Let me describe a possible paranormal experiment. This would be a highly unusual type of experiment. It’s based on a host of empirical phenomena that, taken together, imply the potential transformation of a normal person into a paranormally evolved person. The paranormal data doesn’t just stretch your imagination; it invites you to experiment with your consciousness.
This conceivable experiment especially intrigues me. Nowadays all over the world people are reporting near-death experiences (NDEs). Thanks to modern resuscitation technology, people die (heart stops, etc.), but after a short time, minutes, but sometimes much longer, they are brought back to life. And they come back with stories of finding themselves in a world of light, wonder, beauty, transcendent love and universal empathy. This seems to entail a twofold discovery: first, of another world, distinct from our obvious physical world, and second, of the startling fact that upon our physical demise, our conscious selves end up in a super-real, purely mental world.
A world, unlike the world of the living in one respect. It‘s a world of disembodied consciousness, yet with all the colors and feelings of embodied life, and free of the constraints. It is another world, usually described as heaven, pervaded by an omnipresent, unconditional love. Striking data indeed. A discovery of another world, invisible and nonphysical, but no less intensely real, according to the NDE reports.
From what we know of dying, it consists of our consciousness cutting loose from our bodies. In the NDE you die and exit your dead body in a jiffy, and as the data shows you are feeling beyond good. So my thought is this. The other world is nearby. The great mystery is within us. Could anything be nearer, more intimate to our being? We seem to be learning how close we are to a paradise of love. Many stories I’ve heard or read of everyday persons that die and how they find themselves out of their dead bodies, which they note and observe with detachment. In most accounts, at some point there is a lapse into a state of pure love and joyousness. So—the shocking point—the ‘next’ world is terribly near, a heartbeat away.
But if it’s so close, an interesting question comes up. Might we devise a way to pass through the death barrier and sneak inside the afterworld—without having literally to be near death? That is the experiment I would like to devise. Humans since long ago sought to invent methods of breaking loose from the confines of ordinary reality. Those who seriously attempt this extraordinary experiment are people we call mystics, shamans, saints, and yogis. The answer to my question would take us into the lives and practices of the great mind explorers.
Many of their practices are known and familiar such as fasting, meditation, solitude, prayer, breathing exercises, and so on. The practices are oriented around the psychic equivalent of dying, which sounds a bit strange. That is, by withdrawing one’s consciousness from the activities of life, and from one’s bodily functions. To fast, to sit in one position, to focus and/or empty your mind, to alter your patterns of respiration—all these are gestures that mimic some feature of actual death.
The essence of the great experiment consists of detaching one’s consciousness from the plane of life, thus facilitating entry into the nonphysical world that our mental life normally inhabits. Our mental life is a portal to a mental universe from which on occasion we may receive hints, even flashes of insight or inspiration. But for the most part, our experience is dominated by the struggle to survive, and possibly flourish, in our embodied environment.
The more we learn about the hidden dimension that the near-death experience points to, the more exciting looms the prospect of learning how to project ourselves into the next but nearby world that we unconsciously inhabit. We seem to be on the threshold of a new age. A time when we learn to project our consciousness out of our bodies, visit the afterworld, make it a learning expedition, and then return to tell the tale. These new forms of inter-world travel and exploration are bound to become very popular. What do you all think, metaphysical sailors?
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