, it
seems almost unthinkable that anyone could wish for a more peaceful or
more conclusive transition.
Many people are plagued with similar problems and questions throughout
their lifetime.  They wonder if they are a good person, treating people
with kindness and compassion.  Some are constantly searching for love.
This could be a search for love for themselves, or for love for another
person.  Others ponder about a greater truth, an omnipresent force, or if
all humans are somehow connected.  From Benedict’s story, at death each
person will experience for the first time intense pure love, feel that
they are truly beautiful and special, and feel united with all things
living and non-living.  It seems as though death is a release from all
the stresses that plague the mind and the soul.  It’s the culmination of
all that one could search for in their lifetime and is pure bliss.
Putting faith in Benedict and the validity of his story, this seems like
the ideal ending to one’s time here on earth in a particular body.  The
mind is now free to relax, leave all earthly worries behind, and bask in
the beauty and serenity of knowledge.
Mellen-Thomas Benedict talks about a light that enveloped him, and
conveyed intense love and understanding.  He describes this warm light
not only as an imparter of knowledge and peace, but as a higher force.
Light has a profound affect on people.  Even in our laden human bodies,
sunlight and other forms of illumination can bring peace to a troubled
spirit, induce affectionate feelings, and make someone feel beautiful.
Is the light that we experience on earth a glimpse into the power and
beauty of the almighty?  Light awards us with only a fraction of the
intense sensations that Benedict experienced.  Perhaps light is the
higher being’s gift to the world and taste of what happens after death.
Benedict’s narrative was extremely comforting.  It not only gave hope in
a pleasant afterlife, but a greater appreciation for the here and now.
It stressed that there is extreme beauty on earth and in each person.  I
can only hope that my eventual encounter with death is as pleasant as
what he experienced.

Response by Elvis Shehi

Elvis Shehi
Light Fantastic
9/20/06
RGB Color Code and the Hex System
RBG stands for red, blue and green; the primary colors of light. These
three colors are used in the additive light models in order to reproduce
all the other colors. The additive color mode is a technique of mixing
lights of green blue and red color in different amounts. This color model
is not a property of the light itself; it is the result of how our eyes
detect color. For example a yellow light does not have the same
wavelength as the mixture of green and red lights which still produce
yellow light and to our eyes they look identical. So, it is because our
pupils have three receptors that we need three primary colors. Other
species, like birds for example need four primary colors as they have
four receptors.
Created first by the famous Scottish mathematician physicist James
Maxwell this model is today broadly used in televisions and computers.
So, if you stared very closely to the TV, you would see that there are
actually only small “boxes” of these three primary colors (red, blue and
green). Combinations of this small “boxes” form pixels in the screen.
Different intensities of the three main colors represent new different
colors. These intensities are represented by bits per pixel. Depending on
the apparatus there are different densities of bits per pixel ranging
from 16 bit to 48 bit (used in graphic design programs like Photoshop
etc).
Computers understand the information only in binary code, which are
different combinations of 0 and 1. Since writing in binary might be hard,
people use hex to translate the language of computers. Hex is a way of
counting that has 16 base “digits” instead of the 10 traditional ones.
Except the ten first digits (from 0 to 9) the next 6 ones are A, B, C, D,
E, and F. The hex is only a way of translating the binary code. So to
show different color combinations you represent them in double hex
letters per primary color, so in total you would have 6 hex digits. For
example the color red is represented by #FF0000. For every primary color
there are 16*16 different intensities, thus in our case 256 different
intensities of red. #FF0000 means that red (which is the first 2 digits
FF) is in its fullest intensity, while green (second two digits) and blue
(last two-digits) which are 00 are not shown. Contrarily green would be
represented by #00FF00. The highest intensity of all three (#FFFFFF)
gives white color and the lowest (#000000) gives black. Since there are
256 different intensities for each primary color the total number of
different colors would be 256*256*256= 16,777,216 different colors. Human
eye at its best can detect not more than 10 million of these colors,
which mean that computers produce about 7 million more colors that we
could detect.

