The Near Death Experience: Spooky Tales or Proof of Life After Death?

Everyone has heard of the “near death experience,” or NDE for short. The NDE happens so often it is almost commonplace. The experience happens to people who suffer some accident or physical trauma that puts them at the point of death. It involves a feeling of leaving the body, of looking down at their own sleeping form from above. Some also see a bright light and experience moving through a long tunnel towards that light. It is common for NDE patients to have a “life review,” wherein they are made to remember the major events of their lives, the successes and the failures. They often meet a figure in white garments who greets them into the light, and tells them that their time is not yet, to return to the land of the living.

For most of us who hope there is life after death, such stories are comforting. However, they are “anecdotal,” that is, personal stories that cannot be evaluated scientifically or objectively.

I once worked with a woman in an accounting firm, whom I will call “Sandra,” who one day told me about her NDE. She had a miscarriage and something had gone wrong during her period of recuperation at home. During the night she hemorrhaged badly. Her husband was awakened by the warm pool of blood, and found his wife unconscious. Their mattress was soaked with blood. He quickly threw on some clothes and carried his unconscious wife to the car, then rushed her to the hospital.

He exited the car, trying to carry Sandra into the emergency room, when suddenly an ambulance driver saw him struggling and rushed over to help. The ambulance driver, a big, tall man, threw my friend over his shoulder and began running towards the emergency room door, slapping her legs as he did so to stimulate circulation. Sandra remembers the details well, even though she was unconscious. She watched it all happen just over the ambulance driver’s shoulder.

Sandra was wheeled quickly into a surgery room, where she watched the frantic doctors struggling to save her life. That is to say, she watched from the ceiling of the operating room, looking down on her own body and the doctors around her. Her husband tried to come in and the doctors pushed him out. As doctors shouted orders to nurses and transfusion equipment was hurriedly prepared, Sandra felt relaxed, comfortable and unworried. She was surprised by all the fuss, which she felt to be unnecessary.

Sandra did not travel through the tunnel towards a light like many others. She just awakened in her hospital bed and thought, “wow, that was weird!” Later, Sandra verified the details she remembered with her husband and the operating room doctors; the facts all checked out, i.e., they were not merely hallucinations.

A few years ago I read a book called “Closer to the Light: Learning From Near Death Experiences of Children,” by Dr. Melvin Morse, M.D. Dr. Morse treated some children who had nearly died, one by almost drowning in the family swimming pool. When he was examining the children following their recovery, they told him startling stories of a world beyond this one. He later got a research grant and studied the phenomenon in children.

Morse said he thought children would provide interesting data, as they are too young and innocent to be embarrassed by such experiences, and are less likely than adults to color these experiences with previous religious or cultural programming. The result was his fascinating book. I read the book right after my father died, and found it to be a great source of comfort and hope.

Amazon now lists many books on the Near Death Experience. One of the first, if not THE first book on the subject, was Raymond Moody’s “Life After Life.” Moody, if I remember correctly, was teaching at a university where the subject of NDE’s came up. He described the experience to his class and asked them how many of them knew someone who had experienced a NDE. A number of hands shot up. This intrigued Moody, a doctor, who began studying it in depth and eventually writing his ground-breaking book on the subject.

Moody concluded that there are nine experiences common to most people who have had a near death experience. These are:

hearing sounds such as buzzing
a feeling of peace and painlessness
having an out-of-body experience
a feeling of traveling through a tunnel
a feeling of rising into the heavens
seeing people, often dead relatives
meeting a spiritual being such as God
seeing a review of one’s life
feeling a reluctance to return to life

This is a topic I find fascinating.

More on Amazing Coincidence (Synchronicity)

A couple of years back I indulged a longtime interest in coincidences and bought two books on the subject. One was Incredible Coincidences, the Baffling World of Synchronicity by Alan Vaughan. The book was published in 1989 and is now out of print, so I had to buy it through used book dealers via Amazon.com. Alan Vaughan relates various true life strange coincidences in the book but also delves into the theory of coincidences, termed “synchronicity” by Psychologist Carl Jung. Synchronicity is basically meaningful coincidences that happen without cause, i.e. they are acausal. What is really interesting is the implications these phenomena point to, namely, that the human mind is capable of extrordinary things not fully understood, and that the nature of reality is not so cut-and-dried as we might think.

Vaughan’s tales of coincidences are interesting if not fascinating. For example, he tells of a woman in Berekely, California who is locked out of her house and wondering how to get in. Then the postman walks up and hands her a letter from her brother. Inside is a spare key.

