Dr.
Raymond Moody only recently coined the term “Near-Death Experience” in the 1970s, but
the NDE phenomenon has a long-standing history with documented examples going
back thousands of years.
“Like
OBEs, NDEs appear to be a universal phenomenon.
They are described at length in both the eighth-century Tibetan Book of
the Dead and the 2,500 year-old Egyptian Book of the Dead. In Book X of The Republic Plato gives a
detailed account of a Greek soldier named Er, who came alive just seconds
before his funeral pyre was to be lit and said that he had left his body and
went through a ‘passageway’ to the land of the dead. The venerable Bede gives a similar account in
his eighth-century work A History of the English Church
and People, and, in fact, in her recent book Otherworld Journeys Carol Zaleski,
a lecturer on the study of religion at Harvard, points out that medieval
literature is filled with accounts of NDEs.” -Michael Talbot, “The Holographic Universe”
(240)
In
Book X of The Republic, Plato recounted the story of a Greek soldier named Er
who died on the battlefield and came back to life almost ten days later just as
his body was about to be incinerated. Er
awoke with a start and began describing what he had seen on the other
side. He said his soul left his physical
body and joined with a group of other spirits who led him upwards through a
“passage way” (tunnel?) to the afterlife.
There the other souls were taken by divine light beings and shown
detailed life reviews. Er himself was
shown many sights, but not his life review, and was ultimately sent back and
told to inform others on Earth about what he experienced in the afterlife
realm. Amazingly this two and a half
thousand year old story sounds exactly like modern NDE accounts.
“According
to Plato, the soul comes into the physical body from a higher and more divine
realm of being., For him it is birth which is the sleeping and the forgetting,
since the soul, in being born into the body, goes from a state of great
awareness to a much less conscious one and in the meantime forgets the truths
it knew while in its previous out-of-body state. Death, by implication, is an
awakening and remembering. Plato remarks that the soul that has been separated
from the body upon death can think and reason even more clearly than before,
and that it can recognize things in their true nature far more readily.
Furthermore, soon after death it faces a ‘judgment’ in which a divine being
displays before the soul all the things - both good and bad - which it has done
in its life and makes the soul face them.” –Dr. Raymond Moody, “Life After
Life” (46)
Plato’s mentor Socrates’ belief in the afterlife was so
strong that he actually looked forward to his own death with curiosity and
excitement. Socrates said that death was
simply the separation of soul from body and an awakening from “illusion to
reality,” this 5-sense world being the illusion, and “reality” existing on the higher
non-physical planes. This is consistent
also with the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead which suggest that
immediately following death we assume a “ka” or “bardo” spiritual body which
transcends the ordinary limitations of time, space, and matter.
“In
the Tibetan account the mind or soul of the dying person departs from the body.
At some time thereafter his soul enters a ‘swoon’ and he finds himself in a
void - not a physical void, but one which is, in effect, subject to its own
kind of limits, and one in which his consciousness still exists. He may hear
alarming and disturbing noises and sounds, described as roaring, thundering,
and whistling noises, like the wind, and usually finds himself and his
surroundings enveloped in a grey, misty illumination. He is surprised to find himself out of his
physical body. He sees and hears his relatives and friends mourning over his
body and preparing it for the funeral and yet when he tries to respond to them
they neither hear nor see him. He does not yet realize that he is dead, and he
is confused. He asks himself whether he is dead or not, and, when he finally
realizes that he is, wonders where he should go or what he should do. A great
regret comes over him, and he is depressed about his state. For a while he
remains near the places with which he has been familiar while in physical life.
He notices that he is still in a body-called the ‘shining’ body - which does
not appear to consist of material substance. Thus, he can go through rocks,
walls, and even mountains without encountering any resistance. Travel is almost
instantaneous. Wherever he wishes to be, he arrives there in only a moment. His
thought and perception are less limited; his mind becomes very lucid and his
senses seem more keen and more perfect and closer in nature to the divine. If
he has been in physical life blind or deaf or crippled, he is surprised to find
that in his ‘shining’ body all his senses, as well as all the powers of his
physical body, have been restored and intensified. He may encounter other
beings in the same kind of body, and may meet what is called a clear or pure
light. The Tibetans counsel the dying one approaching this light to try to have
only love and compassion towards others.
The book also describes the feelings of immense peace and contentment
which the dying one experiences, and also a kind of ‘mirror’ in which his
entire life, all deeds both good and bad, are reflected for both him and the
beings judging him to see vividly. In this situation, there can be no
misrepresentation; lying about one's life is impossible. In short, even though The Tibetan Book of the
Dead includes many later stages of death which none of my subjects have gone so
far as to experience, it is quite obvious that there is a striking similarity
between the account in this ancient manuscript and the events which have been
related to me by twentieth-century Americans.” –Dr. Raymond Moody, “Life
After Life” (48)
The
Bible also contains stories of typical near-death experiences such as Paul on
the road to Damascus. Paul was a
persecutor of Christians until receiving his famous vision and conversion. Acts 26 describes how Paul saw a “light from
heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me.” He then heard the voice of Jesus speaking to
him asking “why persecutest thou me?”
