U.K. millionaire to move to mud hut, article.
LONDON - A 41-year-old millionaire businessman who nearly died in a car crash eight years ago is leaving behind his exquisite 16th-century farmhouse and lavish lifestyle to move to a mud hut in Uganda and start a children's charity. [... ]
The self-made tycoon has a troubled past that includes a criminal record, alcoholism and affairs. He says a serious car crash in 2002 in which he almost died led him to find God.
Talk about a polarity shift.
"In 2002, he had been drinking when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a van. He was in a coma for six weeks. After making a full recovery he said he found religion and gave up alcohol."
ReplyDeleteThere are several possible explanations, some more romantic than others, but it is a fact that car crashes often cause brain lesions and that brain lesions can cause religious/spiritual experiences.
I'm not kidding:
http://www.google.be/search?hl=en&source=hp&q="brain+lesions"+religious
On the other hand, simplifying ones life and helping others are excellent ways to make yourself and the world happier.
ReplyDeleteThere have been a couple of these cases reported in the news recently. And we will be seeing an increasing number of them from now on.
ReplyDeleteIt's all part of the current collective shift in consciousness. And how it drives individuals to discover meaning.
Thousands are making these kinds of changes in their lives at the moment. But only the millionaires make news, for in their case the apparent change is bigger.
Reminds me of how GWB found God after having too much to drink. In vino divinas?...
ReplyDeleteJan,
Sometimes I wonder whether religiousness IN ITSELF isn't a brain lesion. Or it causes brain shrinking. Definitely something there.
OK, seriously now, neurophysiology has established that religious ideas are directly linked to the shutting down of some brain zones, such as the zone of individuality (Zen meditation makes you "One with Everything"), or... critical sense, when you accept miraculous claims! In fact, research has concluded that the more anti-logical an idea, the more likely it is to be accepted in a religious mindset. "A virgin giving birth, dead people rising, humanoid gods transforming into animals, water transforming into blood/wine..."
Seems like religiousness is directly linked to a spectacular aptitude for "suspension of disbelief".
No, I didn't say "naiveness". But I know you thought it! ;-p
Religion seems almost DEFINED by a paradoxal inhibition of some given cognitive functions. In scientific terms...
I'm not going to mock those who "have found God", not even discreetly snicker. But only you-know-who can tell what their true motivations may be.
As the old proverb says, "When it gets old, the Devils turns into a hermit." As if to make up in the eyes of the Lord for a very unholy life, "while there's still time to repent and give to the poor".
Stereotypes always have some basis of truth. Many holy hermits are probably far less altruistic than it may seem.
Many "most holy" catholic priests definitely are! Damned sicko sex fiends...
They're not the only ones. It's common knowledge that a lot of fundamentalist koranic school teachers in Pakistan are little boy rapists.