A housewife loses her ring in a potato field. Forty years later she is cutting a potato and finds the ring inside.

Most coincidences are not startling, just interesting. The second book I read was What A Coincidence, the Wow Factor in Synchronicity by Susan Watkins. It was a book I found while browsing Amazon.com and sounded interesting, so I ordered it.

Susan relates a number of personal coincidences that are interesting but not necessarily astounding. She notes that coincidences seem to happen in clusters, or sometimes update themselves with the passage of time. As if to illustrate coincidences, she tells about her son Sean who rode a motorcycle (against her wishes). Interesting. I have a son Sean who rode a motorcycle and I nagged him regularly to give it up. Finally he did. Okay, that is not an earth shaking coincidence, just a mildly interesting one.

However, Susan tells of how her son Sean moved to San Francisco in 1989 and lived through the big earthquake that year. While he was there, she looked on a map and was surprised to see that there was a little town called Hollister south of San Francisco. She thought it significant, because she had lived on a street named Hollister. I thought it was pretty significant too, as I was sitting in my backyard in Hollister, California reading about Susan thinking about Hollister, California. She lives on the East Coast. Hollister is a small cow town with about 15,000 residents. It is not well known by any means. Okay Susan, you got my attention. What better way to teach coincidences than by demonstrating one?

We all have stories of coincidences that were meaningful to us. One of my most striking ones happened three years ago. I have a friend named Larry who lives in Gilroy, California. I had been helping him with his tax returns and negotiating with the IRS. Our efforts were difficult but successful. It was a big relief to both of us.

Two weeks later I flew to Seattle, Washington to begin a consulting assignment there. I got off the plane and walked to the rental car area where I was told to take the elevator down. However, I pushed the wrong button and went a floor further down than I should have. When the elevator doors opened, I walked out just as Larry was walking in. He cried, “Gary, what are you doing here?” I said “Larry???”

Larry was there to drop off a rental car after visiting relatives in Seattle. I was there to pick up a rental car. If I had not pushed the wrong elevator button, we would have missed each other completely. The fact that we were there, 800 miles from home, in the same spot at the same time was incredible. Neither of us knew the other would be in Seattle. What are the odds?

Another coincidence of the everyday variety involved my first son, Gary Jr. Gary used to drive a big rig truck up and down the west coast. Starting from northern Washington he would drive all the way to Los Angeles and back. One morning he was driving through the Bay Area and called me on his cell phone. We were yakking it up when Gary asked me where I was. I told him I was stopped at a light at the intersection of Highway 25 and 156. He said, “I’m approaching that intersection now.” I couldn’t see in his direction, as there was a large Pepsi truck on my right side blocking my view of Highway 156. I told Gary, “There’s a big Pepsi truck on my right side.” He replied, “I see it!” Then WHOOSH! His big rig went speeding through the intersection and we saw each other just for a second as he sped out of sight. “I saw you!” he exclaimed. “I saw you too!” I replied.

This was another interesting and meaningful coincidence. Gary Jr. drives a route of 1,500 miles and finds me at the same intersection for a split second in the morning of a workday. If I’d left the house five minutes earlier or five minutes later, we would have missed each other.

I love coincidences and synchronicity. They are like chili peppers in the gruel of life.

Zen and the Art of Happiness

Lately I have noticed that the books I read have a common thread that runs through them all. That thread is an acknowledgement of the infinite power and nature of the Universe. Robert Ringer and Napoleon Hill have described it as the “cosmic catalyst” or “infinite intelligence,” and both described how it can be harnessed for great benefit, particularly material success in life.

The thread also shoots through other books and other topics. Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke wrote a whole book on the mystical experience, i.e. the moment of spiritual realization when mortal man can catch a glimpse of the infinite, his own immortal nature and the interconnectedness of all things. Alan Vaughan and Susan M. Watkins wrote books on synchronicity, which seem to support this interconnectedness, manifested through amazing coincidences in the lives of ordinary people.

I may be wrong, but I see a Zen connection in all of this. Zen is a way of thought and meditation that focuses on the universe, the laws of nature and man’s relationship to them. It seeks to know the essence of man’s nature and his universe and to live in harmony with both. It is not a religion but it is a philosophy. So I ordered my first book on Zen, called Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss. I found it enjoyable and wise. Once again, I saw the thread of this common theme running through it.