The voice then tells Paul that he has appeared to him for a purpose, to
make him a minister and a witness of God.
“This
episode obviously bears some resemblance to the encounter with the being of
light in near death experiences. First of all, the being is endowed with
personality, though no physical form is seen, and a ‘voice’ which asks a
question and issues instructions emanates from it. When Paul tries to' tell
others, he is mocked and labeled as ‘insane.’ Nonetheless, the vision changed
the course of his life: He henceforth became the leading proponent of
Christianity as a way of life, entailing love of others.” –Dr. Raymond
Moody, “Life After Life” (44)
1
Corinthians 15 gets even more specific regarding the life after death
state. It is asked “How are the dead
raised up? And with what body do they
come?” to which it is answered that there are both terrestrial bodies and
celestial bodies, natural bodies and spiritual bodies. In death, the scripture says “we shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye … the dead shall be raised
incorruptible.”
“Interestingly,
Paul's brief sketch of the nature of the ‘spiritual body’ corresponds very well
with the accounts of those who have found themselves out of their bodies. In
all cases, the immateriality of the spiritual body - its lack of physical
substance - is stressed, as are its lack of limitations. Paul says, for
example, that whereas the physical body was weak and ugly, the spiritual body
will be strong and beautiful. This reminds one of the account of a near-death
experience in which the spiritual body seemed whole and complete even when the
physical body could be seen to be mutilated, and of another in which the
spiritual body seemed to be of no particular age, i.e., not limited by time.”
–Dr. Raymond Moody, “Life After Life” (44-5)
In 1688, the
“Leonardo da Vinci of his era,” Swedish mystic Swedenborg was born. He spoke nine languages and was a successful
mathematician, politician, astronomer and businessman. He built watches and microscopes, invented
prototypes for the submarine and airplane, and wrote books on diverse subjects ranging
from physics and chemistry to color theory and metallurgy.
“Throughout
all of this he also meditated regularly, and when he reached middle age,
developed the ability to enter deep trances during which he left his body and
visited what appeared to him to be heaven and conversed with ‘angels’ and
‘spirits.’ That Swedenborg was
experiencing something profound during these journeys, there can be no
doubt. He became so famous for this
ability that the queen of Sweden asked him to find out why her deceased brother
had neglected to respond to a letter she had sent him before his death. Swedenborg promised to consult the deceased
and the next day returned with a message which the queen confessed contained
information only she and her dead brother knew.
Swedenborg performed this service several times for various individuals
who sought his help, and on another occasion told a widow where to find a
secret compartment in her deceased husband’s desk in which she found some
desperately needed documents. So well
known was this latter incident that it inspired the German philosopher Immanuel
Kant to write an entire book on Swedenborg entitled Dreams of a Spirit-Seer.” -Michael Talbot, “The Holographic Universe”
(257-8)
Swedenborg’s
descriptions of his out of body experiences in the afterlife realm, just like
Plato’s, the Bible’s, and the Egyptian/Tibetan Books of the Dead all closely
parallel descriptions given by modern day near-death experiencers. He mentions going through a tunnel, being
greeted by telepathic loving angels, seeing landscapes more beautiful than
earth, and being subjected to an extensive life review. All in all, Swedenborg wrote nearly 20
volumes about his out of body experiences.
On his deathbed Swedenborg was asked if there was anything he wanted to
recant, to which he replied, “Everything that I have written is as true as
you now behold me. I might have said
much more had it been permitted to me.
After death you will see all, and then we shall have much to say to each
other on the subject.”
“How
is it, we might well ask ourselves, that the wisdom of Tibetan sages, the
theology and visions of Paul, the strange insights and myths of Plato, and the
spiritual revelations of Swedenborg all agree so well, both among themselves
and with the narratives of contemporary individuals who have come as close as
anyone alive to the state of death?” –Dr. Raymond Moody, “Life After Life”
(50)
Shamans
the world over throughout history have spoken of visiting the “spirit world” or
“after-life realm” regularly, conversing with sentient entities and deceased
souls, then bringing visions and messages back to the living tribesmen. They believe that in the other realm one
possesses a subtle body, it is populated by many spiritual teachers, and it is
a world created by the thoughts and imaginations of many people. Amazonian shamans use the psychedelic brew
Ayahuasca to transport them into this realm.
The Persian Sufis enter a deep trancelike meditation in order to visit this
“land where spirits dwell.” And the
Australian aboriginals regularly enter this realm during group meditations
called “dream-time.”
“The
picture of reality reported by NDEers is remarkably self-consistent and is
corroborated by the testimony of many of the world’s most talented mystics as
well. Even more astonishing is that as
breathtaking and foreign as these subtler levels of reality are to those of us
who reside in the world’s more ‘advanced’ cultures, they are mundane and
familiar territories to so-called primitive peoples. For example, Dr. E. Nandisvara Nayake Thero,
an anthropologist who has lived with and studied a community of aborigines in
Australia, points out that the aboriginal concept of the ‘dreamtime,’ a realm
that Australian shamans visit by entering a profound trance, is almost
identical to the afterlife planes of existence described in Western
sources. It is the realm where human
spirits go after death, and once there a shaman can converse with the dead and
instantly access all knowledge. It is
also a dimension in which time, space, and the other boundaries of earthly life
cease to exist and one must learn to deal with infinity. Because of this, Australian shamans often
refer to the afterlife as ‘survival in infinity.’” -Michael Talbot, “The Holographic Universe”
(265-6)
Virtually
all of the world’s shamanic traditions describe a spirit world or alternate
dimension reached during states of altered consciousness which they maintain is
where souls travel after physical death.
