Robert Clemons

Robert Clemons - Explorations into the Nature of Reality

I was born with a writer's soul. I've always loved words and exploring what can be done with them. My imagination has always been so vivid that to think about painful things literally hurts me, and to think about sad things makes me cry. I’ve always wondered what this is all about . . . this life, this universe, this consciousness we all have. Everything I write is an exploration of the nature of reality.

What is the nature of reality? When we perceive the world that exists outside of our minds, are we accurately grasping the true reality of what’s out there? An incredible amount of data is received from that outer world! It enters our inner selves through our five senses. It’s transformed into electrochemical signals and moves at a couple of hundred miles per hour, up and down the corridors of our nervous system, and arrives in due time at the appropriate areas of our brains to be analyzed and interpreted.

How do we know that our senses and brains are getting it right? Are they also correctly interpreting external reality when a master illusionist causes us to think he’s made an elephant disappear, or when we see a boat oar split into two sections as we dip it into the water, or when we see someone sling a sledge hammer in the distance but don’t hear the sound until seconds later?

We depend on these quite limited and often faulty transducers we call senses to give us the straight and dirty of things, but who’s getting it right: the person who has 20/20 vision or the so called color blind person or the person who’s able to perceive distinct colors with each sound he hears -- you know, a person who possesses synesthesia?

It’s a fact that our perception and interpretation of reality is often wrong. We say we have five senses and that we can depend on them to give us a clear picture of the outer world. But what if the outer world actually has six perceptible categories of things to perceive–or 10–or 100? How can we possibly know, since we only have 5 organ systems that perceive distinct sorts of phenomena: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste? Other species on Earth have different assortments of senses. Some of them have ultraviolet vision, some have sonar, some can detect electromagnetic fields, some can smell veins, others can see colors we can’t even imagine, and some have night vision which humans can only achieve with special electronic goggles. There are many other examples.

I want to understand reality at the greatest depth possible. I believe comprehending it at a significant depth requires more than our physical perception of the outer world. It requires the inner workings of that mysterious and powerful entity we refer to as the human mind.

I explore and report on the fabric of reality through fiction, non-fiction, poetry and photography. I don’t suppose I will ever have the complete and perfect answers to these questions, but I will have more complete answers than people who are simply taking everything for granted and depending on their five physical senses as though those senses were perfect and absolute.

If you are like me, and curious about this place in time and space we share, please join me, and we will search it out together. When people combine the powers of their minds, anything is possible. It seems to me that was one of the greatest discoveries of Socrates through his dialectical method.

My name is Robert Clemons, and I am a full time author of fiction and non-fiction. I earned a BA in Psychology from George Mason University, MDiv focusing on Philosophy and Theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (with half of my credits from Lutheran Theological Seminary Southern), and MA in Communication from Marquette University. I also completed extensive post graduate work in Psychology and Philosophy.

I served in the military services for 27 years (beginning as a Private E-1 in the Army) and retired as a Lt Col from the Air Force, in 2009. I served in Saigon, Vietnam and Arlington Hall Station, Virginia as an enlisted member of the Army Security Agency (ASA), and in the First Gulf War and various other military deployments as a Chaplain in the U. S. Air Force. My service included duty in 23 countries in Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, Europe, the Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas.

I also retired as a United Methodist Minister with 35 years service (22 years concurrent with USAF chaplain service). During those years I also taught as an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Counseling at Limestone College (extension program) and Central Texas College (extension program) and authored numerous articles, essays, speeches, and papers over those years. These jobs were concurrent with my full time positions. One of my USAF assignments was as a speech writer for two USAF Chaplains (2 Star and 1 Star Generals in charge of the USAF Chaplain Corps) and editor of a bi-monthly newsletter with circulation to every USAF base in the world.

I’ve been a professional writer throughout my career. I’ve published two novels and am working on sequels to both. If you would like to read THE HIROSHIMA AGENDA (science fiction) in paperback, it is now published and for sale at Amazon.com, and as an E-Book on Kindle Readers and on various electronic devices using the free Kindle app. Just click www.amazon.com and type in my name or the novel title in the search line to order either version. If you’d like to read THE FOUR RIVERS OF EDEN (Christian Sci-Fi/Fantasy), it’s available in the same way and in both versions.

I currently live in Myrtle Beach South Carolina with my wife, Phyllis. We have lived in 25 different places over our 51 years of marriage (since we were 19) including other cities, states, and countries.