Repenting After Death

[centauri]

[it is written:

For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Rom 9:15

 

God is good but He chooses to be even gooder!

 

For the skeptics -->

No, it is not favortism, God does things for His glory (He knows the end from the beginning) for He wants His children to love and trust Him.

Divine whim doesn't automatically equal good.

 

God is Good, His Goodness is not based on His choices. His Goodness is based on what He is.

But aren't his choices supposed to be a reflection of what he is?

How is it good to flood the world, killing off his creation to get rid of evil, knowing ahead of time that his choice wouldn't work?

Evil wasn't eliminated and many innocent creatures suffered and died.

[OrdinaryClay]

satan believes and does not worship and love God so apparently belief if not enough.

 

Jas 2:19

You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

That's Christian mythology.

Please provide the verse(s) from the Hebrew scriptures that identify Satan as rebelling against God and being a demon rather than an angel that serves as man's accuser in God's court.

Also, the passages from Isa 14 or Ezek 28 are not validation.

They never mention Satan and are taunts to be applied to human kings.

 

The New Testament is revealed truth as well as the Old Testament. It is a strawman that every truth in the New Testament must have a corresponding verse in the Old Testament. That is ex-Christian mythology.

[OrdinaryClay]

The evidence suggests that supernatural phenomenon are observable...

No, evidence demonstrates that "supernatural" phenomena are products of a brain phenomenon. Wishful thinking suggests that certain hallucinatory episodes are real phenomena.

 

Electrical/magnetic stimulation, illness, stress, drugs, altered patterns due to rituals/meditation, oxygen deprivation all play a role in feelings/visions that can be interpreted as external events. Look up "God Helmet."

 

 

The god helmet has been discredited. There is no peer reviewed support for the device. See Chapter four here ... http://bit.ly/GZ5kgP

 

You are simply asserting that all supernatural events are hallucinations. Obviously that is not the case, as there are veridical cases as verified by third party observers. Here is a case, there are many others.

 

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0308-gallagher

[OrdinaryClay]

[it is written:

For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Rom 9:15

 

God is good but He chooses to be even gooder!

 

For the skeptics -->

No, it is not favortism, God does things for His glory (He knows the end from the beginning) for He wants His children to love and trust Him.

Divine whim doesn't automatically equal good.

 

God is Good, His Goodness is not based on His choices. His Goodness is based on what He is.

But aren't his choices supposed to be a reflection of what he is?

How is it good to flood the world, killing off his creation to get rid of evil, knowing ahead of time that his choice wouldn't work?

Evil wasn't eliminated and many innocent creatures suffered and died.

 

 

Yes, of course His choices reflect His Goodness.

 

Please quote scripture to support your claim for His reasons.

[mymistake]

satan believes and does not worship and love God so apparently belief if not enough.

 

Jas 2:19

You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

That's Christian mythology.

Please provide the verse(s) from the Hebrew scriptures that identify Satan as rebelling against God and being a demon rather than an angel that serves as man's accuser in God's court.

Also, the passages from Isa 14 or Ezek 28 are not validation.

They never mention Satan and are taunts to be applied to human kings.

 

The New Testament is revealed truth as well as the Old Testament. It is a strawman that every truth in the New Testament must have a corresponding verse in the Old Testament. That is ex-Christian mythology.

 

A strawman argument made by whom? Who claimed this? I'm not seeing anybody who has. Are you just tossing out words with the hope that something sticks? Centari's point, obviously, is that the New Testament contradicts and changes the Old Testament. The accuser was a good guy in the OT and becomes a bad guy in the NT.

 

Truth can't change or contradict itself.

[mymistake]

The god helmet has been discredited.

 

I declare TROLL

[♦ ficino ♦]

Aren't you relieved that Bin Laden was caught? Would you have liked him to go unpunished for his crimes?

Yes I am, and no, I would not!

 

Well, sin is a malignacy that cannot be tolerated. We are all infected and throughout the bible God has been showing this. He had to sometimes nip sin in the bud but He also wants to save MANY people. God wants to make sure His people are safe to be around His other sinless creatures. He cannot let sin go unpunished when people are not repentant. He also let the consequences of sin manifest itself so we will grow to hate it.

