| |
Editor’s Note: In Western societies, the dominant paradigm
presents a cosmology in which humans, as biological matter, live and
die in a universe governed by the laws of physics. In this worldview,
there is no room for the possibility of life after death, and different
states of consciousness have significance only as pathological deviations
from that worldview.
In sharp contrast, the cosmologies of other cultures—ancient and contemporary
pre-industrial—have taken for granted the existence of an afterlife.
For them, dying is a meaningful part of life, and death is a journey
for which the individual can and should prepare. To aid in this, many
cultures throughout history have developed experiential "technologies"—techniques
and practices intended to train initiates in the art and science of
dying and postmortem survival. These experiential "technologies" invariably
involve training in altered or non-ordinary states of consciousness
throughout the individual’s lifetime.
This fundamental difference between Western and pre-industrial cosmologies
and their respective end-of-life technologies has profound consequences
for how societies view living, dying, death, and non-ordinary states
of consciousness. In this article, psychiatrist Stanislav Grof explores
some of the key elements in pre-industrial cosmologies and their emphasis
on transformative "technologies" for training in altered states throughout
the individual’s lifetime.
In general, the conditions of life existing in modern technologized
countries do not offer much ideological or psychological support for
people who are facing death. This contrasts very sharply with the
situation encountered by those dying in one of the ancient and pre-industrial
societies. Their cosmologies, philosophies, mythologies, as well as
spiritual and ritual life, contain a clear message that death is not
the absolute and irrevocable end of everything, that life or existence
continues in some form after biological demise.
Eschatological mythologies are in general agreement that the soul
of the deceased undergoes a complex series of adventures in consciousness.
The posthumous journey of the soul is sometimes described as a travel
through fantastic landscapes that bear some similarity to those on
Earth, other times it is described as encounters with various archetypal
beings, or as moving through a sequence of non-ordinary states of
consciousness (NOSC). In some cultures they believe the soul reaches
a temporary realm in the Beyond, such as the Christian purgatory or
the lokas of Tibetan Buddhism, in others, an eternal abode—heaven,
hell, paradise, or the sun realm.
Reincarnation. Many
cultures have independently developed a belief system in reincarnation
that includes return of the unit of consciousness to another physical
lifetime on Earth. The concept of karma and reincarnation represents
a cornerstone of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism,
the Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, and Taoism. Similar ideas can be found
in such geographically, historically, and culturally diverse groups
as various African tribes, American Indians, pre-Columbian cultures,
the Polynesian kahunas, practitioners of the Brazilian Umbanda, the
Gauls, and the Druids. In ancient Greece, several important schools
of thought subscribed to it; among these were the Pythagoreans, the
Orphics, and the Platonists. This doctrine was also adopted by the
Essenes, the Pharisees, the Karaites, and other Jewish and semi-Jewish
groups, and it formed an important part of the kabbalistic theology
of medieval Jewry. It was also held by the Neoplatonists and Gnostics.
Maps for the soul’s journey. Pre-industrial societies
thus seemed to agree that death was not the ultimate defeat and end
of everything, but an important transition. The experiences associated
with death were seen as visits to important dimensions of reality
that deserved to be experienced, studied, and carefully mapped. The
dying were familiar with the eschatological cartographies of their
cultures, whether these were shamanic maps of the funeral landscapes
or sophisticated descriptions of the Eastern spiritual systems, such
as those found in the Tibetan Bardo Thödol. This important
text of Tibetan Buddhism represents an interesting counterpoint to
the exclusive pragmatic emphasis on productive life and denial of
death characterizing the Western civilization. It describes the time
of death as a unique opportunity for spiritual liberation from the
cycles of death and rebirth and a period that determines our next
incarnation, if we do not achieve liberation. In this context, it
is possible to see the intermediate state between lives (bardo) as
being in a way more important than incarnate existence. It would be
prudent, then, to prepare for this time by systematic practice during
our lifetime.
Death as part of life. Another important
aspect of ancient and pre-industrial cultures that colors the experience
of dying is their acceptance of death as an integral part of life.