Some of the book’s sections bear such compelling titles as What’s True in the Universe, a Change in Outlook, Freedom from the Tyranny of Events, and Healing Your Past. Prentiss even discusses one of my favorite topics, amazing coincidences, calling them the Language of the Universe. Prentiss says that such events have led him to the conclusion that the Universe is both alive and aware and that it communicates with us continuously, though some communications are more obvious than others. This thought provided me with insight into the term “conscious of consciousness.” Let me explain.

A few posts back I wrote about the mystical experience of Harold W. Percival, who described his M.E. as being “conscious of Consciousness.” He wrote “I was conscious of Consciousness as the Ultimate and Absolute Reality….It would be futile to attempt description of the sublime grandeur and power and order and relation in poise of what I was then consicous. Twice during the next fourteen years, for a long time on each occasion, I was conscious of Consciousness.”

Frankly, I didn’t know what Percival meant at the time, but now I think I do. He became aware of the great Conscious Mind that permeates the Universe and all things within it. This ties in nicely with Prentiss’s observation that the Universe is both alive and aware. Whether you want to call this universal mind God or something else, it doesn’t really matter. Naming things usually only serves to limit them.

In his book, Chris Prentiss discussed an ancient Chinese sage known as Lao Tzu, who lived 2500 years ago. Lao Tzu wrote a book of 81 verses that became known as the Tao Te Ching. Tzu’s writings also seek to understand and live in harmony with the natural order. The Tao Te Ching is the most widely translated Chinese work of all time. Okay, that’s interesting, but not enough to get me to buy a book on it. Unless, that is, I happened to come upon one while browsing the book section at Costco while my wife shopped. I found one by Dr. Wayne Dyer on the subject of the Tao Te Ching yesterday and, interpreting it as a message from the Universe, bought it.

The thread continues. I am on the path.

The Strange Near Death Experience of Bert Huffman

Bert Huffman was a friend of mine who shared my interest in Civil War history. We were both Confederate reenactors for the National Civil War Association in San Jose, California. In 1990, the NCWA put on a battle reenactment at Roaring Camp, near Scotts Valley, California. After a reenacted battle, Bert suffered a major heart attack and collapsed on the field. A doctor stepped out of the audience and saved Bert’s life, and later the TV series “Rescue 911″ made an episode about Bert.

After Bert had recovered, I met him at the Hofbrau restaurant off Saratoga Avenue in San Jose for lunch. While we were dining, he confessed to me that he had had a bizarre near death experience while unconscious at Roaring Camp. Fortunately, I keep a journal and recorded his story. Here it is, from the pages of my journal.

Thursday, September 27, 1990: I had lunch with my good friend Bert Huffman today. He is the Captain of the First Virginia Infantry re-enactors regiment of the National Civil War Association, the same regiment of which I also am a member. At the Roaring Camp event last May, Bert suffered a major heart attack right after the first battle and collapsed as the regiments were lining up in front of the spectators, the time after the battles when our commanders give little speeches to the crowd. CPR was administered on the field by some of the people present, and a doctor appeared from the crowd to open an airway; finally electrodes were brought in to shock Bert’s heart into beating again. Clinically, he “died” on the field, becoming a “flatliner” (see my entry of September 19). He “died” twice more in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. His doctor later told him he had “one hell of a constitution” to survive such a major heart attack.

Anyway, today as we were having lunch and discussing NCWA business, he suddenly started telling me about this weird experience he had when he collapsed. With a shock, I realized he was describing a “near death” experience. Bert said he had only told the story to his psychologist, and had  not told it to anyone else for fear of ridicule. But as he lay unconscious on the field, he suddenly rose out of his body and was suspended in air, hovering over it. He looked down and saw his body on the ground. There was no pain, and he  felt perfectly comfortable and at peace. Then he looked to the horizon at a hilltop, and a white mist was pouring down out of the sky over the hilltop. Then he saw a white buffalo running in the air, just over the mist, headed straight at him. It got closer and closer, then lowered its head as if it were going to scoop Bert up with its horns; but when it got close to Bert, it suddenly veered away to Bert’s left, ran about 30 or 40 feet, and looked back at Bert over its shoulder. The mist then began ascending back into the sky, and the buffalo followed it, disappearing from sight.

