Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon, has published a book “Proof of Heaven” that purports to show his personal view of the afterlife. Alexander says that he was a skeptic until he fell into a coma in 2008 with meningitis. He then claims to have experienced consciousness after death. He describes how he found himself greeted by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a “place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones” and “shimmering beings.” He then came out of the coma . . . and eventually wrote a book.
Alexander insists that it was only later that he considered the beings that he saw might be angels but such “words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms.” He also describes a “huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. the sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn’t get you wet.”
What is most striking about this account is the acceptance of the memory as real as opposed to his own generated images during his coma. The fact that the images are so stereotypical would seem to raise this possibility. Experts like Dr. Bruce Greyson have found that electrical stimulation of angular gyrus in the brain creates the same (though not necessary all) of the visions described in out of body or near death experiences including a light in the distance and even out of body visions. The suggestion is that these images are the result of the brain misfiring under stress.
Likewise, Swiss researchers were able to trigger (through electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe) a patient seeing herself lying in bed from from above and experience a sense of floating near the ceiling. Of course, the ability to reproduce such sensations does not conclusively disprove accounts like Alexander’s book.
Alexander gave his account on this PBS “Wormhole” segment where he describes the realization that he was a spot on a butterfly wing in his out of body experience:
What do you think about these accounts?
Source: Telegraph
JCTheBigTree 1, October 16, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Idealist “Well, I swore off of MJ after a mild trip which left me realizing that there was another life than the one that I conventionally pursued like many others do. Make your choice.
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Quite the story.
Idealist “Well, I swore off of MJ after a mild trip which left me realizing that there was another life than the one that I conventionally pursued like many others do. Make your choice.
Your experience sounds a lot deeper. But oddly related to CBT which has the goal of helping you experience that “thoughts” are just thought, not reality as you think they are and are guided by them.
Where can one find a guide for such a trip?
They say that all trips of whatever cause should be guided. Be it buddhism or drug based.”
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Interestingly enough, my last couple trips on MJ have been quite flat and boring. I have always enjoy the realizations from the perspective I’ve had while on MJ, but the most recent realization is that the things I’m looking for in MJ (peace of mind, calm, physical relaxation, et al) can be had without MJ, with practice… Meditation, yoga, and other practices can yield a feeling of ‘high’ in a much more concrete and clear manner, without the side effects of MJ. But the key is practice… MJ is the short cut, but short cutting practice in any discipline rarely leads to long term success & result.
In short, while MJ has provided great perspective on who I was (A), who I want to be (B), and what I need to do to get from A to B it will not, in and of itself, actually get me there. I’ve realized that there is a ‘Laffer Curve’ effect, by which there comes a point when more leads to a dimished effect. So by doing it far less often than I have, I gain far more from it.
As I mentioned in one of my posts, entheogens have the ability to provide a tool to those who use them intelligently and for purpose, beyond simply getting high. Many researchers in places such as Harvard and Cambridge are showing how entheogens can have profound positive influence when used in aiding CBT.
Terminal cancer patients are one group of individuals that researchers are focusing on, and have been showing that psylocibin mushrooms have profound^2 (I cannot think of a word that provides enough emphasis, so I am squaring profound) results in how those individuals perceive the reality they face and the calm that is provided. PTSD suffers are also realizing profound changes from such mushrooms. Along with depression, bi-polar, and addiction sufferers.
More important, in my opinion, that ‘guide’ is ‘set and setting’. The location, atmosphere, and people/things around you can and will have great affect. Personally, out of my few trips sitting in the woods alone with a small campfire is the ultimate set and setting. My first trip was profound, until a friend and fellow tripper started recalling the small plane crash that took his parents life while he was a near infant, I then became much more aware of the ‘reality’ around me and ultimately very worried for my friend. However, He says he is much more at peace with his history because of that trip…I’m glad to have been able to help guide him through it, though it would have been easier had I been sober.
Where to find a ‘guide’. Again depending on your state a trusted, understanding & sober friend can be an excellent guide. If you start to have a bad trip, they can calmly talk you through it. Trusted to help you and not eff with you (eg “you’re trapped in a box” as I once saw someone tell a kid in college who then proceeded to try to fight his way out of the box with bad results).
You can also go to Peru. Search National Geographic for an article/video of Shamans and Ayuhuasca in Peru, maybe from 2006 or
2007. It is a very good article that details a trip to Peru and the results of a week of fasting, ayuhuasca use, shamanism and the authors subsequent relief from depression and other personal demons. The article also lists several lodges and American travel companies you can trust to bring you to real shamans and lodges you can trust. There are ‘knock-offs’ in Peru and they are to be avoided.
he is just another man trying to decode a book that was written less than two thousand years ago by people trying to do the same. if he had died he would know what the mistakes are in the Bibles. there are many versions.
lotta,
Just read your post from 10:46am today … I also experimented with dreams and had some excellent results.
My favorite exercise is to condition myself to act in a certain manner when experiencing a nightmare in that I discipline myself to turn and face that which is frightening me and demand a gift. The results are amazing. If the nightmare wakes me up before I’ve had the opportunity to face the person, place, thing then I close my eyes and put myself consciously back in the dream to demand the gift.
The theory behind all this is that dreams are communications from the subconscious and demanding a gift is demanding an answer to the dilemma posed by the nightmare. It really does work.