You’re going to die.

So am I, as we all are.

We rarely, if ever, give much thought to what happens once our body goes limp and cold – after rigor mortis sets in and there’s as much activity in our body as there is in a rock or Eminem’s face.


The scientific establishment’s sanitised, sterilised, safe-for-public-consumption answer is that nothing happens. Richard Dawkins, the high priest of the physicalist worldview, calls us “lumbering robots”. By that logic, at death, we are “lumbering robots” who have simply stopped lumbering.

We are told that our body’s sudden state of disrepair at death means we cease existing and start on the slow process of decay and disintegration till our bodies turn into nothing but dust and fertiliser.

Death, we have been led to believe, is irrevocable. And final.

Mainstream science dismisses any belief in reincarnation, despite the fact that throughout the ages there have always been groups of people, even civilisations, which have believed in it.


But now, the highly credentialled researchers at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) are uncovering evidence that reincarnation is not pure balderdash.

Founded by the late Dr Ian Stevenson in 1967, it is one of the exceedingly few mainstream universities which study paranormal phenomena such as reincarnation, near-death experiences, and altered states of consciousness.

The fact that he managed to set up an entire department at a respected institution like the University of Virginia devoted entirely to what’s considered by mainstream science as woo-woo or pseudoscience – something that’s often choked out by the stifling straightjacket of the scientific establishment – speaks volumes about how compelling his cases were. They simply couldn’t be ignored.

One of the most eerily scintillating cases to date was one that his protege, Dr Jim Tucker, also from the University of Virginia, was alerted to in 2009.

From the tender age of four, Ryan Hammons of Oklahoma would cry and beg his mum to be taken to Hollywood, California, where he insisted he used to live. Perplexed and perturbed by his frequent paroxysms, his mum picked up some books about Hollywood to help her son process his inexplicable angst.

While they were riffling through one of them, a picture from the 1932 movie Night After Night caught Ryan’s attention and while pointing at a person standing on the periphery of it, he animatedly exclaimed: “That’s me! I found me!” He was pointing to a man who was an uncredited extra with no lines in the movie.

Realising it was about time she got professional help, his mother contacted Tucker and together they got in touch with a Hollywood archivist to uncover the name and identity of this mystery man Ryan was claiming to have been in a previous life.


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• CNBC has been testing Apple’s new $799 iPhone 12 and $999 iPhone 12 Pro for almost a week.
  
• Bullish analysts think the company’s entering a new “iPhone super cycle” for upgrades.
  
• Most people should choose the iPhone 12, but the iPhone 12 Pro has a few nice features some folks will want.
  

Having read the speaker's clarification in the newspapers, it appears that Standing Order 14(1)(h) which refers to "motion on matters of urgent public importance’ is governed by Standing Order 18 wherein such a motion is purportedly only subject to a discussion, and not to a vote.

Does this mean that a motion under Standing Order 18 is not subject to the normal rules of debate, and a vote thereafter in the House?
Standing Order 18(1) states:


18. (1) Any member other than a minister may rise in his place and ask leave to discuss a defined matter of urgent public importance by reading the text of the motion approved by Tuan Yang di-Pertua.

The marginal notes to Standing Order 18 (1) are 'motion for definite matter of urgent public importance". These are the wordings of Standing Order 14(1)(h).

Standing Order 18(2) states:

(2) A member who wishes so to ask leave shall at least twenty four hours not including holidays/ public holidays before the commencement of the sitting hand to Tuan Yang di-Pertua a written notification of three hundred words of the matter which he wishes to discuss and shall at the same time submit to Tuan Yang di-Pertua the motion which he proposes to move together with a written explanation to the effect that the matter is definite, urgent and of public importance; Tuan Yang di-Pertua shall refuse to allow the claim unless he is satisfied that the matter is definite, urgent and of public importance.

Does the word "motion" appearing in Standing Order 14(1)(h) and the words "motion which he proposes to move" appearing in Standing Order 18(2) have a different legal significance in terms of its meaning in relation to other motions which are subject to the normal rules of debate and vote?

I ask this because nowhere in Standing Order 18 does it state that the motion to discuss a matter which is definite, urgent and of public importance is NOT subject to debate. It says leave to discuss.

I also ask this because of Standing Order 38.


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KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Umno and PAS officially registering Muafakat Nasional (MN) as a political coalition does not necessarily spell the end of its partnership with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa said he hoped its political bureau would negotiate a new deal with Bersatu and reiterated his belief in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

In a tweet yesterday afternoon, Annuar said “Not true, do not simply assume,” in reaction to an article and headline by Malay Mail which implied Bersatu was out of the MN coalition.

Today, the Federal Territories minister again tweeted that an olive branch has been extended to Bersatu for a possible renegotiation of their terms.

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• China minted 257 billionaires over the past year, bringing the total to 878, according to the Hurun Rich List 2020, which tracks wealth in China.
  
• China’s billionaires added $1.5 trillion to their wealth, bringing the total worth of China’s billionaires to $4 trillion, the report said.
  
• China’s soaring stock markets, a flood of initial public offerings and surging growth in the tech sector have all helped to fuel the country’s latest wealth boom.
  

PETALING JAYA: A political analyst sees the strained ties between Umno and PPBM as an obstacle to the kind of national reconciliation that Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has called for.

Speaking to FMT, Bridget Welsh of the University of Nottingham (Malaysia) said the challenge in reconciliation, particularly between Umno and PPBM, lay in concessions rather than respect.

Asyraf recently urged political parties to put aside their differences and focus on a “national reconciliation agenda”.

“If you look at what Umno is saying about setting new conditions, it is not looking for reconciliation,” Welsh said. “What it wants is for PPBM to concede in seats, positions and power. It doesn’t want PPBM to challenge it as it did in Sabah.”

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