Throughout their life, people living in these cultures get used to
spending time around dying people, handling corpses, observing cremation,
and living with their remnants. For a Westerner, a visit to a place
like Benares where this attitude is expressed in its extreme form
can be a profoundly shattering experience. In addition, dying people
in pre-industrial cultures typically die in the context of an extended
family, clan, or tribe. They thus can receive meaningful emotional
support from people whom they intimately know. It is also important
to mention powerful rituals conducted at the time of death designed
to assist individuals facing the ultimate transition, or even specific
guidance of the dying, such as the approach described in the Bardo
Thödol.
Experiential Training
An extremely important factor influencing the attitude toward death
and the experience of dying has been the existence of various forms
of experiential training for dying involving NOSC.
Shamanism. The oldest among them is the practice of shamanism, the most ancient
religion and healing art of humanity, the roots of which reach far
back into the Paleolithic era. Shamanism is not only ancient, but
also universal; it can be found in North and South America, in Europe,
Africa, Asia, Australia, and Polynesia. Shamanism is intimately connected
with NOSC, as well as with death and dying. The career of many shamans
begins with the "shamanic illness", a spontaneous initiatory crisis
conducive to profound healing and psychospiritual transformation.
It is a visionary journey involving a visit to the underworld, painful
and frightening ordeals, and an experience of psychological death
and rebirth followed by ascent into supernal realms. In this experience,
the novice shaman connects to the forces of nature and to the animal
realm and learns how to diagnose and heal diseases. The knowledge
of the realm of death acquired during this transformation makes it
possible for the shaman to move freely back and forth and mediate
these journeys for other people.
Rites of passage. Anthropologists have also described rites of passage, elaborate rituals
conducted by various aboriginal cultures at the time of important
biological and social transitions, such as birth, circumcision, puberty,
marriage, and dying. They employ powerful mind-altering technologies
and the experiences induced by them revolve around the triad birth-sex-death.
Their symbolism involves different combinations of perinatal and transpersonal
elements. Clinical work with psychedelics and various non-drug experiential
approaches (such as the Holotropic Breathwork)1 has helped us to understand
these events and appreciate their importance for individuals and human
groups.
Ancient mysteries. Closely related to the
rites of passage were the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth,
complex sacred and secret procedures that were also using powerful
mind-altering techniques. They were particularly prevalent in the
Mediterranean area, as exemplified by the Babylonian ceremonies of
Inanna and Tammuz, the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris, the
Orphic Cult, the Bacchanalia, the Eleusinian mysteries, the Corybantic
rites, and the mysteries of Attis and Adonis. The mysteries were based
on mythological stories of deities that symbolize death and rebirth.
The most famous of them were the Eleusinian mysteries conducted near
Athens every five years without interruption for a period of almost
2,000 years. According to a modern study by Wasson, Hofmann, and Ruck,
the ritual potion ("kykeon") used in these mysteries contained ergot
preparations related closely to LSD.2
Sacred technologies. Of particular interest for transpersonally oriented researchers is
the sacred literature of the various mystical traditions and the great
spiritual philosophies of the East. Here belong the various systems
of yoga, the theory and practice of Buddhism, Taoism, the Tibetan
Vajrayana, Sufism, Christian mysticism, the Kabbalah, and many others.
These systems developed effective forms of prayer, meditation, movement
meditation, breathing exercise, and other powerful techniques for
inducing NOSC with profound spiritual components. Like the experiences
of the shamans, initiates in the rites of passage, and neophytes in
ancient mysteries, these procedures offered the possibility of confronting
one’s impermanence and mortality, transcending the fear of death,
and radically transforming one’s being in the world.
Ancient
books of the dead. The description of the resources available
to dying people in pre-industrial cultures would not be complete without
mentioning the books of the dead, such as the Tibetan Bardo Thödol,
the Egyptian Pert em hru, the Aztec Codex Borgia, or
the European Ars moriendi.