 

I was expecting that you would use my answer to your Bin Laden question as a jumping off place to try to solve the Problem of Evil. The assertions above do not solve it, but the topic has been debated many times.

[Thackerie]

satan believes and does not worship and love God so apparently belief if not enough.

 

Jas 2:19

You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

 

Riiiiiiiiight. The demons believe in god; just as elves believe in Santa Claus.

[Thackerie]

Genesis never actually says Noah preached to anyone, the New Testament makes that claim.

Also, the NLT BIble says that the normal lifespan would be no more than 120 years after the flood.

It does not say Noah preached for 120 years.

 

Gen 6:3 (NLT)

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

 

Is this Christian Bible wrong?

 

Need you ask? The longest unambiguously documented human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who died at age 122 years, 164 days. So, yes, the christian bible is wrong ... yet again.

[LivingLife]

Can pick up on this?

 

You have an implied premise that dead people can communicate with the living. You need to justify your assumption they can before you can ask why they aren't.

 

Is this not the claim we have for Jesus? Many xian folk claim (or so we are often told) they hear from dead relatives (in dreams mostly) and hear jesus speaking to them.

 

It is not right to swing the positive proof around as the xian doctrine suggests that there is this soul that survives after death. MM is not claiming the dead speak to the living, they don't. The problem is that this soul cannot be defined properly and really related to self and perhaps self awareness. Tests have been conducted to see if there is a soul that leaves the body upon death and they came out negative. I remember seeing a documentary back in the 60's where it was refuted albeit with primitive instruments, a bed on four scales/balances and the needles did not even shudder at the point of death of a terminally ill patient.

 

Now we have a plethora of NDE's and OOBE's which are not deaths as the brain was still alive. Tests were inconclusive and this phenomenon can be induced by brain stimulation.

 

No one has EVER come back from the dead (except some vague story of some remote unknown village in Africa or India where fact checking is impossible)

 

In a nutshell you folk believe these stories as you want it to be real.

 

 

Jesus is God so I don't understand your point about Him.

Hmm can you prove that? Suppose not but if he existed he is certainly taking a dirt nap. The jesus you think is god is a man made invention.

The Bible teaches necromancy is an abomination to God so any Christian who claims to speak to relatives is in error.

Well you best get out there and do a full US tour and get your fellow xians up to date on this. They see all sorts of things like ghosts (probably lying for jesus) They hear voices in their heads (apparently a deceased or a zombie jesus) talking to them - Oh wait that must be his buddy the holy spook. So confusing these polytheistic gods of yours. (/sarcasm)

mymistake's claim is that our consciousness stops at death. As evidence to back his claim he said the dead were silent in all known instances. The implied premise was in support of his evidence not in support of his claim. He has not presented any support for his claim as of yet.

His claim is the dead stay dead. Everyone but you and other deluded xians believe otherwise. No one ever came back from the dead so thus it stands to sound reason, there is nothing after death, just a long dirt nap.

I'm not claiming the afterlife is a natural state. There is no evidence our spirit is something physical within our bodies. It is a supernatural phenomenon, and the afterlife is a supernatural state.

Of course it is not natural or else we could identify it empirically. The fact we cannot, leaves your ilk to appeal to magic and most of here actually live in the real world.

 

You obviously buy into the personal trinity of spirit, soul and body? Well only the body is real. Spirit is your essence and/or awareness of self (a brain function) the soul does not exist and is a euphemism to describe a living being.

An NDE is an interesting case. Perhaps there is already a thread no this sight that has discussed it. I'll look later.

Not really gonna help your case. They are all BS and not consistent. Again a product of an active (and very alive still) mind. Happened to me twice and both times, no apparitions or visions or dreams, simply a time out from my consciousness.

[florduh]

The evidence suggests that supernatural phenomenon are observable...

No, evidence demonstrates that "supernatural" phenomena are products of a brain phenomenon. Wishful thinking suggests that certain hallucinatory episodes are real phenomena.

