Monty. If you want, I'll take time out over the next few days to write you a detailed reply and pm you. But if not, please say, cos I don't want to waste the time needlessly.
I was a total atheist growing up, but got into LSD. But on my first trip to India, I saw the Dalai Lama stop the monsoon. Really. Yes, I wouldn't believe that if someone else had said it, even my best mate, but I saw it and it happened. And the other dozen of us who were only there cos the tourist bus from Leh to Menali had been stopped by a landslide killing 2-3 people saw it too. And we all looked at each other - we'd never met before we got on the bus - going WTF while the 10k Buddhist monks being initiated into the priesthood all just smiled and laughed.
Been to India over 40 times since. Spoken to uni-educated Sadhus (the chillum smoking dreadlocked meditating upper/high caste/class Brahmins) in the Kulu and Parvati valleys.
Discussed Marx with one chap - have the interview on DV tape somewhere - though some Graun reading **** on CiF told me I must be lying cos no believer in God could ever discuss philosophy.
If you want me to give you a considered reply, tell me. And I'll pm you within a week. GLW off to India for a wedding tomorrow and I'm off to Paris on Mon, but I'll do it just after if you want. If not, no probs, but just tell me so I don't waste my time.
I have no idea who this Sam Harris is but your comment to Berni - acid for fluffy Yids - is pretty much accurate. {Though it's also LSD for fluffy Buddhists like HH Dalai Lama and for hardcore, non-fluffy Hindu sadhus as well. That's its beauty. If you want I can also talk about Abrahamic meditation - why the early Catholic church hit down on mystical Christianity and why late C18th Islam onwards hit down on Sufiism. Though I know next to nothing about mystical Judaism. Prob cos I always assumed that if any Yids were in tune with the Divine, He'd have told them not to support Sperz. }