Bert’s psychologist, James Boyers, was amazed at the story. Boyers’ girlfriend is a full blood Cheyenne Indian, and as it turns out, Bert is 50% Cherokee Indian. Boyers informed Bert that a white buffalo is the same thing as the angel of death to Indians; they call it “great grandfather”, and a white buffalo is sacred to them. Boyers went back to South Dakota with his girlfriend and related Bert’s tale to the Cheyenne medicine men. They said that “great grandfather” did not take Bert’s soul because the spirit has plans for him on earth. They also told Boyers that very few have seen the white buffalo and returned to tell about it. They then smoked the medicine pipe with Boyers in celebration of Bert’s recovery and gave the pipe to Boyers to bring back for Bert to smoke, to complete the ritual. Bert did so, with Boyers, in his office. Bert was unaware of the meaning of the white buffalo prior to this near death experience.

When Bert started telling me this, I said, “Bert, what you are describing is a near death experience. Wait a minute, let me write this down.” Then I started scribbling notes on the back of a piece of paper, which became the above journal entry. I asked Bert if he had seen the movie, “Flatliners.” He said that he had not. Then I told him I had something I wanted to show him, and went to my car to get my binder with my journal in it. I had him read my entry of September 19, as well as the newspaper article that accompanies it. The article describes research being done on children who have had a near death experience, and the seemingly supernatural experiences they describe are strikingly similar and consistent. Bert said he agrees that “death is nothing to fear.” I asked Bert, since he had told almost no one about this experience, why did he suddenly decide to tell me? He said he didn’t know. I told him that I think our souls somehow communicate beyond the limitations of our physical existence, and that this may explain amazing coincidences, so-called “synchronicity”, and mental telepathy. Somehow, in some unexplained way, he knew that it was right to tell me, almost as if he knew that I am interested and have an open mind about the “great beyond”, and that his tale would be heard by sympathetic ears.

***

Back to the present.   About a year later, Bert died of a stroke. Perhaps he rode to Heaven on the back of the White Buffalo. In any case, I believe he is now with God.

Amazing Coincidences – Random Chance or Cosmic Connection?

As I mentioned in my previous post, some believe that everything in the universe is interconnected, and that this interconnection may explain many amazing coincidences.  I love to read about such coincidences, as they stir my sense of wonder and make me aware of the miraculous. 

Two of my favorite amazing coincidences are these:

Swapped Hotel Finds

In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin – a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters – was a good friend of Kupcinet’s. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie – with Kupcinet’s name on it! (Mysteries of the Unexplained)

Paging Mr. Bryson

While on a business trip sometime in the late 1950s, Mr. George D. Bryson stopped and registered at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. After signing the register and being given his key to room 307, he stopped by the mail desk to see if any letters had arrived for him. Indeed there was a letter, the mail girl told him, and handed him an envelope addressed to Mr. George D. Bryson, room 307. This wouldn’t be so odd accept the letter was not for him, but for room 307’s just-previous occupant – another man named George D. Bryson. (Incredible Coincidence, Alan Vaughan)

You can read more examples at the following link.  

Now how could everything be interconnected?  To the human eye, it seems not to be so.  People and things are separate, are they not?  Well yes and no.  All of existence is really an atomic/electrical field of countless atoms and molecules.  What seems solid and separate to us is really a cloud of electromagnetic particles and charges.  How energy travels back and forth through the field is not fully understood.  What seems to be supernatural or paranormal phenomena may simply be natural processes working themselves out.

To Get What You Want: Tap Into the Universal Power Source

Author Robert Ringer often writes about a power in the universe that can be tapped by humans for their benefit. Ringer claims that the power of thought combined with action produces a kind of telepathy. This telepathy “brings a person in contact with the people, things and circumstances that he needs to accomplish his objectives.” It matters not whether the objectives are professional success, finding love or excelling in a sport or a musical instrument. This force can be used to increase one’s chances of getting what he wants.

Ringer indicates that this power, which he calls the “Cosmic Catalyst,” is more than just physical cause-and-effect, but that it has a metaphysical quality too. He believes that all things in the universe are interconnected, something I have believed instinctively for years, and the power of this connection is energized by action, particularly bold action, which can make the desired results appear in one’s life, sometimes at astonishing speed.

This interconnectedness of all things may be the cause of the amazing coincidences that we all experience from time to time. You lift the receiver to call your son and before you can dial, you hear him saying, “hello, hello?” You then realize that you lifted the phone just as he was calling you, even before the phone had a chance to ring. Has that ever happened to you? It has to me.

This mental power has been described by other authors too, like Claude Bristol who wrote the classic self-help book, “The Magic of Believing.” I believe Bristol called it “the Universal Mind.” Napoleon Hill, author of another classic “Think and Grow Rich” also described it. Hill indicated that the great captains of industry, those who built the oil companies, the steel mills and the great railroads in the 19th century also believed in this force.