 

Electrical/magnetic stimulation, illness, stress, drugs, altered patterns due to rituals/meditation, oxygen deprivation all play a role in feelings/visions that can be interpreted as external events. Look up "God Helmet."

 

 

The god helmet has been discredited. There is no peer reviewed support for the device. See Chapter four here ... http://bit.ly/GZ5kgP

 

You are simply asserting that all supernatural events are hallucinations. Obviously that is not the case, as there are veridical cases as verified by third party observers. Here is a case, there are many others.

 

http://www.newoxford...=0308-gallagher

 

Verified cases as reported in Catholic propaganda? Seriously? Funny how the pro-Catholic bullshit has room to knock Protestants pulling the same scam:

 

This need for caution and precision is especially important at a time when untrained laymen or, worse, public ministries may unfortunately mislead or even exploit the faithful in this area. One has only to turn on a television to witness obvious abuses -- for instance, tele­vangelists' dunning their audience for cash as they conduct exhibitionist ceremonies before large assemblies of the overly credulous. Sharp distinctions -- long known to traditional theologians, but now often ignored -- need to be drawn.

[OrdinaryClay]

Genesis never actually says Noah preached to anyone, the New Testament makes that claim.

Also, the NLT BIble says that the normal lifespan would be no more than 120 years after the flood.

It does not say Noah preached for 120 years.

 

Gen 6:3 (NLT)

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

 

Is this Christian Bible wrong?

 

Need you ask? The longest unambiguously documented human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who died at age 122 years, 164 days. So, yes, the christian bible is wrong ... yet again.

 

Thank you for that reference! Here is a proper translation of the verse: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%206:3&version=NASB

[OrdinaryClay]

The Bible teaches necromancy is an abomination to God so any Christian who claims to speak to relatives is in error.

Well you best get out there and do a full US tour and get your fellow xians up to date on this. They see all sorts of things like ghosts (probably lying for jesus) They hear voices in their heads (apparently a deceased or a zombie jesus) talking to them - Oh wait that must be his buddy the holy spook. So confusing these polytheistic gods of yours. (/sarcasm)

 

Mat 7:22

"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'

 

You obviously buy into the personal trinity of spirit, soul and body? Well only the body is real. Spirit is your essence and/or awareness of self (a brain function) the soul does not exist and is a euphemism to describe a living being.

 

I'm a dualist.

 

An NDE is an interesting case. Perhaps there is already a thread no this sight that has discussed it. I'll look later.

Not really gonna help your case. They are all BS and not consistent. Again a product of an active (and very alive still) mind. Happened to me twice and both times, no apparitions or visions or dreams, simply a time out from my consciousness.

 

The constrained variation is unexplained. There are veridical cases as verified by third parties. An anoxic brain is less functional not more functional when it comes to forming complex sequences of memory.

[bornagainathiest]

Jesus is God so I don't understand your point about Him.

 

The Bible teaches necromancy is an abomination to God so any Christian who claims to speak to relatives is in error.

 

mymistake's claim is that our consciousness stops at death. As evidence to back his claim he said the dead were silent in all known instances. The implied premise was in support of his evidence not in support of his claim. He has not presented any support for his claim as of yet.

 

I'm not claiming the afterlife is a natural state. There is no evidence our spirit is something physical within our bodies. It is a supernatural phenomenon, and the afterlife is a supernatural state.

 

An NDE is an interesting case. Perhaps there is already a thread no this sight that has discussed it. I'll look later.

 

OC, in the light of the highlighted sentence above, the onus now falls upon you to cite evidence for the existence of the supernatural.

 

Please do so, remembering that if you invoke something, we are not bound to take your claim (on faith) that such a thing actually exists.

Evidence please.

 

Thank you,

 

BAA.

[OrdinaryClay]

The evidence suggests that supernatural phenomenon are observable...

No, evidence demonstrates that "supernatural" phenomena are products of a brain phenomenon. Wishful thinking suggests that certain hallucinatory episodes are real phenomena.

 

Electrical/magnetic stimulation, illness, stress, drugs, altered patterns due to rituals/meditation, oxygen deprivation all play a role in feelings/visions that can be interpreted as external events. Look up "God Helmet."