When the ancient books of the dead first came to the attention of
Western scholars, they were considered to be fictitious descriptions
of the posthumous journey of the soul, and, as such, wishful fabrications
of people who were unable to accept the grim reality of death. They
were put in the same category as fairy tales—imaginary creations of
human fantasy that had definite artistic beauty, but no relevance
for everyday reality.
However, a deeper study of these texts revealed that they had been
used as guides in the context of sacred mysteries and of spiritual
practice and very likely described the experiences of the initiates
and practitioners. From this new perspective, presenting the books
of the dead as manuals for the dying appeared to be simply a clever
disguise invented by the priests to obscure their real function and
protect their deeper esoteric meaning and message from the uninitiated.
However the exact nature of the procedures used by the ancient spiritual
systems to induce these states remains an unexplored area.
Modern research focusing on NOSC brought unexpected new insights into
this problem area. Systematic study of the experiences in psychedelic
sessions, powerful non-drug forms of psychotherapy, and spontaneously
occurring psychospiritual crises showed that in all these situations,
people can encounter an entire spectrum of unusual experiences, including
sequences of agony and dying, passing through hell, facing divine
judgment, being reborn, reaching the celestial realms, and confronting
memories from previous incarnations. These states were strikingly
similar to those described in the eschatological texts of ancient
and pre-industrial cultures.
Another missing piece of the puzzle was provided by thanatology, the
new scientific discipline specifically studying death and dying. Thanatological
studies of near-death states by people such as Raymond Moody,3 Kenneth
Ring,4 Michael Sabom,5 Bruce Greyson and Charles Flynn 6 showed that
the experiences associated with life-threatening situations bear a
deep resemblance to the descriptions from the ancient books of the
dead, as well as those reported by subjects in psychedelic sessions
and modern experiential psychotherapy.
It has thus become clear that the ancient eschatological texts are
actually maps of the inner territories of the psyche encountered in
profound NOSC, including those associated with biological dying.7
The experiences involved seem to transcend race and culture and originate
in the collective unconscious as described by C. G. Jung. It is possible
to spend one’s entire lifetime without ever experiencing these realms
or even without being aware of their existence, until one is catapulted
into them at the time of biological death. However, for some people
this experiential area becomes available during their lifetime in
a variety of situations including psychedelic sessions or some other
powerful forms of self-exploration, serious spiritual practice, participation
in shamanic rituals, or during spontaneous psycho-spiritual crises.
This opens up for them the possibility of experiential exploration
of these territories of the psyche on their own terms so that the
encounter with death does not come as a complete surprise when it
is imposed on them at the time of biological demise.
The Austrian Augustinian monk Abraham a Sancta Clara, who lived in
the seventeenth century, expressed in a succinct way the importance
of the experiential practice of dying: "The man who dies before he
dies does not die when he dies." This "dying before dying" has two
important consequences: It liberates the individual from the fear
of death and changes his or her attitude toward it, as well as influences
the actual experience of dying at the time of the biological demise.
However, this elimination of the fear of death also transforms the
individual’s way of being in the world. For this reason, there is
no fundamental difference between the preparation for death and the
practice of dying, on the one hand, and spiritual practice leading
to enlightenment, on the other. This is the reason why the ancient
books of the dead could be used in both situations.
Let us now briefly review the observations from various fields of
research that challenge the materialistic understanding, according
to which biological death represents the final end of existence and
of all conscious activity. In any exploration of this kind, it is
important to keep an open mind and focus as much as possible only
on the facts of observation. An unshakeable commitment to the existing
paradigm (held by many mainstream scientists) is an attitude well
known from fundamentalist religions. Unlike scientism, science in
the true sense of the word is open to unbiased investigation of any
existing phenomena. With this in mind, we can divide the evidence
into two categories:
1. Experiences and observations that challenge the traditional understanding
of the nature of consciousness and its relationship to matter.
2. Experiences and observations specifically related to the understanding
of death and survival of consciousness.
