Contrary to some skeptics’ assessment, the near death experiences carry profound spiritual messages to humanity that can transform the individual and the collective. In this article, we see their implications to people who have different dispositions in life.
General
Smitten by a universal spirituality, the NDE people move into a mindset built around the emphasis of the ‘Now’. It makes their life wholesome. They are not interested in booking a place in heaven after death because they see the value of living a life of depth here and now. Anita Moorjani, as one who had a profound NDE, says, heaven is not a place but a state of consciousness. This is not acceptable to the religious people because they depend on the slavery to a system for their ego-satisfaction and security. What Anita says is corroborated by those who go through the experience of Satori – being thrown into the universal consciousness without any triggering factor. (An example of Satori is given by Kurt Friedrichs – visit http://spirituality.yolasite.com/consciousness).
The NDE people do not entertain concepts that divide people into those ‘chosen’ by God and those ‘condemned’ forever. Their psychology is governed by universal love which flows in an unmitigated way towards everyone and everything, treating all manifestations on earth as Divine. People who are conditioned by surrounding belief systems come up with NDEs that support their ideas of heaven and hell. Typically, those people do not talk about the expansive freedom on the other side nor do they emphasize the universal love felt by those uninfluenced by religious conditioning.
People whose NDE makes them understand the natural spirituality, move away from conventional involvements such as religious preaching, politics, gossip and social controversies. They glide into a state of consciousness that is holistic, unitive and soul-oriented than one of sectarian, divisive and ego-oriented attitudes. The guru-disciple syndrome does not attract them nor do they become self-appointed Good Samaritans which is nothing but a matter of pious egoism.
Near death experiences vary in content depending on the individual’s involvement in life up to that point. Those given to reflective attitudes and the associated self-awareness are the ones who receive in-depth messages that transform them into wholesome human beings. People who are strongly influenced by a surrounding belief system experience their own conditioning and remain addicted to those systems after the experience. Most experiences lie in between the above two extremes. However, even the many who practice some religion before the experience turn to be more spiritual and independent rather than continue to practice the religion. Some leave the sectarian religious practices and move towards the more philosophic approaches of the East involving karma and reincarnation.
Dr Melvin Morse, a well-known researcher on NDEs, has the following to say:
“The knowledge that these visionary experiences at the point of death are real and transformative validates us as spiritual beings. These experiences teach us many things, but most important they show us that there is a fountain of life from which all of us spring.
“Human beings have the ability to be inspired by a light which has the power to transform them. We do not have to die to learn from the experience. We only have to be open to its message.”
Towards the end of his book “Transformed by the Light”, Dr Morse devotes a number of pages on the issue of NDE implications to different people.
The primary NDE message is that we are here to love life and not manipulate it to fit our needs in terms of ego-satisfaction and security. This brings in unconditional love towards all living beings irrespective of their identifications with nationality, religion etc. It cannot come through ‘deciding’ to love which would only lead to yet another self-centered activity. The fear of mortality is transformed by the understanding of the fact that there is no ending of the primal self and that there is only a loving transition at that point.
Implications
Now we look into some implications of the NDE messages to people who have different dispositions in life – such as teaching in schools and colleges, medical and non-medical professional involvements, dying patients and hospice workers.
In schools and colleges, we come into close contact with young and grown up children. When we appreciate the NDE messages, we look at all of them as spiritual beings who are moving towards Divinity, each one in one’s own way. We will not try to convert them to our ideas of religion, politics etc nor will we make them conformists according to our ideational outlooks. There would be an unconditional tenderness towards them and we would not subject them to the ‘reward-punishment’ syndrome. Children growing in such an atmosphere would certainly grow to appreciate life’s deeper values and not merely use it for the fulfillment of the ego. They would understand the intrinsic spiritual value of life governed by empathy and camaraderie.
When medical people pay attention to the NDE messages, they can transmit the knowledge to the terminal patients that the process of dying is not painful or scary but spiritual and wondrous. It has been proved that patients under coma are able to see and hear what is going on around them and can emotionally process conversations. So doctors must alert people around the patient to this fact so that they would conduct themselves in a way that would not hurt the patient’s feelings.
There are implications for the surviving family and friends. Telling them about the enormous freedom, love and joy that people experience on the other side can be greatly comforting to them. If such information is given merely from theology, it will not have the power of one’s sensing the fact from understanding NDEs. Death related visions can serve to restore a sense of order and meaning to the universe which is particularly important in facing the death of a child or an untimely death.
The above paragraphs are meant to be heuristic in their approach. Readers who are attracted to the tremendous hidden possibilities in that direction will proceed in their own way to explore further into this remarkable topic. In the very process of that exploration, they will find the transformation taking place in them towards appreciating life and death, leading to deep trust in those two areas.
Related topics are covered in the book “In Quest of the Deeper Self” details of which are given in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com
Gopalakrishnan T. Chandrasekaran was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978; served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.
Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in the southern part of India, with his wife Banumathy. Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com