 

 

The god helmet has been discredited. There is no peer reviewed support for the device. See Chapter four here ... http://bit.ly/GZ5kgP

 

You are simply asserting that all supernatural events are hallucinations. Obviously that is not the case, as there are veridical cases as verified by third party observers. Here is a case, there are many others.

 

http://www.newoxford...=0308-gallagher

 

Verified cases as reported in Catholic propaganda? Seriously? Funny how the pro-Catholic bullshit has room to knock Protestants pulling the same scam:

 

This need for caution and precision is especially important at a time when untrained laymen or, worse, public ministries may unfortunately mislead or even exploit the faithful in this area. One has only to turn on a television to witness obvious abuses -- for instance, tele­vangelists' dunning their audience for cash as they conduct exhibitionist ceremonies before large assemblies of the overly credulous. Sharp distinctions -- long known to traditional theologians, but now often ignored -- need to be drawn.

 

 

The witnessing of demonic manifestation and possession spans cultures and religions. It is universal across humanity. Of course it is not reproducible on demand, which makes sense given that the entities are free willed agents. The supernatural is observable but not subject to the empirical method. This fits the data.

[OrdinaryClay]

OC, in the light of the highlighted sentence above, the onus now falls upon you to cite evidence for the existence of the supernatural.

 

Please do so, remembering that if you invoke something, we are not bound to take your claim (on faith) that such a thing actually exists.

Evidence please.

 

Thank you,

 

BAA.

 

Please ensure me you understand what evidence is. In light of the phrase in bold, do you erroneously believe that empirical evidence is the only form of evidence?

[florduh]

This fits the data.

What it fits is bullshit propaganda from a corrupt and greedy church empire.

 

Do you believe everything you read with no regard to source? Have you looked up the word 'gullible' lately?

[bornagainathiest]

I'm not claiming the afterlife is a natural state. There is no evidence our spirit is something physical within our bodies. It is a supernatural phenomenon, and the afterlife is a supernatural state.

 

"Super-" equals beyond the universe or the natural. "Phenomenon" is an observable event or fact. You have stated a contradiction. Where is evidence of "something" that is not natural, observable, and factual? The supernatural speaks to imaginings about nothing observable or even definable. I can substitute "supernatural" with "unknowable" or"nonexistent".

 

 

The Creation of the universe 13.7 bya is the most obvious supernatural event. Miracles are also supernatural events. No doubt the occult community has witnessed supernatural events.

 

I suspect your real problem is that you erroneously concluded that the only evidence is empirical evidence, which is clearly not the case for anyone willing to think deeply about the subject. The evidence suggests that supernatural phenomenon are observable but not repeatable (hence not subject to the empirical method), and natural phenomenon are both observable and repeatable.

 

Well I hope your ticker holds up until 2020, OC.

 

By then we may well have established that the Big Bang Event was simply one of many such natural events and that our universe is not 'all that there is'. It is probably one of Many Universes. The supernaturalism you require to establish the existence of a Creator God will have been trashed by hard evidence. Then the likes of you and William Lane Craig won't be able to invoke the KCA and falsely insert a timeless, spaceless God where there is currently only an absence of information.

 

"...willing to think deeply about the subject."

That's cute. So, by your unsubtle implication OC, MyMistake hasn't thought deeply about this subject?

 

On the subject of thought, no amount of deep thinking (or mental masturbation, in your case) changes the fact that empirical evidence applies to everyone equally, whether they like it or not. If deep thinking amounts to an act of wilful denial on your part, then so be it. Those who are prepared to selectively accept the scientific data that supports their desires, but actively deny the equally well-founded data that doesn't are hardly fit to declare others guilty of 'erroneous conclusions'. But then again, that's just my subjective opinion of what you've written - which carries just as much weight just as your subjective opinion of what MyMistake wrote. I.e., not much. Even stevens!

 

Oh and btw, that evidence for Many Universes will be observable, but not repeatable.

So will that make it supernatural?

 

BAA.

[centauri]

satan believes and does not worship and love God so apparently belief if not enough.