Many of us might refer to this power source as God, but the force , like electricity, even works for atheists if they are smart enough to use it. There is an old Zen saying that goes: “When the student is ready, the Master will appear.” I think this saying reflects the use of this power. Along the same lines, Napoleon Hill said, “When you’re ready for a thing, it will make its appearance.”

Are you ready for more money? For a new love? For a home of your own?

Use this force for your own benefit. And may the Force be with you!

Pre-Death Visions

Several months ago I reread Dr. Melvin Morse’s book, “Closer to the Light,” about the near death experience in children.  Dr. Morse researched the phenomenon in Seattle around 1990 and came up with a number of interesting cases.  Two different children told him that in the next world they could “double jump.” 

One of the chapters deals with “pre-death visions,” the visions the dying have before they enter the near-death state.  Dr. Morse gives several accounts of dying people seeing dead relatives who come to comfort them or escort them to the next world.  One dying boy told him that he had visited a crystal castle where he met several of his fellow patients who had died before him.  The dying have reported seeing angels, God, and other people who enter their bedrooms to talk to them.

I know of only one person who has had pre-death visions, and that was my own father.  In the weeks before he died, my father told my brother and sister-in-law (with whom he lived) that he kept seeing “people, out of the corners of my eyes.”  Once, when they were watching television together, my father asked my sister-in-law:  “Do you see them?  Do you see those people standing by the fireplace?”  Another time he told her, “I’m seeing those people out of the corners of my eyes again.”

My brother and sister-in-law took my father to the doctor for an EEG (a brain scan).  Nothing unusual was found.

My father died within weeks after these visions.  I have always wondered if they were delusions or actual visitors from the next world, waiting to escort him over the threshhold.  I’m probably a credulous fool, but I tend to believe it was the latter.

Silence: the Voice of God?

I read somewhere that “silence is the voice of God.” I believe it.

A year ago I was taking a walk through some fields filled with yellow grass stubble. It was Fall and there is something about Fall that I always notice but never verbalized before. Fall has a kind of quietness to it, as if all sound is somehow muted. It’s as if nature itself is listening for something, watching and waiting. This always brings a feeling of peace to my soul.

We all hear about the “still, small voice within.” In fact, many philosopers believe that this voice within is God’s usual means of communicating with us. I think we best hear the voice during moments of quietude, when we listen not just with our ears but with our hearts. I guess that’s why there is so much spiritual benefit in meditation. It is the process by which the active and noisy mind is quieted, allowing a higher voice to be heard.

Neale Donald Walsch’s “Conversations With God” Book 1

I read Book 1 of Neale Donald Walsch’s “Conversations With God.” I had started it some months ago, decided it was boring and quit reading.  However, I became intrigued by the boiling anger the book generates in some Christians, so decided to give it another go. 

The book actually became interesting as I got more into the text.  I read some things that were almost profound; other things that were interesting; and some things that I thought were just plain dumb.  Nothing that I read was really earth-shaking.   In general, Walsch’s God (hereinafter referred to as “WG”) simply rehashed a lot of existing philosophy and religious beliefs.  Some of these beliefs come from Christianity or Judaism (the so-called “Abrahamic” faiths) and some came from Buddism, Hinduism or Taoism (the so-called “Brahmic” faiths).  The rest came from Walsch himself.

I will give Walsch a lot of credit for starting a new conversation, if not with God, about God and our concepts of the divine and the infinite.  The danger in this is that it will draw a lot of anger from devout religionists, who already have “the truth” and don’t want it messed with.  They see any new examination into the nature of God as blasphemy and the work of the devil.  I, however, have an open mind.  I think it is a healthy exercise to brush several millennia of dust from ancient religious texts and to reexamine their premises.  Man’s ideas about science, government, business, art and other aspects of culture have continued to evolve over the centuries.  It is only our concepts of the infinite that are fixed and static and not allowed to grow.

I will largely paraphrase what WG says in the book, in order to save space.  Here are some of the things I found intriguing:

1.  WG is pantheistic.  That means that everything is God.  God is not separate from his creation; he is the universe and everything in it.  It means that human beings are part of God and not separate from him.  We are a finite expression of the infinite.  WG doesn’t always do a good job of explaining this, at one point stating that we humans are “Gods.”  That won’t sit well with many readers.  Personally, I don’t have the lightning bolt thing down pat yet.

