http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31293702/detail.html
snips:
The video showing Holmes speaking at a science camp at Miramar College in San Diego when he was 18.
Holmes’ presentation is on “temporal illusion,” which he defines as “an illusion that allows you to change the past.” In the video, he said he studies subjective experience, calling it “what takes place inside the mind, as opposed to the external world.”
This is how he was explaining his mentor’s shared interest in fantasy versus reality in the video.
end snip
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I wonder who the mentor was, and if they still played a part of this nutball. But I imagine just devoting himself to the subject could push him over the edge. Especially if he had a past he wanted changing. (Like tons of schooling and ending up at McDonalds).
Some folks dream of getting back at the kids in high school by being successful, good looking, etc. And others dream of nightmares.
Talk of a “mentor” in combination with “lucid dreaming” sounds rather like he was a fan of Carlos Castaneda’s writing upon the subject. The “mentor” would have come to him while dreaming.
This chap was, seemingly, successfully (until that final semester) pursuing a doctorate in an area (PTSD if the associated government grant is an accurate reflection) which upon completion would have catapulted him far beyond McDonald’s in a career. What PTSD patient would not want to have happier memories? He’d have been a real Dr. Feelgood to them had he been able to get memories of more pleasant things than harrowing war experiences to dominate their minds.
Threw it all away on living out a crazy fantasy in a wicked, wicked way. (I mean if he wanted to make a scene in a movie theater there would have been ways that didn’t kill or wound anybody.) Occam’s Razor suggests that he simply went nuts. But as is being suggested we can’t logically rule out some baleful influence in his life which helped egg him on to this point.