Dear Dr. Hogan:

I just finished reading your book. It seemed to me that your evidence for the reality of consciousness preceding matter and energy from contolled studies could also be interpreted to mean that we don't know yet how these events happen. In other words, do these anomalies truly prove that consciousness is immaterial and that it is ontologically prior to matter and energy? Your other line of evidence seems to be anecdotal, taken from experiences people have reported, subjective experiences that cannot be verified. Since I have had no such experiences, I cannot take these stories as anything other than reports that may or may not be altogether true. It seems to me that if we are eternal entities having physical experiences we should know that to be the case but we do not so our status as eternal beings appears to be open to question, doubt, denial and skepticism. And, in turn, if I follow your reasoning correctly, this ignorance of who we are leads to all of the horrors of history and all of humanity's disasters. Why should this have become the case if we are indeed eternal beings? It seems like there's no avoiding the idea of an "original sin" or fall from grace from our eternal nature making difficult progress toward spiritual maturity necessary over many lifetimes of suffering, confusion, fear and despair. If we are eternal beings having physical experiences, why don't we know who we really are from the very outset? And, as a corollary question, in the absence of matter and energy how can there be knowledge? How can an entity which is non-material be anything at all rather tha nothing?