Shared Near-Death Experience?

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?

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.    

Doors of Transcendence

What happens when we sense being stalled in our lives, trapped, stuck at a place we’re not happy to be?  In spite of the funk, we may sense something new, something higher beckoning us—but to go forward, we need a push, a jolt.

At such times, what can we do? How do we get that push or jolt? Folks from the get-go have tried to figure it out.  If we’re willing to try, there are many ways.  There are many doors to transcendence; many patterns of behavior known to facilitate breakthroughs to higher consciousness.

Tattoos and the Soul

The other morning I went for a haircut.  While the barber was cutting my hair, he and a pal of his were talking excitedly about tattoos, a topic I know nothing about. My barber and his friend were discussing the stigma attached to having  tattoos.  They were saying you get put in a box, classified as odd and possibly dangerous.  Or worse.  Something about it was suspicious, tattooing images and symbols on your body, turning yourself into a walking hieroglyph.