Leaving the World Together

by Michael Grosso:

A story appeared from the News on my Smartphone.  It read, all caps: “Michigan Couple Married 56 Years Die Hours Apart While Holding Hands”. The report states that Judy and Will Webb, both 77 years old, died a few hours apart, first Will (at 2 a.m.) and then Judy, a few hours later. Was the close timing of their deaths a coincidence?  If it was just a coincidence, it was certainly a meaningful one.

But I think more was involved than mere coincidence.  It turns out that Judy and Will had a very unusual 56 years together.  Apart from the longevity of their marriage, according to daughter MaryBeth, Judy and Will were inseparable, and spent virtually every day of their wedded 56 years together—not just in spirit but in body.  It’s a bit difficult to imagine and I want to call it a miracle, or at least, a wonder of the natural world. I say this not to be cynical, but to point out that we live in distracting times when holding attention on anything is becoming increasingly difficult.

More than a meaningful coincidence, I think that Will’s unconscious acted on his body so that he could follow his wife even if it meant himself dying.  Their mental rapport was more powerful than Will’s immune system. Will was not altogether well, but when Judy got ill, he got seriously ill himself.  According to daughter MaryBeth, “everything that happened to her happened to him in another place”.  While they were separated physically, Will was unconsciously mimicking his wife’s symptoms.  It was the only way they could remain together.  It’s also possible that Judy somehow cooperated in reproducing her symptoms in Will.  Something seems to have arranged it so Will could die more or less with his wife.

Frederic Myers, the poet and great psychical researcher, believed that the deepest kind of love is a form of exalted telepathy—a mental rapport that can transcend distance, physical obstacles, even death—and so it seems in the story of Judy and Will. There are, in fact, many examples of strange coincidences in the timing that people deploy in making their exit from the world.  A favorite of mine is the coincidence that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same Independence Day, July 4, 1826.  It was exactly 50 years since the birth of the nation, the two founders seeming to bow to each other as they stepped off the stage of life into history and eternity.

Shared Near-Death Experience?

by Michael Grosso:

I recently heard a story from somebody who was at the bedside of a dying loved one.   People who come close to death often report extraordinary experiences—a world beyond suddenly opens up to the dying person’s consciousness—a world of light, love, and people who previously had passed.  These experiences are not only a challenge to science but radically change the people who have them.

One aspect of these experiences is rarely reported but is extremely interesting from a theoretical point of view. The person at the bedside of a dying loved one mentioned above had an extraordinary experience. He shared, as he put it, the “journey to the light” joining in the experience of dying person.  The effect of the experience on the dying person was transformative, but the person who shared the experience was also deeply move and changed.   

So here we have a double mystery; first, the transformative effects on people actually near physical death; but the second surprise is that bystanders to the dying person can somehow enter into the transformative space of the dying person.  This is strange because it suggests that a healthy person can, under certain circumstances, temporarily enter the ‘next’ or ‘other’ or ‘after’ world.  This, I suppose, would be like another person entering my dream space while I’m having a dream—could anything be more intimate?

So, how is possible to share the near-death experience of another person?   Clearly, the only way two brains can interact is by means of sensory signaling.  Viewing ourselves as just physical organisms, sharing a near-death experience would be impossible.  In fact, the classic near-death experience itself would be impossible.

We have to look to our minds to understand how sharing a near-death is possible. Assume that telepathy is a fact of nature—the evidence is overwhelming—then telepathy shows how minds can and do directly interact.  So it is possible to ‘enter’ the mind of another.  Sharing a near-death experience with a dying person might be an elaborate form of telepathic rapport.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had an experience in which they seemed to tune into the experience of a dying person.  In my next post, I want to explore the idea of a possible global near-death experience.  (See my The Final Choice: Death or Transcendence? (2018). It is, after all, during supreme stress that higher forms of consciousness can suddenly break open.  As we edge toward increasing global disturbances, we should see signs breaking out everywhere of a new consciousness.

Can We Scare Ourselves To Death?

by Michael Grosso:

A woman once told me a strange story about her husband.  When he was a teenager he stopped at a carnival to consult with a fortune teller.  She told him he was going to have a wonderful life but that he would die when he was 35 years old.  As his 35^th birthday approached, he took ill and by the time he was 35 passed away.  The autopsy indicated there was no explanation of his death.  His death was an extreme example of nocebo, the opposite of placebo: he believed he was going to die, which apparently caused him to die.