The 2012 Bioethics Forum offered two days of thoughtful information-sharing and discussion regarding Final Passages: Research on Near Death & the Experience of Dying.
Designed for the general public, it focused on the sharing of scientific research and the consideration of related social and ethical issues. Many questions related to near death experiences (NDE), dying, and consciousness were addressed by global experts, including:
What is a near death experience (NDE)?
What has scientific research revealed about NDEs?
Are the phenomena associated with NDEs caused simply by chemical
activity in the brain – or is something more going on?
What do NDEs suggest about the possibility of consciousness
continuing after death?
What do we know about the experience of dying? How is this
knowledge shaped by different cultural and spiritual contexts?
What is a “good death”?
How does the study and exploration of mystical experiences and
altered states of consciousness contribute to our understanding of
death and dying?
How do interpretations of NDEs and the experience of death inform
life choices? How can a heightened awareness of death lead to a more
fulfilling life?
How do life choices influence NDEs and the experience of death?
To view and listen to the panel discussion: Click Here
Would you like to understand the deeper meaning of your greatest challenges?
So often, when something “bad” happens, it may appear to be meaningless suffering. But what if your most difficult experiences are actually rich with hidden purpose-purpose that you yourself planned before you were born? Could it be that you chose your life’s circumstances, relationships, and events?
Your Soul’s Plan tells the stories of ten individuals who-like you-planned before birth to experience great challenges. Working with four gifted mediums and channels, author Robert Schwartz discovers what they chose-and why. He presents actual pre-birth planning sessions in which souls discuss their hopes for their upcoming lifetimes. In so doing he opens a window to the other side where we, as eternal beings, design both our trials and our potential triumphs.
Through these remarkable stories of pre-birth planning, you can: Learn why each of us decides to experience such challenges as illness, the death of a loved one, and accidents. Other challenges explored from the perspective of pre-birth planning include being the parent of a handicapped child, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, and alcoholism.
• Understand how you as a soul create your life blueprint
• Consciously use your challenges to foster spiritual growth
• Understand that the people in your life, including your parents and children, are there at your request, motivated by their love for you to play roles that you scripted
• Replace anger, guilt, and blame with forgiveness, acceptance, and peace
• Deepen your appreciation of and gratitude for life as a soul-expanding, evolutionary process
Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born was previously published as Courageous Souls:Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?
Robert Schwartz: Does Our Soul Plan Life’s Challenges Before Birth?
“This is one video conversation that you don’t want to miss. In this interview, I talk with Robert Schwartz, author of Your Soul’s Plan, about how our souls plan our challenges in life on purpose. If you’ve ever wondered why bad things happen to good people, Robert Schwartz shares with us his conclusions about that topic based on years of research.
This video conversation offers hope and understanding about the challenges we meet in life, and it might even leave you with a sense of inner peace and acceptance in the face of your challenges — or at least help you believe there is meaning to your suffering and that you’re not merely a victim of unlucky circumstances. I’m excited to present this conversation to you, so I hope you won’t miss it.” ~ Bob Olson, Afterlife TV http://www.afterlifetv.com
Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born by Robert Schwartz explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, before we’re born for purposes of spiritual growth.
The book contains ten true stories of people who planned physical illness, having disabled children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. The information about their pre-birth plans was obtained by four gifted mediums and channels. The book presents the actual conversations people had with their future parents, children, spouses, friends, and other loved ones when they planned their lives together. For readers, suffering that once seemed purposeless becomes imbued with deep meaning. Wisdom may be acquired in a more conscious manner; feelings of anger, guilt, blame, and victimization are healed and replaced by acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and peace.
Best-Selling Author of twelve books including Life After Life—which has sold over 13 million copies world wide—and Reunions, as well as numerous articles in academic and professional literature. Dr. Moody continues to capture enormous public interest and generate controversy with his ground-breaking work on the near-death experience and what happens when we die.
Award-Winning Author. Dr. Moody received the World Humanitarian Award in Denmark in 1988. He was also honored with a bronze medal in the Human Relations category at the New York Film Festival for the movie version of Life After Life.