Challenging Conventional
Concepts
The work with NOSC has generated a vast body of evidence that forms
a serious challenge for the Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm of materialistic
science. Most of the challenging data are related to transpersonal
phenomena that represent an important part of the spectrum of experiences
observed in NOSC. They suggest an urgent need for a radical revision
of our current concepts of the nature of consciousness and its relationship
to matter and the brain. Since the materialistic paradigm of Western
science has been a major obstacle for any objective evaluation of
the data describing the events occurring at the time of death, the
study of transpersonal experiences has an indirect relevance for thanatology.
Transcending space and time. In transpersonal experiences,
it is possible to transcend the usual limitations of the bodyego,
space, and linear time. The disappearance of spatial boundaries can
lead to authentic and convincing identifications with other people,
animals of different species, plant life, and even inorganic materials
and processes. One can also transcend the temporal boundaries and
experience episodes from the lives of one’s human and animal ancestors,
as well as collective, racial, and karmic memories.
Archetypal
domains. In addition, transpersonal experiences can take us into
the archetypal domains of the collective unconscious and mediate encounters
with blissful and wrathful deities of various cultures and visits
to mythological realms. In all these types of experiences, it is possible
to access entirely new information that by far surpasses anything
that we obtained earlier through the conventional channels.
Theta consciousness. The study of consciousness that can extend
beyond the body—William Roll’s "theta consciousness" or the "long
body" of the Iroquois—is extremely important for the issue of survival,
since it is this part of human personality that would be likely to
survive death.
Field of consciousness. According to
materialistic science, any memory requires a material substrate, such
as the neuronal network in the brain or the DNA molecules of the genes.
However, it is impossible to imagine any material medium for the information
conveyed by various forms of transpersonal experiences described above.
This information clearly has not been acquired during the individual’s
lifetime through the conventional means, that is by sensory perception.
It seems to exist independently of matter and to be contained in the
field of consciousness itself, or in some other types of fields that
cannot be detected by our scientific instruments. The observations
from the study of transpersonal experiences are supported by evidence
that comes from other avenues of research. Challenging the basic metaphysical
assumptions of Cartesian-Newtonian thinking, scientists like Rupert
Sheldrake8 seriously explore such possibilities as "memory without
a material substrate" and "morphogenetic fields".
Traditional academic science describes human beings as highly developed
animals and biological thinking machines. Experienced and studied
in the everyday state of consciousness, we appear to be Newtonian
objects made of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, and organs. However,
transpersonal experiences clearly show that each of us can also manifest
the properties of a field of consciousness that transcends space,
time, and linear causality. The complete new formula, remotely reminiscent
of the wave-particle paradox in modern physics, thus describes humans
as paradoxical beings who have two complementary aspects: They can
show properties of Newtonian objects and also those of infinite fields
of consciousness. The appropriateness of each of these descriptions
depends on the state of consciousness in which these observations
are made. Physical death then seems to terminate one half of this
definition, while the other comes into full expression.
A
Look at the Data
Researchers have reported a variety of interesting phenomena which
challenge conventional notions of death and survival. These fall into
two broad categories: 1) phenomena on the threshold of death and 2)
past-life experiences.
1. Phenomena on the Threshold of
Death
Apparitions. Numerous visions of people
who had just died have been reported by their relatives, friends,
and acquaintances. It has been found that such visions show statistically
significant correlation with distantly occurring deaths of the appearing
people within a twelve-hour period.9
Unexplained events. There also exist reports of unexplained physical events occurring
at the time of death, such as watches stopping and starting, bells
ringing, paintings or photographs falling off the wall, that seem
to announce a person’s death.10
Death-bed visions. Individuals approaching death often experience encounters with their
dead relatives who seem to welcome them to the next world. These deathbed
visions are authentic and convincing; they are often followed by a
state of euphoria and seem to ease the transition. A number of cases
have been reported in which a dying individual has a vision of a person
about whose death he or she did not know.
