The background noise and setting of these videotapes is testament to the way the interview deliberately was ad hoc, being unscripted and conversational. Anthony had no idea in advance that he was going to be asked about some of his deeper beliefs or the significance to him of his life’s experiences. He clearly has much more to impart.
Transcripts of the interviews appear below.
The Afterlife is important to me. There is something above and beyond what we are and who we are and where we are. Whether it controlled by the brain or some other entity I don’t know but I embrace it. My purpose in life is/will be fulfilled by its ending. In later life. I have developed better as a personality.
A purpose in life is to share love and to be loved. Beyond that. I think that ‘power’ (in whatever is our chosen sphere of activity) also comes into (our attitude).
The chimera in life – the things that you thought were important in life – turn to dust or ashes. We are like a speck of dust that vanishes in the wind; it is blown away and dissipated. My life is about death. For many years it’s been an enduring (subject of) interest. It is not the end – of life – it’s a journey. When my mother was dying, my mother never got over the early death of her father, but when she was told when nearer her own end that she was going to meet her father, she (broke down emotionally). When you get to that stage of life you first realise who you are (indistinct) and secondly (indistinct) go through that journey. When it comes to what lies (in store) afterwards, I’m not happy with the idea of burial. (Uncompleted anecdote on tape about what the head of a crematorium said when asked about where someone was buried)
I’ve spent a lot of time in furthering the development of my brain on things that I regard now as relatively worth less. I’m still developing my brain to resolve my ignorance of certain things.
If I went through life thinking that the best way of explaining myself was that my life was justified entirely by the purpose of the organisations that I’ve supported then that wouldn’t have been life at all for myself. It’s too narrow and cloistered a view of who one is and what one is doing, (to think) that is ‘the be-all and end-all’ of what one is doing. One needs to be open.
For some years I would have reacted adversely to criticism but now I’m fascinated by criticism.
In the course of writing my (autobiography) my ideas have developed as I’ve had to write them down. I think one should be as open as one can be to as many things as one can be. But not necessarily break away from the essence (of oneself). (Indistinct – part of one’s ‘essence’ can be ‘to be open’) If you are too open to everything, it is not ‘you’. Everything dissipates.