World-Renowned Scholar and Researcher. Dr. Moody is the leading authority on the ‘near-death experience’—a phrase he coined in the late seventies. Dr. Moody’s research into the phenomenon of near-death experience had its start in the 1960′s. The New York Times calls him “the father of the near-death experience.”
M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia, 1976
Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1969
M.A. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1967
B.A. with Honors in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1966
Raymond Moody, MD, PhD, who described what he calls “shared death experiences.” This closely related phenomenon to NDEs involves bystanders at someone else’s NDE who report similar experiences to that of the patient. Moody then discussed the implications of the study for understanding the dying process.
Here is another clip featuring Dr. Raymond Moody and his co-author Paul Perry as they discuss shared death experiences, the subject of their latest book, GLIMPSES OF ETERNITY.
The film explores questions surrounding death and what happens after, bridging culture, science and healing. It’s co-produced by the Institute of Noetic Sciences and The Chopra Foundation.
We’re still in production but we just finished a trailer, which will get its premiere public showing at the Sages & Scientists Symposium this weekend.
Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, is President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. As a scientist and anthropologist, she has pioneered clinical, laboratory, and field-based research in the areas of consciousness, human transformation and healing. A researcher, speaker, change consultant, and writer, Marilyn’s books include: Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (co-authored with Cassandra Vieten and Tina Amorok) and Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine(co-authored with Tina Amorok and Mark Micozzi).
Marilyn”s talk was entitled “Death Makes Life Possible,” where she explored various cultural cosmologies of dying and the afterlife. She then considered the ways in which scientists are attempting to bring an evidence-based perspective to the question of what happens during the dying process and beyond. She also deliberated on the psychological and social significance of these cosmologies for reducing suffering and the fear of death. Click Here
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is one of the world’s foremost researchers of the further reaches of the human mind. A psychiatrist who has researched non-ordinary states of consciousness for over 50 years, he is one of the founders of transpersonal psychology. Dr. Grof is the bestselling author of numerous books, and his latest, When the Impossible Happens, presents a mesmerizing firsthand account of inquiry into such topics as survival of consciousness after death, synchronicities, reincarnation, and remembering birth and prenatal life. Dr. Grof lives in Mill Valley and is a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, described his own work over the decades exploring death and dying from psychological, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions. He explained the parallels between and among psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork and other forms of deep experiential psychotherapy, thanatology (the scientific study of death), anthropological fieldwork, and therapy with individuals in psychospiritual crises.
In this slide-illustrated lecture, we will explore the observations from the research of various types of non-ordinary states of consciousness, which have important implications for the understanding of death and dying – experiences in psychedelic therapy, Holotropic Breathwork and other forms of deep experiential psychotherapy, thanatology, anthropological field work, and the therapy with individuals in psychospiritual crises (“spiritual emergencies”).
We will focus on such topics as near-death experiences (NDE), the process of psychospiritual death and rebirth, psychedelic therapy with terminal cancer patients, karma and reincarnation, ancient mysteries of death and rebirth, aboriginal rites of passage, eschatological mythologies, and the ancient books of the dead. Click Here
Most of us at the very least wonder about our own immortality and many people are convinced that there is something beyond death, beyond the blackness of the grave. In Western Judaeo-Christian culture we absorb from an early age the idea that virtue now has its own reward – later. We are taught that the universe is essentially moral and that there are absolute human values.
But increasingly, science presents us with a picture of a much more mechanical universe in which there is no absolute morality and man has no purpose and no personal responsibility except to his culture and his biology. We no longer live in an age when faith is sufficient; we demand data, and we are driven by data. And it is data – data that apparently throws some light on our current concepts of Heaven and Hell – that the near-death experience seems to offer.
The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural. The results of one NOP survey in America suggest that over 1 million Americans have ‘seen the light’. Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife.
Many people believe that in the NDE we are given glimpses of Heaven (or Hell). But it is just as reasonable to assume that it is the NDE itself which may have shaped our very ideas about Heaven and Hell.
The experiences described in this book are all first-hand accounts from people who wrote to me or to David Lorimer, chairman of the International Association of Near Death Studies (UK), after a television programme, radio broadcast or magazine or newspaper article made them aware of our interest in near-death experiences.