Near-death experiences. Of particular interest are near-death experiences (NDEs) that occur
in about one-third of the people who encounter various forms of life-threatening
situations, such as car accidents, near-drowning, heart attacks, or
cardiac arrests during operations. Raymond Moody,3 Kenneth Ring,4
Michael Sabom,5 Bruce Greyson,6 and others have done extensive research
of this phenomenon and have described a characteristic experiential
pattern that typically includes a life-review, passage through a dark
tunnel, personal judgment with ethical evaluation of one’s life, encounter
with a radiant divine being, and visit to various transcendental realms.
Less frequent are painful, anxiety-provoking, and infernal types of
NDEs.
Psychedelic therapies. In our program of psychedelic
therapy with terminal cancer patients, conducted at the Maryland Psychiatric
Research Center in Baltimore, we were able to obtain some evidence
about the similarity of NDEs with experiences induced by psychedelic
substances. We observed several patients who had first psychedelic
experiences and later an actual NDE when their disease progressed
(for example, a cardiac arrest during an operation). They reported
that these situations were very similar and described the psychedelic
sessions as an invaluable experiential training for dying.11
OOBEs with confirmed ESP of the environment are of special importance
for the problem of consciousness after death, since they demonstrate
the possibility of consciousness operating independently of the body.
According to the Western materialistic worldview, consciousness is
a product of the neurophysiological processes in the brain and it
is absurd to think that consciousness could detach itself from the
body and maintain its sensory capacity. Yet this is precisely what
occurs in many well-documented cases of OOBEs. Naturally, people who
have had an OOBE might have come close to death, but they did not
really die. However, it seems reasonable to infer that if consciousness
can function independently of the body during one’s lifetime, it could
be able to do the same after death.
2. Past-Life Experiences
There exists a category of transpersonal experiences that has very
direct relevance for the problem of survival of consciousness after
death. It involves reliving or remembering vivid episodes from other
historical periods and various parts of the world. The historical
and geographical universality of these experiences suggests that they
represent a very important cultural phenomenon. They also have critical
implications for understanding the nature of consciousness, psyche,
and human beings and for the theory and practice of psychiatry, psychology,
and psychotherapy. For Hindus, Buddhists, and also for open-minded
and knowledgeable consciousness researchers, reincarnation is not
a matter of belief, but an empirical issue, based on a variety of
experiences and observations. According to Christopher Bache, the
evidence in this area is extremely rich and extraordinary.14 Careful
study of the amassed evidence is absolutely necessary to make any
valid conclusions in this area. As we will discuss later, the beliefs
concerning the issue of reincarnation have great ethical impact on
human life and our relationship to the world.
Past-life
memories in children. Many instances exist of small children who
seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body,
another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually
spontaneously shortly after these children begin to talk. They often
present various complications in the life of these children and can
be even associated with "carry-over pathologies", such as phobias,
strange reactions to certain people, or various idiosyncrasies. Cases
like these have been described by child psychiatrists. Access to these
memories usually disappears between the ages of five and eight.
Ian Stevenson, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia
in Charlottesville, has conducted meticulous studies of more than
three thousand such cases (see his books Twenty Cases Suggestive
of Reincarnation, Unlearned Language, and Children Who Remember Previous
Lives15), reporting only those that met his high research standards.
Birthmarks. Possibly the strongest evidence in support
of the reincarnation hypothesis is the incidence of striking birthmarks
that reflect injuries and other events from the remembered life. Stevenson’s
cases were not only from "primitive", "exotic" cultures with a priori
belief in reincarnation, but also from Western countries, including
Great Britain and the USA. His research meets high standards and received
considerable esteem. In 1977, the Journal of Nervous and Mental
Diseases devoted almost an entire issue to this subject and the
work was reviewed in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Past-life memories in adults. Spontaneous vivid reliving
of past-life memories occurs most frequently during spontaneous episodes
of NOSC (which may be classed as spiritual emergencies); however,
various degrees of remembering can also happen in more or less ordinary
states of consciousness in the circumstances of everyday life. Academic
psychiatry and current theories of personality are based on the "one-timer
view". Traditional professionals are aware of the existence of past-life
experiences, but treat them indiscriminately as indications of serious
psychopathology.