 

Jas 2:19

You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

That's Christian mythology.

Please provide the verse(s) from the Hebrew scriptures that identify Satan as rebelling against God and being a demon rather than an angel that serves as man's accuser in God's court.

Also, the passages from Isa 14 or Ezek 28 are not validation.

They never mention Satan and are taunts to be applied to human kings.

 

The New Testament is revealed truth as well as the Old Testament. It is a strawman that every truth in the New Testament must have a corresponding verse in the Old Testament. That is ex-Christian mythology.

All you're doing is assuming your preferred conclusion.

You haven't established what truth is, you simply assume that your theological whims and things you were taught must be the truth.

Ex-Christians aren't that gullible.

It is not a strawman to request validation for doctrine.

 

"Prove all things, and hold fast to them"

 

Christians advertise the Holy Bible to be in perfect harmony to be self-proving, and claim that there are hundreds of "proof-texts" that confirm Christian teachings.

It should be a simple matter to validate a doctrine without using secial pleading about what truth is.

The evidence and proof is all supposed to be there, and be consistent.

The New Testament contradicts key precepts of the Hebrew scriptures in multiple areas.

It's revisionist theology that uses bits and pieces of the Hebrew scriptures to launch itself.

There is no arch enemy of God called Satan found anywhere in the Old Testament.

Satan evolved into the Devil in the Bible courtesy of the New Testament.

It has no basis in the Old Testament.

[bornagainathiest]

OC, in the light of the highlighted sentence above, the onus now falls upon you to cite evidence for the existence of the supernatural.

 

Please do so, remembering that if you invoke something, we are not bound to take your claim (on faith) that such a thing actually exists.

Evidence please.

 

Thank you,

 

BAA.

 

Please ensure me you understand what evidence is. In light of the phrase in bold, do you erroneously believe that empirical evidence is the only form of evidence?

 

Oh this is fun!

Let's see who can make the other dance, eh?

Well, I think I'll call your bluff OC and toss this one back to you. Since you're handing out the 'Erroneous Awards' to anyone who disagrees with you, I therefore grovellingly kowtow to your superior comprehension of what constitutes evidence and humbly request that you grace us with your bullshit definition.

 

Thank you,

 

BAA.

[mymistake]

Genesis never actually says Noah preached to anyone, the New Testament makes that claim.

Also, the NLT BIble says that the normal lifespan would be no more than 120 years after the flood.

It does not say Noah preached for 120 years.

 

Gen 6:3 (NLT)

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

 

Is this Christian Bible wrong?

 

Need you ask? The longest unambiguously documented human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who died at age 122 years, 164 days. So, yes, the christian bible is wrong ... yet again.

 

I see you have ignored the documentation in the Lord of the Rings. Ringwraiths are men who lived for several ages. And let's not forget the equally reliable documentation found in the Bible.

 

[LivingLife]

The constrained variation is unexplained. There are veridical cases as verified by third parties. An anoxic brain is less functional not more functional when it comes to forming complex sequences of memory.

I have no empirical proof other than my own observations with my own dreams and my hypothesis how it all hangs together, lemme explain.

 

All of my dreams that I can recall having (don't remember details of all of them) I always woke up immediately. When I was young (late teens early twenties) my dreams were extremely vivid and detailed. These would range from waking up to a dead arm, the sense of falling (what folk claim to be the "landing" of astral travel) and really detailed dreams in a mutiplicity of scenarios. Sadly sex dreams seem to elude me (damn) Every single one of these i awoke and remembered and some I can recall even to this day with detail as it was back them.

 

My hypothesis and also based on some studies I have done, suggests that the part responsible for dreams does not work like the cognitive areas of the mind. IOW it is not constrained to our sense of time. These dreams which appear to take minutes or even hours, in reality are a few microseconds to seconds long. Yet there is all this vivid imagery, solutions to problems you have been dwelling on etc. The area where memories are stored connects to this subconscious side of the brain and sometimes dreams embed themselves as a memory and as such appears real on the surface. After all what is reality perceived other than the processes of your brain and memories?

 

The key to triggering dreams is IMO all due to external stimuli like sounds, smells, touch.