Shamans are experts at navigating these inner realms and they regularly
use deep meditation, ecstatic dance, ingestion of entheogens and other methods
of shifting consciousness in order to enter them. In many tribes the pre-requisite to becoming
a shaman is having a near-death experience!
The Seneca, the Sioux, the Yakut, the Zulu, the Kikuyu, the Guajiro, the
Mu Dang, the Eskimos and many other tribal societies all have traditions of
shamans assuming the role after a life-threatening illness brings them
face-to-face with the afterlife spirit world.
“Most non-Western cultures have religious and
philosophical systems, cosmologies, ritual practices, and certain elements of
social organization that make it easier for their members to accept and
experience death. These cultures generally do not see death as the absolute
termination of existence; they believe that consciousness or life in some form
continues beyond the point of physiological demise. Whatever specific concepts
of afterlife prevail in different cultures, death is typically regarded as a transition
or transfiguration, and not as the final annihilation of the individual.
Mythological systems have not only detailed descriptions of various afterlife
realms, but frequently also complex cartographies to guide souls on their
difficult posthumous journeys.” -Stanislav Grof and Joan Halifax,
“Human Encounter with Death” (2)
University
of Toronto Psychology professor Joel Whitton has successfully used hypnosis to
regress dozens of patients to the time before their birth and published his
findings in the book “Life Between Life.”
In this between life state his patients universally reported all the
classic features of NDEs including passage through a tunnel, entering a
light-filled realm outside of space and time, encountering deceased relatives
or spirit guides, and being subjected to an extensive life review.
“The message from deep trance is that life after death is
synonymous with life before birth and that most of us have taken up residence
in this other world many, many times as disembodied entities.
Subconsciously, we are just as familiar with discarnate existence as we are
with the Earth plane - the next world is both the state we have left behind in
order to be born and the state to which we return at death. As the wheel
of life revolves, birth and death happen repeatedly in the evolution of the
individual. Death is no more than the threshold of consciousness that separates
one incarnation from the next. Truly there is life between lives.
Subjects, whose religious backgrounds are as varied as their initial prejudices
for or against reincarnation, have testified consistently that rebirth is
fundamental to the evolutionary process in which we are enveloped. At
death, they say, the soul leaves the body to enter a timeless, spaceless state.
There, our most recent life on Earth is evaluated and the next incarnation is
planned according to our karmic requirements.” -Dr. Joel Whitton, “Life Between Life”
8 comments:
They say and I´d agree that the after life facade is used to force us to reincarnate, losing our memory (not permanently I´d say) and therefore becoming the easiest ones to manipulate again and again. This branch of conspiracy theorism is hard or impossible to completely explore while being alive though.
What do you think Eric? Isn´t it obvious that all the karmic/akashic thingie smells rotten? Why would "God" create suffering/evil in the first place? Imagine, creating suffering just so yourself (because we are part of God) could "grow" and "learn". Nah obviously there is something else going on, someone is using us as we use chicken and cattle.
Hey Armando, thanks for the comment. As to why God would create suffering/evil in the first place, I was asked that and explain in the following clip :)
God, Consciousness, Intelligent Design, Duality, Satan and the Ego
I'm not sure I agree with Armando at all. There has to be a purpose to it all. I recently read the book, "Held By The Hand Of God: Why Am I Alive"http://heldbythehandofgod.com/ by author Joe Laws. I agree with his experiences and that there is good vs. evil and good will win.
There are no "winners" when good and evil "battle" ... that is the result of "dualistic" thinking associated with (+) good, better, best and (-) bad, worse,something to "kill off" ... (+/-) where the differential void of the (/) is deemed a "place" to stay as far away from as possible so that "the enemy" (the "other") cannot influence you.
True Spirituality relates to the (=) in the Trinity of (+=-) where the "two sides" are meant to interact for common cause, to cooperate for the greater good ... not to "polarize" as is done in duality and dichotomy.
And all of "that" is what we have come "here" to learn ... when we do learn that we can have a much better "afterlife" and a more evolved eternity.
IMnsHO and E.(so far) :-)
Thanks Robyn and Jerry, I like the +-= idea. All dichotomies rely on their opposites to exist at all, without which neither concept would make any sense. How could the concept "light" exist without a knowledge of "dark?" Without an opposite it's just "what is" undifferentiated.
Hmmm. What happens when we die. That's a tuff one. Uuhhhh..nobody alive knows!? Lol
As someone who has had a NDE I loved the very well written artical. Well researched and impressive. Thank you Kim Schrader
Thanks Kim! Any chance you could give us a taste of what the afterlife's like? :) What happened during your NDE? Peace
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