Past-life experiences can be elicited by a wide variety of techniques
that mediate access to deep levels of the psyche, such as meditation,
hypnosis, psychedelic substances, sensory isolation, bodywork, and
various powerful experiential psychotherapies (primal therapy, rebirthing,
or Holotropic Breathwork). They often appear unsolicited in sessions
with therapists who do not aim for them and do not even believe in
them, catching them completely off guard. Their emergence is also
completely independent of the subject’s previous philosophical and
religious belief system. In addition, past-life experiences occur
on the same continuum with accurate memories from adolescence, childhood,
infancy, birth, and prenatal memories that can be regularly reliably
verified; sometimes they coexist or alternate with them.16
There are important reasons to assume that past-life experiences are
authentic phenomena sui generis that have important implications for
psychology and psychotherapy because of their heuristic and therapeutic
potential:
1. They feel extremely real and authentic and often mediate access
to accurate information about historical periods, cultures, and even
historical events that the individual could not have acquired through
ordinary channels.
2. In some instances, the accuracy of these memories can be objectively
verified, sometimes with remarkable detail.
3. They are often involved in pathodynamics of various emotional,
psychosomatic, and interpersonal problems. It seems to matter little
to the psyche whether the pathogenic forces are related to events
from ancient Egypt, Nazi Germany, prenatal life, birth of the individual,
or from the infancy and childhood in the present lifetime.
4. They have a great therapeutic potential, more powerful than memories
from the present lifetime.
5. They are often associated with inexplicable meaningful synchronicities.
The criteria for verification are the same as those for determining
what happened last year: Identify specific memories and secure independent
evidence for at least some of them. Naturally, past-life memories
are more difficult to verify. However, I have myself observed and
published several remarkable cases, where most unusual aspects of
such experiences could be verified by independent historical research.17
Implications of the Research
The research of the psychological, philosophical, and spiritual aspects
of death and dying discussed in this paper has considerable theoretical
and practical implications. The experiences and observations I have
explored certainly are not an unequivocal "proof" of survival of consciousness
after death, of the existence of astral realms inhabited by discarnate
beings, or of reincarnation of the individual unit of consciousness
and continuation of its physical existence in another lifetime. It
is possible to imagine other types of interpretation of the same data,
such as extraordinary paranormal capacities of human consciousness
(superpsi) or the Hindu concept of the universe as lila, the
divine play of consciousness of the cosmic creative principle.
However, one thing seems to be clear: None of the interpretations
based on careful analysis of these data would be compatible with the
Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm of Western materialistic science. Systematic
examination and unbiased evaluation of this material would necessarily
result in an entirely new understanding of the nature of consciousness,
its role in the universal scheme of things, and its relationship to
matter and, more specifically, the brain. Mainstream academic science
has been defending, often quite aggressively and authoritatively,
its basic metaphysical assumption that human consciousness is the
product of neurophysiological processes in the brain and is fully
contained inside the skull. This position inherited from seventeenth
century philosophy and science has thus far been impervious to modern
discoveries ranging from transpersonal psychology and various areas
of consciousness research to quantum-relativistic physics. It can
be maintained only by systematic suppression of a vast amount of data
from various disciplines, a basic strategy that is characteristic
for fundamentalist religions, but one that should not exist in science.
Besides their theoretical relevance, the issues discussed in this
article have great practical significance. I have explored at some
length in other publications16,17 the importance of death for psychiatry,
psychology, and psychotherapy. Our past encounters with death in the
form of vital threats during our postnatal history, the trauma of
birth, and embryonal existence are deeply imprinted in our unconscious.
In addition, the motif of death plays an important role in the transpersonal
domain of the human psyche in connection with powerful archetypal
and karmic material. In all these varieties, the theme of death and
dying contributes significantly to the development of emotional and
psychosomatic disorders.