We asked 500 of those who wrote to answer a detailed questionnaire about their experiences. Our aim was to gather in a standardised format as much detail as we could about the NDE, the people who have experienced it and the effect that the experience has had on their lives.
As well as asking about the near-death experience itself, we tried as far as possible to discover when it occurred, and what state of consciousness the person was in when it began. Many people had their experience during an operation, while they were under anaesthetic. Others were asleep at the time of the catastrophe that induced the NDE. Just over a third were taking some form of drug at the time of their experience. It was common for patients who were having a heart-attack to report that the NDE began while they were awake.
Most experiences occurred during illness. The illnesses varied very widely but were usually severe though not always life-threatening. We had two accounts from people whose near-death experiences occurred at the time of an attempted murder when they were unconscious. Two per cent of our sample had NDEs during a suicide attempt.
We asked about the effects that the NDE had on the subject.
We also wanted to know how many people had read about NDEs before their experience. This was important, since if the subject already knew about the experience before it occurred, then it would be reasonable to suppose that his or her NDE could to some extent be coloured by this.
It is from this database that the statistics quoted in this book have been drawn, and the accounts given to me by these people and by others who have written to me since then form the basis of the book. But their accounts provided much more than mere statistics. Each one was special in its own way, and provided a personal testimony which I found both moving and utterly sincere. It is very seldom that an author can so truthfully say that without others a book could not have been written – in this case, without these people there would, indeed, have been no book. I feel privileged to have been allowed to read their accounts, and I am grateful to everyone who, by being willing to share their experience with me, has helped in this search to find the truth in the light.
Peter Fenwick
About the author
Dr Peter Fenwick, MB B Chir (Cantab), DPM FRCPsych
Dr Peter Fenwick is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and a neuropsychiatrist with an international reputation. He holds appointments as Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, the foremost psychiatric teaching hospital in the UK, the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and at the Broadmoor Special Hospital for Violent Offenders. He holds a research post as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. He is also Honorary Consultant at St Thomas’s Hospital, London.
Dr Fenwick has a longstanding interest in the mind/brain interface and the problem of consciousness. He is Britain’s leading clinical authority on the near-death experience, and President of the British branch of IANDS (The International Association for Near-Death Studies). He has contributed to numerous radio and television programmes on this topic, and letters written in response to these have enabled him to create an unparalleled data base of near-death experiences.
Elizabeth Fenwick, MA (Cantab)
Elizabeth Fenwick, who is married to Peter Fenwick, is a professional writer on health and family matters and has written many books on these subjects. She has also produced books on pregnancy and childcare for the Family Doctor Publication Division of the British Medical Association.
In addition she has worked as an agony aunt advising on sexual problems on radio and in Company magazine. She is involved in sex education programmes in various schools in London, and also works as a telephone counsellor for Childline, a helpline for children of all ages.
Dr Peter Fenwick ‘Consciousness and Dying’ Interview by Iain McNay
Author of several books including ‘The Art Of Dying,’ ‘The Truth In The Light‘ and ‘The Hidden Door‘ neuro-psychiatrist Peter Fenwick talks about his research into End of Life Experiences and deathbed phenomena and what these mean in the greater picture of who we really are.
In John Holland’s past books, he explained how he came to terms with, and learned to accept and embrace, his spiritual gifts as a psychic medium, and how “readers” can develop their own intuitive psychic abilities.
In this new book, John picks up the fascinating story of his personal journey of growth and development as one of the most respected practicing mediums today. This work chronicles his past ten years of experience and includes some enlightening and heartfelt real-life case studies.
He candidly discusses readings with clients, including those who’ve had their own After Death Communications (ADCs)—from the outrageous to the profound. John also explains the signs and symbols that our loved ones continually try to send us. One of his most popular sayings is: “Those on the Other Side want to talk to you—as much as you want to talk to them!”
John divulges for the first time some of the extraordinary paranormal occurrences he’s witnessed throughout his career, and provides a rare glimpse behind the scenes of what it’s like to be a “Psychic Time Machine” for several television shows, as well as growing up as a psychic child. He’ll also help parents who have a psychic child themselves.