 

If there is a crisis like a dead arm due to lack of blood circulation, you need to wake up and fix that. The brain uses whatever it can be it dreams or pain to waken you. You wake up, get pins and needles, turn over and go back to sleep (until you reach your 50's then you need to go pee too )

 

The astral travel dreams I had were mostly due to heat or fever as we stayed in a semi tropical climate, I would float down and wake up sweating. The sweating had been on awhile obviously as the bed was soaking wet. The body needed fluids to replenish and this was always the case with me, dry mouth, wet sheets (not in the good way )

 

Some times your dreams can make you fall out of bed. Other time you flail about with your arms and in my day woke to crying girlfriends asking why I had hit them.

 

These days my dreams are garbage and I never remember them.

 

Back to my youth. The brain only stops growing/developing at age 25 and as part of the learning experience you at that age are inundated with information from studies and all this is trying to be stored in the right pockets. As you age dreams become less vivid and less memorable. My proof is that we all dream and none of us can claim to remember them say a week later apart from a few exceptions.

 

At the point of transcending between sleep and consciousness, this window is where the dreams occur and most find no holding place in the memory banks. IMO this is the same for NDE's which we are told are very vivid and very detailed, it also happens in this window except it is at the point of resuscitation and not sleep but for all intents and purposes the same. It is all playing out like a movie with a shit script in your mind. When the brain reboots in NDE cases, there is a sudden surge in brain activity and these visions are caused by embedded memories. I could almost guarantee you if you just heard a John Haggee "hell is real" sermon that scared you shitless and you were traumatised shortly thereafter in an accident, you will likely have visions and dreams of hell when you come around.

 

Anyway, as I said I have no evidence but suspect this is pretty damn close to what actually happens.

 

Now rewind 3000 or so years, how would folk back then describe these dreams ranging from hormonal nocturnal emissions (wet dreams) to visions of conquest from the previous nights campfire stories? this was so real as it is today and it got a label soul or spirit.

 

Now how to prove this hypothesis (Please do not do this if you have a weak heart)

 

Lay on the floor, let a buddy straddle you, close you eyes and take five deep breaths exhaling fully each time. Hold the last big breath. You buddy then applies pressure to your chest in the CPR position and maintains pressure for 4 or more seconds.

 

You will pass out. (get someone to time the time from pressure being applied to being woken up) We used to wake each other up by light slaps after 2-5 seconds. You should dream in this period of passing out. Make a mental note of how long it appeared to be.

 

There is your proof of dreams and NDE's

 

Make sure someone in your group knows CPR in case something goes wrong.

 

Do not repeat on each other the same evening/day.

 

Have fun.

[bornagainathiest]

The god helmet has been discredited.

 

I declare TROLL

 

Not so, MM.

 

OC is a man who had close encounter with the Grim Reaper a couple of years ago - hence my question about his ticker.

He's also a committed Christian who, when he arrived in this forum in Feb 2010, was highly active for a number of weeks and then fell completely silent. Now, for some reason, he's resurfaced, with all guns blazing.

 

So what's happened to re-activate him like this? What's changed, I wonder?

 

But, no. He's not a troll.

A frightened man who's living on borrowed time and looking for some comfort, perhaps...

 

.. but not a troll.

 

BAA.

[LivingLife]

The witnessing of demonic manifestation and possession spans cultures and religions. It is universal across humanity. Of course it is not reproducible on demand, which makes sense given that the entities are free willed agents. The supernatural is observable but not subject to the empirical method. This fits the data.

Ever wondered why these demonic manifestations ONLY happen in church settings?

 

Ever wonder why it only seems to happen to folk believing in demons and angels and again in a church setting?

 

If you have watch this video to see how the mind is coerced into doing stuff contrary to your free will. It is really worth your watch. It is not staged BTW. About 8-9 minutes.

 

[mymistake]

A frightened man who's living on borrowed time and looking for some comfort, perhaps...

 

.. but not a troll.

 

If he wants out of my ignore filter then he is going to have to get enough courage to face reality. Till then I can't be bothered with his fantasy world.