2.  You existed before this life.  When you took physical form in this world, you caused yourself to forget who you really are.  While in this world of form, your major spiritual quest is to remember and recreate who you really are.

3.  Death is no big deal.  It is failure to doctors, tragedy to those left behind, but relief and release to the soul.  The soul is clear that there is no great tragedy about leaving the body.   We are all immortal right now; immortality is not something you have to earn by following a religious script; we never do die, we only change form.

4.  God is not the vengeful, punitive God that many Jews, Christians and Muslims believe.  There is no Hell.

5.  Souls can reincarnate many times, be born into this world many times.  The decision to do this is made by the soul itself, so it can continue to grow.  Karma is not an obligation of the soul, but an opportunity of the soul to continue to grow, looking at past events and experiences as a measure of that growth.  [This contradicts eastern beliefs that karma is a debt of the soul to be repaid by successive lives on earth.  I like the original concept better.]

6.  Don’t envy someone who is very fortunate nor overly pity someone less fortunate.  “Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by another.  Envy not success, nor pity failure, for you know not what is success or failure in the soul’s reckoning.”  [I found this an interesting concept - that one's lot in life was chosen by his own soul for its own spiritual growth.]

7.  Killing is evil, killing for God is the highest blasphemy.  However, you are not to be either a victim or a martyr; war is sometimes necessary and you have a moral obligation to prevent aggression against others and yourself.

8.  The purpose of life is joy.  WG says “Life should be a joy, a celebration…Four fifths of the world’s people consider life a trial, a tribulation, a time of testing, a karmic debt that must be repaid, a school with harsh lessons that must be learned, and, in general, an experience to be endured while awaiting the real joy, which is after death.”  [I agree with this.  Anything that destroys joy, including various religious beliefs, should be excised and thrown out as rubbish.]

9.  Money is good, not evil, not “the root of all evil.”  Being rich is good – there is nothing spiritually advantageous about poverty and want.

10.  Sex is one of man’s highest joys.  It is not shameful or evil.  Being attracted to the opposite sex is not “committing adultery in your heart,” it is following the dictates of nature that were programmed into us to procreate the human race.

These are some of the ideas I found interesting and worthy of futher study and discussion.  There are others but this will suffice for now.

Some of the ideas of WG that I didn’t like or accept are these:

1.  Man is the greatest source of harm to nature and the environment.  Nonsense; man is part of nature and man’s imprint on nature, for good or bad, is negligible.

2.  Man could immediately end world hunger and cure disease in an instant if he really wanted to.  Balderdash.  This is moon-battery of the worst order.

3.  Man could end war if he really wanted to – all we have to do, all we have ever had to do, is to agree.  Ri-i-i-ght.  All we have to do is reconcile many different cultures, religions, political systems, philosophies and world-views and we can begin beating our swords into plowshares.  When did any two humans ever agree on anything?  This comment is just plain dumb.

4.  There is no such thing as evil – even Hitler went to Heaven.  I have a lot of trouble with this one.  WG implies that there are no consequences for mass murder, tyranny, cruelty and oppression.  Although I do not believe in the vengeful and punitive God nor do I believe in Hell, I find it unjust that Hitler, or others like  him, can merely skate on into paradise at the end of their lives.  Here’s where the older version of karma makes sense – where Hitler may redeem himself through many more lives on earth, experiencing the same horrors he visited upon others, or mitigating such punishment through better deeds.

Conclusions:  Walsch’s book is worth a read.   It does reexamine some religious concepts that need reconsideration.  It should not be considered a religious text or a new religion, nor should it be viewed as a literal expression of God’s mind.  If it helps you along the path to enlightenment and spiritual growth, that’s a good thing, but don’t take it literally.  Reexamining one’s religious beliefs is not a bad thing – it is necessary for your own spiritual growth.

Here’s a quote I found on the web.  I think it says a lot that is related to this post:

God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.  -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Here’s another relevant quote:

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. – Gene Roddenberry

Dick Cavett in the NY Times Discusses an Amazing Coincidence

Here's a story from today's New York Times, by Dick Cavett, about synchronicity, or his own personal amazing coincidence.  It's called "Seriously, What Are the Odds?"

Hat tip:  Teapots Happen

Dead Uncle Fred

I have often wondered if the living can communicate with the dead, and vice versa.  