Conversely, confronting this material and coming to terms with the
fear of death is conducive to healing, positive personality transformation,
and consciousness evolution. As we discussed in connection with the
ancient mysteries of death and rebirth, this "dying before dying"
influences deeply the quality of life and the basic strategy of existence.
It reduces irrational drives ("rat race" or "treadmill" type of existence)
and increases the ability to live in the present and to enjoy simple
life activities. Another important consequence of freeing oneself
from the fear of death is a radical opening to spirituality of a universal
and non-denominational type. This tends to occur whether the encounter
with death happens during a real brush with death in an NDE, or in
a purely psychological way, such as in meditation, experiential therapy,
or a spontaneous psychospiritual crisis (spiritual emergency).
In conclusion, I would like to mention briefly some of the broadest
possible implications of this material. Whether or not we believe
in survival of consciousness after death, reincarnation, and karma,
it has very serious implications for our behavior. The idea that belief
in immortality has profound moral implications can be found already
in Plato, who in Laws has Socrates say that disconcern for
the postmortem consequences of one’s deeds would be "a boon to the
wicked". Modern authors such as Alan Harrington18 and Ernest Becker19
have emphasized that massive denial of death leads to social pathologies
that have dangerous consequences for humanity. Modern consciousness
research certainly supports this point of view.17
At a time when a combination of unbridled greed, malignant aggression,
and existence of weapons of mass destruction threatens the survival
of humanity and possibly life on this planet, we should seriously
consider any avenue that offers some hope. While this is not a sufficient
reason for embracing uncritically the material suggesting survival
of consciousness after death, it should be an additional incentive
for reviewing the existing data with an open mind and in the spirit
of true science. The same applies to the powerful experiential technologies
involving NOSC that make it possible to confront the fear of death
and can facilitate deep positive personality changes and spiritual
opening. A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of
consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global
crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.
— S. G.
Note & References
1. Holotropic Breathwork is a therapeutic modality developed by Stanislav
Grof which induces psychedelic states through directed deep and rapid
breathing coordinated with dramatic sounds and rhythms.
2. G. Wasson, A. Hofmann, and C.A.P. Ruck, The Road to Eleusis:
Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1978).
3. R. Moody, Life After Life (Bantam, 1975); Reunions (Villard Books, 1993).
4. K. Ring, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death
Experience (Quill, 1982); and Heading Toward Omega: In Search
of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (Quill, 1985).
5. M. Sabom, Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation (Harper & Row, 1982).
6. B. Greyson and C. P. Flynn (Eds.), The Near-Death Experience:
Problems, Prospects, Perspectives (Charles C. Thomas, 1984).
7. S. Grof, Books of the Dead (Thames and Hudson, 1994).
8. R. Sheldrake, A New Science of Life (J. P. Tarcher, 1981).
9. H. Sidgwick et al., "Report on the Census of Hallucinations", Proceedings
of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 10, 245-51, 1894.
10. E. Bozzano, Dei Fenomeni di Telekinesia in Rapporto con Eventi
di Morti (Casa Editrice Europa, 1948).
11. S. Grof and J. Halifax, The Human Encounter with Death (E. P. Dutton, 1977).
12. C. Tart, "A Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-Body Phenomena", Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 62:3-27, 1968.
13. K. Osis and D. McCormick, "Kinetic Effects at the Ostensible Location
of an Out-of-Body Projection During Perceptual Testing", Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research, 74:319-24, 1980.
14. C. Bache, Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life (Paragon Press, 1988).
15. I. Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (University Press of Virginia, 1966); Unlearned Language (University
Press of Virginia, 1984); and Children Who Remember Previous Lives (University Press of Virginia, 1987).
16. S. Grof, The Adventure of Self-Discovery (State University
of New York Press, 1988), and The Holotropic Mind (HarperSanFrancisco,
1992).
17. S. Grof, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence
in Psychotherapy (State University of New York Press, 1985).
18. A. Harrington, The Immortalist (Celestial Arts, 1969).
19. E. Becker, The Denial of Death (The Free Press, 1973).
|
|
