[Stingy Jack]

Speaking of which (powers of the mind), I have a good friend who is a total skeptic (and atheist). He subscribes to The Skeptical Enquirer and all that. But, he told me a story about the only thing that happened to him personally that he could not explain - and that was the death of his father. My friend woke up with a start at 3:00 in the morning, with a very uneasy feeling ... only to find out the next day that his father passed away about the same time. Now, my friend and I are very alike in our views about things, so I tended to believe him when he told me this. We discussed it, and agreed that there may be an energy of some sort connecting all of us to each other and everything else. This energy may be stronger in terms of bonding people you are close to, which may explain the sudden wake-up my friend experienced. This is why I say I may become a Buddhist, if I was forced to. Stephen Hawking is working on this idea of a universal energy, which is very exciting stuff. But, I would never go so far as to say that this energy is "god." I think that, if it existed, it would be a mindless energy ... not cognizant of anything.