Carl Jung, the famous analytical psychologist, was very interested in life after death and other spiritual topics.  In his writings he told of a friend who had died and who seemed to contact Jung after death.  Jung said he had a strong inner vision of the man; it was not an apparition or ghost, but merely a strong mental impression.   I had a similar experience when my Uncle Fred passed away.  He was a simple everyday man who was friendly and spiritual.   There was nothing extraordinary about Fred but he seems to have a talent for conveying after-death messages.

When Uncle Fred died, I went to a memorial service at his church.  Just as I walked into the church, I suddenly had a strong inner vision of Fred.  It was so real that I gave it particular notice, and did not summarily dismiss it as a meaningless fantasy.  I saw Uncle Fred's face and it was smiling broadly and he said to me, "It's everything we could have hoped for!"  He was referring to life after death.  I accepted this communication as real.

After the church service, my mother and I went outside and were looking towards the church when suddenly I noticed a very strange cloud overhead.  It was expanding outwards in all directions and was filled with light.  My mother said, "Oh look, it seems to be a message from Fred that he's all right!"  I replied, "I was thinking the same thing."

Later, when discussing the incident with my mother, she stated that she had not seen the lighted cloud but was referring to a white dove that suddenly landed on the cross atop the church.  Apparently, we were both looking at different phenomena at the very same moment and drawing the very same conclusions:  Uncle Fred was giving us a sign that he was okay.

Intrigued, I wondered if it were possible for someone dead to arrange visual phenomena in such a way as to convey messages to the living.  I was thinking about this one morning on the way to work, and I said to Uncle Fred, "Okay, Uncle Fred.  If that was you communicating to us, give me another sign and I will believe you."

At that moment, a car on my right pulled ahead of me and I could clearly see its personalized license plate.  It read UNC FRED.  I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck.

The Mystical Experience: Direct Knowledge of God

Can you know God through the workings of your own mind?  Or do you need an agent, a religious leader, or a book of ancient scriptures to get you there? 

The answers are:  yes, you can know God directly through something called “mysticism.”  No, you don’t need to have an agent or intermediary or ancient book to get you there.  The direct knowledge of God occurs to some people as a flash of insight that is very powerful and thrilling.  This flash of insight is called “the mystical experience.”  

I never thought about it much, but I suppose I am a mystic.  I have had the mystical experience three times in my life.  Each experience happened to me in my youth, while I was earnestly seeking to know God and while I was discussing God with other young men.  However, the most powerful of the three happened to me in June of 1964.  At the time it happened to me, I had never heard of mysticism or the mystical experience.  I only knew that I had experienced something extraordinary, something profound. Some background:  when I was 19 years of age, I was acutely aware of my mortality and horrified at the thought of death.  I had begun a search to find the truth about God, whether or not He existed, and if He did, what He wanted from human beings.  Was there an after life?  What did you have to do to get there? 

In June of 1964, two church buddies accompanied me and my younger brother on a camping trip.  The four of us went to Seacliff, California, where we camped in a tent overlooking the Pacific ocean.  One night we went down to the beach after the sun had set and noticed that the white caps of the incoming tide were no longer white – they were glowing in a beautiful, luminescent blue.  Since I was a biology major at the time, I knew the glowing light was caused by unicellular organisms in the surf, either dynoflagellates or diatoms.  These one-celled marine animals glowed in royal blue, causing the tide to glow blue from their teeming millions.  When we walked on the wet beach, a circle of blue sparkles would erupt around each footstep. It was like walking through sapphires. We were in awe of nature’s beauty.

We sat on a dune overlooking the incoming tide of blue light, looking up at the sky and the moon and the stars.  We began to talk about God and whether He had a plan for man.  That’s when it happened to me.  Suddenly the mortal veil slipped from my eyes and I instantly perceived the divine nature of the universe.  In that moment, all doubt about the existence of a supreme being vanished completely.  God was no longer an abstract idea, but an indisputable fact.  

This cosmic insight lasted only a few moments, but in those moments I perceived and understood eternity, the interrelationship of all things and the fact that there is no death.  I perceived a large multitude of people standing in a far away plain, the people who have died, and was relieved to know that men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin live on.  In those brief moments I lost all fear of death.  I realized that I was as important in the grand scheme as the largest stars or suns, that I existed for a reason.  It was a thrilling revelation and all human fear, doubt and cynicism were burned away by the divine light that flooded my mind. 

I did not feel that I had some kind of magical experience, or that I had learned something new.  I felt as if I had learned something I already knew, but had forgotten.  I felt that this divine truth was always in front of me, but that somehow I couldn’t see it.  For whatever reason, the door to my soul had opened briefly to allow in the light.