The Spirit Whisperer is a book you’ll want to read over and over, as many of the stories will touch your heart as well as your soul.
John Holland, the author of Born Knowing, Psychic Navigator, 101 Ways to Jump-Start Your Intuition, Power of the Soul, and The Psychic Tarot Oracle Deck, is an internationally renowned psychic medium who’s been lecturing, demonstrating, and reading for private clients for almost two decades.
He has devoted his life to spirit and one of continued personal development, and receives his greatest rewards when he’s able to bring peace, comfort, healing, and closure by helping people connect to the Other Side.
John’s signature workshops that teach us to look within for answers have become a popular trademark with audiences throughout North America, Australia, and Europe. He has been featured on The History Channel’s Psychic History, Unsolved Mysteries, Extra, and the A&E special Mediums: We See Dead People. He also has a popular weekly call-in radio show, “Spirit Connections,” on HayHouseRadio.com®
The Spirit Whisperer by John Holland
Chronicles of a Medium – Theres a special language that transcends time and space—a language thats not constrained by the limitations of just words—but one that consists of signs, symbols, energy, and thought. A language that can only be heard when one truly listens. Its the language of The Spirit Whisperer.
Author Chris Carter’s new book Science and the Near Death Experience explains why near-death experiences (NDEs) offer evidence of an afterlife and discredits the psychological and physiological explanations for them.
Chris Carter received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Oxford. The author of Parapsychology and the Skeptics, Carter is originally from Canada and currently lives in Venezuela.
In this materialistic age, dualists are often accused of smuggling outmoded religious beliefs back into science, of introducing superfluous spiritual forces into biology, and of venerating an invisible “ghost in the machine.” However, our utter ignorance concerning the real origins of human consciousness marks such criticism more a matter of taste than of logical thinking. At this stage of mind science, dualism is not irrational, merely somewhat unfashionable. – Physicist Nick Herbert, Elemental Mind.
In March 1987 Dawn Gillott was admitted to Northampton General Hospital, seriously ill with pneumonia. After being placed in intensive care, the physicians decided to perform a tracheotomy because she could not breathe.
The next thing I was above myself near the ceiling looking down. One of the nurses was saying in what seemed a frantic voice, ‘Breathe, Dawn, breathe.’ A doctor was pressing my chest, drips were being disconnected, everyone was rushing round. I couldn’t understand the panic, I wasn’t in pain. Then they pushed my body out of the room to the theatre. I followed my body out of the ITU and then left on what I can only describe as a journey of a lifetime.
I went down what seemed like a cylindrical tunnel with a bright warm inviting light at the end. I seemed to be traveling at quite a speed, but I as happy, no pain, just peace. At the end was a beautiful open field, a wonderful summery smell of flowers. There was a bench seat on the right where my Grandfather sat (he had been dead seven years). I sat next to him. He asked me how I was and the family. I said I was happy and content and all my family were fine.
He said he was worried about my son; my son needed his mother, he was too young to be left. I told Grampi I didn’t want to go back, I wanted to stay with him. But Grampi insisted I go back for my children’s sake. I then asked him if he would come for me when my time came. He started to answer, ‘Yes, I will be back in four –’ then my whole body seemed to jump. I looked round and saw that I was back in the ITU.
I honestly believe in what happened, that there is life after death. After my experience I am not afraid of death as I was before my illness.
The near-death experience described above is not rare. Hundreds of similar cases – involving people reporting that while seriously ill or injured they left their bodies, observed the surrounding scene, entered a tunnel, emerged into another world where they met deceased friends or relatives before returning to their bodies – have been documented in several different countries and cultures. The case above is not even a particularly impressive one. At first glance, such cases seem to indicate that under life-threatening circumstances the conscious part of us is capable of detaching from our physical bodies, and may travel to another world. The over-whelming majority of those who have had such experiences are convinced of the existence of an afterlife.
However, there are those that disagree, and who argue that such experiences simply cannot be what they at first seem to be. The strongest arguments against the existence of an afterlife are those that deny the possibility of consciousness existing apart from the biological brain.