Response by Michael Belcher

When I was in high school, I took a course called “Graphics.” Since my
school wasn’t particularly well
funded or developed or progressive, it was the closest thing offered to a
photography course.
Truthfully, it was almost a full year of screen printing and “graphic
design” and only three weeks of
photography in the spring.
After months of mind-numbing Adobe tutorials and lacker carving
workshops, spring had finally
arrived and with it Photography! For the first time that year, all of my
classmates arrived on time and
were attentively waiting for our teacher before he even entered the
classroom. When he did, we were
surprised. He was carefully balancing a tower of shoe boxes in his arms.
He handed one to each of us
with a piece of paper detailing the steps to make a “pin-hole” camera.
While in the darkroom, we had to put a piece of light-sensitive paper at
one end of the box and a pin-
hole at the other end. We had to be careful about our placement of the
light-sensitive paper and the
pin-hole to be sure our frame would line up on the light-sensitive paper,
and we had to be attentive to
the distance between the pin-hole and the light-sensitive paper to ensure
proper focus. The
instructions we had been given with the box included a few key equations
and ratios that guided us.
Once the inside of the box was properly constructed, it was a simple
matter of thoroughly taping up the
box to ensure it was “light tight” and putting a removable piece of tape
over the pin-hole so light was
not able to enter the box and hit the light-sensitive paper until we were
ready.
My shoe box was an old, worn-at-the-corners Nike box that I imagined once
held Forest Gump’s
running shoes, and I took it outside the school building looking for the
perfect subject of my
photograph. I chose the huge oak tree, near the entrance to my high
school, eyed up my frame, timed
out my exposure with a stopwatch, and brought it back into the darkroom
for development.
My picture turned out to be very high in contrast, and because my pin-
hole camera was not completely
still, the tree looked very blurry, as though smeared onto the paper.
Honestly, it looked more like
flames than a tree, so I liken it to something of an enormous burning
bush. I keep the picture on my
desk in my childhood bedroom, and although I have taken many photographs
in my life, it is the
nearest and dearest to me.

Response by Nitin Rajan

Nitin Rajan
Light Fantastic
Prof. Alper
21 September 2006
Mellen-Thomas Benedict's NDE
Enlightenment essentially means the illumination of the mind, which
allows a person to gain greater knowledge and insight from a state of
ignorance or "darkness". For enlightenment to be possible though, the
mind has to be kept wide open. I must admit I had great difficulty at
first in reading the paper and believing what I was being told. My
"rational" and "scientific" mind was not allowing me to expand into this
new dimension that Mellen-Thomas Benedict was introducing me to.
Before his near-death experience (NDE), the author possessed no hope for
humanity which he actually despised because of all the environmental and
sociopolitical problems of the time. He did not ascribe to or practice
any religion and was not at all spiritual. He had lost faith in the
future and approached the world with a negative attitude. Still, as he
was nearing his death, he started preparing for it by reading on various
religions and philosophies and looking at what they have to say about
life and death. His lack of meaning, purpose and understanding in life is
what led him to his death, which in his case was not a dead-end, but
rather a whole new beginning.
His paper is connected to light in the same way that enlightenment is
connected to light. This is not the material or physical light we see all
around us and coming from our computer or television screens, this is the
inner light or light of the mind or the spirit. The author starts off by
describing the bright, inviting light he sees as God himself, but
afterwards in the account of his experiences, this becomes less obvious.
That same light appears as a Higher Self matrix where all of our
enlightened souls are connected to each other, or it appears as gateways
and conduits, carrying the author across space and time. The light was
omnipresent and omniscient. I consider that light to be more of a vector,
which carried Mellen-Thomas Benedict along the path to enlightenment and
eventually allowed him to gain a better understanding of the world around
him. The light shone on the dark areas of his psyche and attitude,
altering the author's perception of human beings in general, of
spirituality and religion and of the dynamics of the universe. As the
author passed from one light to the next, he learnt more and more,and
after shaping his new understanding and knowledge of the cosmos, he was
ready to come back to earth.
The author brilliantly summarizes his experience when he says "But I was
given a lesson on how individual identity and consciousness evolve".
There is absolutely no doubt that a drastic change occurred in the
author's attitude and mentality after his NDE and there is also no doubt
that the change or illumination occurred from within the author himself.
This is what can be called the inner metaphysical light and it is that
light which is responsible for the evolution experienced by Mellen-Thomas
Benedict.