I was 19 years old.  I didn’t have a clue what had happened to me, or that the same experience happens to other people too.  I went to bed in my tent that night, listening to the surf crash against the sandy shore, and slept very soundly until morning.

It wasn’t until a few months later that I found out my flash of insight is called “the mystical experience.”  I learned it in a class in philosophy that I took at San Jose State.  My teacher, a Buddhist, told me that there are religious sects in the Far East that spend all their time trying to experience what I had experienced.  These schools of thought constitute something called “Myticism.” They call my kind of experience ”attaining enlightenment,” or “achieving nirvana.”  It was amazing to me: I had the experience and I didn’t even have to go on a diet of bean curd and goat’s milk!  I didn’t have to burn incense or wear saffron robes or shave my head or sit in the full lotus position.  What many eastern monks spend a lifetime trying to experience, I had experienced, with no real effort.  I felt blessed. 

Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) - Ghosts Caught on Tape?

A few years back a movie came out with the title of "White Noise." White noise is the sound of static, or other sounds with a variety of patterns. Good examples of white noise are these: the sounds of rain, wind in the trees, surf crashing on a beach, a water fountain. There have been cases of people listening to "white noise" on electronic recording devices and hearing what appear to be human voices. Some have concluded that these voices are those of disincarnates, or ghosts.

My older brother became interested and began making recordings that he would then analyze and augment with sound software, and discovered several of these voices. It scared the hell out of him. I will tell his story in a future post.

Meanwhile, watch this documentary video that gives the history and background of this phenomenon -- called "Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVP.

The Mystical Experience, Described by Others

Note:  To understand this post I suggest that you first read the prior article above this one.  It explains what the mystical experience is and why it is significant.

This past week I spent a lot of time reading “Cosmic Consciousness,” by Richard Maurice Bucke.  Bucke was an M.D. who had the mystical experience when he was 36 years old.  The experience never repeated itself, but Bucke was so moved by the experience that he decided to research the mystical experience and write a book about others who have had it.  His book was published in 1901.

Bucke wrote of both famous and ordinary people who have had a mystical experience, or as he put it, attained “cosmic consciousness.”  He includes in his study people like Walt Whitman, Plotinus, Socrates, Balzac and others.  Some of these people wrote better descriptions of the experience than others.  I plan to post some of them here.  The best place to start, no doubt, is with Dr. Bucke’s own personal mystical experience.  He writes (describing his experience in the third person):

It was in the early spring at the beginning of his thirty-sixth year.  He and two friends had spent the evening reading Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Browning, and especially Whitman. They parted at midnight, and he had a long drive in a hansom (it was in an English city). His mind deeply under the influences of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the reading and talk of the evening, was calm and peaceful. He was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment.  All at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame colored cloud. For an instant he thought of fire, some sudden conflagration in the great city, the next he knew that the light was within himself.  Directly afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Into his brain streamed one momentary lightning-flash of the Brahmic Splendor which has ever since lightened his life; upon his heart fell one drop of Brahmic Bliss, leaving thenceforward for always an after taste of heaven.

Among other things…he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead matter but a living Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain.  He claims that he learned more within the few seconds during which the illumination lasted that in previous months or even years of study, and that he learned much that no study could ever have taught.

The illumination itself continued not more than a few moments, but its effects proved ineffaceable; it was impossible for him ever to forget what he at that time saw and knew, neither did he, or could he, ever doubt the truth of what was then presented to his mind.

Robert Ringer, in his book “Action,” also talks about the mystical experience and cites one described by Harold W. Percival, who in his book “Thinking and Destiny” wrote:

From November of 1892 I passed through astonishing and crucial experiences, following which, in the spring of 1893, there occured the most extraordinary event of my life.  I had crossed 14th Avenue, in New York City.  Cars and people were hurrying by.  

While stepping up to the northeast corner curbstone, Light, greater than that of myriads of suns opened in the center of my head.  In that instant or point, eternities were apprehended.  There was no time.  Distance and dimensions were not in evidence….I was conscious of Consciousness as the Ultimate and Absolute Reality….It would be futile to attempt description of the sublime grandeur and power and order and relation in poise of what I was then consicous.  

Twice during the next fourteen years, for a long time on each occasion, I was conscious of Consciousness.  But during that time I was conscious of no more than I had been conscious of it in that first moment.

See my description of my own mystical experience in the previous post below.