My name is Alvin Alexander, and this is my personal blog, primarily related to the topic of exploring human consciousness, with a few diversions here and there related to things like tequila, and life in general.
If you'll read my first entry on this blog, it describes an event that occurred when I was 16 years old, an event that would eventually change the course of my life. Almost every other entry in this blog is related to that one event, which has been reinforced by more than 100 subsequently similar events.
The thing I ask from you when reading any of these entries is to try to avoid thinking, "Wow, Al is really crazy", and instead try to suspend your disbelief, and instead think, "If something like this had happened to me, what would I do?"
A scientific exploration
Having been more actively involved in what my body naturally seems capable of doing, I have decided to pursue much of my life as a scientific exploration of human consciousness. Specifically, while OBE (astral projection) events have happened to other people, and they've gone out to find things like the Akashic Records, I have one and only one interest in this field: I want to prove that these events are real, or that they are not real.
The only way I know to prove that these events are real is to try to confirm them here in the physical world (what many people refer to as the "physical plane" of existence). To that end, if you'll search this blog for the word "cards", you'll find several of my experiment related to using a deck of cards to verify my OBE's. As you'll see from that small sample of tests, they have been largely successful, and very surprising. In one instance not only did I see the current card correctly, I also saw two other cards -- cards that were turned up in the next two experiments, first 12 and then 24 hours later.
The name of this website
For those who know me, the name of this website is apparent, but if you don't know me, the name of this site represents the two halves of my mind.
Beginning with the Monk part first, at several times in my life, because of the experiences I've had, I've thought about pursuing a life as a Zen Buddhist Monk, and have even gone to live in a Zen monastery. I have since dropped the idea of being a monk, but I still meditate regularly, and I can recite gathas and sutras when desired.
Beyond this, I also have an active interest in most religions, because when you get to the core of each religion -- things like The Mystical Kabbalah, for example -- I believe you'll find many of the same beliefs: a life of peace, some forms of meditation and chanting, and the "special effects" that are known to come from deep meditation.
The Tequila part comes from one of my favorite drinks, the margarita. I know that I have many attachments in life, including attachments to things like money, indoor plumbing, and also the occasional margarita. As I made margaritas over the years, I also began to try various brands of tequila, and though I don't drink much these days, I still enjoy tequila and margaritas from time to time.
(As a final note on the Monk portion of the name, those who know me also know that I like the tv show named Monk, and that I've had a few OCD-ish problems of my own. Thanks to some friends, I even have a Monk bobblehead doll sitting on the oven in my kitchen.)
So, my brain is split into these two halves of tequila and monk. And as you'll see from some of these blog posts, at one time or another one side will really have control of the keyboard. But on balance I hope I can be a decent person here on planet earth.
Writing
I also write a lot these days, mostly about Alaska, and about computer programming. I own the website devdaily.com, which is a website for programmers using Java, Perl, Ruby, and PHP, and users of Unix and Linux computer systems. This article on how to create, populate, and iterate over a Java String array is one of my most recent works.