Response by Semeret Munie

Response to Mellen-Thomas Benedict’s Near-Death Experience Reading
For days I’ve been trying to digest the possibility of comprehending what
Thomas describes to be his Near-Death Experience. Yet, I’m trapped
between mixed feelings of excitement and disbelief; envy and pity. I’m
excited because of what our world might be like if what he is telling is
true. What if all this description is something that most of us haven’t
experienced and hence can’t understand? Do we really have the world
figured out in such a wrong way? Is there really another totally
different “reality” than what we perceive it to be? It’s very thrilling
to try and put the life that Thomas paints in front of us. I have a
feeling of envy for if he has really experienced all that he talks about,
he’s a very lucky man. He might possibly be one of the few people that
understood the world around them. This response is not about whether I
believe Thomas or not. But of what I found to be interesting when I
picture the world that he describes vividly.
Besides attempting to answer, reflecting back to his NDE, some of the
most common questions that most of us have, it was captivating to read
Thomas describe the range of  roles played by light. In The Road to
Death, he describes light as something welcoming and tangible; something
that can be felt around us. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would
be like if we can actually fell the light around us using our sense of
Touch. Would it feel heavy? Would it feel warm moving all around us or
create some discomfort to others? It must be a very remarkable thing to
encounter.
Thomas then says, “As I began to move toward the light, I knew
intuitively that if I went to the light, I would be dead” (Thomas 5).
Here, light is depicted as the gateway to death. I found it interesting
because we usually read about light as giver of life, a sign of
liveliness, not death. Yet, he had the apprehension that it might do the
exact opposite at that moment. Does this mean that he was trying to tell
us about the negative façade of light or maybe that death is not such a
bad thing after all? I don’t think he meant to depict light as a harmful
entity at that moment. Though he was dead already, he called going into
the light as death from the point of not being able to get answers for
his questions.
He further describes light as something comparable to an all knowing God.
He found answers not in books or newspapers but in the light. The light
wasn’t only a bearer of answers but could also communicate with Thomas.
Even further than conversing with Thomas, it obeyed the wishes of Thomas.
The light seems to represent a calm and humble “God”.
Light takes on the role of a tunnel in most of the reading. Whenever
Thomas was moving from one observation to another, light was taking him
to the different “worlds”. He also talks about our body being the most
magnificent light ever. He is indirectly saying that we are made of
light. Everything around us is made of light.

Response by Rhea Hanrahan

Near-Death Experience      Rhea Hanrahan
The story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict who had died and came back to life
had an interesting view on the universe and its inner workings. He used
light a lot to characterize the supernatural and bring mystery to the
reader. When describing the “light of god” this once nonreligious man
upon his death bed had a conversation with god. Or as he described it the
light to which he was ascending to. He said the light was “similar to
what many other people have described in their near-death experiences.”
He however was able to pause and truly examine the light and all the
forms it took on. He claimed to see Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, along with
images and signs. What the light responded to his question of, “what is
going on here” with “your beliefs shape the kind of feedback you are
getting before the light.”
I think what is trying to be said here is that light, or darkness, is
something that each person must hold their own. There is no blanket form
to which we all subscribe. The light is shaped as we chose to see it. Our
point of view comes into play everyday when viewing the world. Why would
a near-death experience change the fact that all our outlooks are
different? Individual beliefs shape each of our worlds; no two people
share the same point of view. This is due to personal experiences and
upbringing.
Mellen-Thomas Benedict’s portrayal of the universe is his idealized image
for him included the river of soles and the matrix of light which holds
our solar system together. And he was able to communicate his personal
and spiritual thoughts with the rest of the world.

Response by Caroline

I wish I am a soider trouting thoughthe the air I wish I was a Cattipler
ina coacon I wish I was a astournot glooming though space I wish I was a
amazing figure and tommorow I want ot be a cougar.