The Greek atomists were the first to define the soul in terms of material atoms. Epicurus (342-270 BC) defined the soul as “a body of fine particles …most resembling breath with an admixture of heat.” He stressed the complete dependence of soul on body, so that when the body loses breath and heat, the soul is dispersed and extinguished. The Roman poet Lucretius (99-55 BC) took up the arguments of Epicurus, and continued the atomist tradition of describing the mind as composed of extremely fine particles. Lucretius wrote one of the earliest and most cogent treatises advancing the arguments that the relation between mind and body is so close that the mind depends upon the body and therefore cannot exist without it. First, he argued that the mind matures and ages with the growth and decay of the body; second, that wine and disease of the body can affect the mind; third, the mind is disturbed when the body is stunned by a blow; and finally, if the soul is immortal, why does it have no memories of its previous existence? Similar arguments, to the effect that the mind is a function of the brain, were taken up with greater force nineteen centuries later, in the work of men such as Thomas Huxley.
More recently, Corliss Lamont, former president of the American Humanist Association, has written one of the most extensive statements of the materialist positions in his book The Illusion of Immortality, the title of which speaks for itself. He tells us in the preface that he started out as a believer in a future life, but does not give us the reasons why he held the belief against which he reacted so strongly.
Lamont rightly contends that the fundamental issue is the relationship of personality to body, and divides the various positions into two broad categories: monism, which asserts that body and personality are bound together and cannot exist apart; and dualism, which asserts that body and personality are separable entities which may exist apart. Lamont is convinced that the facts of modern science weigh heavily in favor of monism, and offers the following as scientific evidence that the mind depends upon the body:
*in the evolutionary process the versatility of living forms increases with the development and complexity of their nervous system
*the mind matures and ages with the growth and decay of the body
* alcohol, caffeine, and other drugs can affect the mind
*destruction of brain tissue by disease, or by a severe blow to the
head, can impair normal mental activity; the functions of seeing,
hearing and speech are correlated with specific aeas of the brain.
*thinking and memory depend upon the cortex of the brain, and so “it
is difficult beyond measure to understand how they could survive
after the dissolution, decay or destruction of the living brain in
which they had their original locus.”2
These considerations lead Lamont to the conclusion that the connection between mind and body “is so exceedingly intimate that it becomes inconceivable how one could function without the other … man is a unified whole of mind-body or personality-body so closely and completely integrated that dividing him up into two separate and more or less independent parts becomes impermissible and unintelligible.”3
Lamont briefly considers the findings of psychical research, but contends that they do not alter the picture, because of the possibility of other interpretations, such as fraud and telepathy.*
In summary, the various arguments against the possibility of survival are: the effects of age, disease, and drugs on the mind; the effect of brain damage on mental activity, and specifically, the fact that lesions of certain regions of the brain eliminates or impairs particular capacities; and the idea that memories are stored in the brain and therefore cannot survive the destruction of the brain. The inference drawn from these observations is that the correlation of mental and physical processes is so close that it is inconceivable how the mind could exist apart from the brain. Except for the appeals of the modern writers to the terminology of neuroscience, the arguments advanced in favor of the dependence of the mental on the physical are essentially the same as those advanced by Lucretius.
* Lamont’s portrayal of psychic research is extremely superficial, and contains several false and misleading statements. For an excellent critique of Lamont’s book, exposing a mass of inconsistencies and non-sequitur, see chapter XIII of A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life after Death, by C.J. Ducasse.
Science and the NDE: Chris Carter on Skeptiko
Alex Tsakiris of Skeptiko interviews Chris Carter, author of “Science and the Near Death Experience” and “Parapsychology and the Skeptics”.
Would you like to understand the deeper meaning of your greatest challenges?
Raymond Moody is
Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, is President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. As a scientist and anthropologist, she has pioneered clinical, laboratory, and field-based research in the areas of consciousness, human transformation and healing. A researcher, speaker, change consultant, and writer, Marilyn’s books include: Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (co-authored with Cassandra Vieten and Tina Amorok) and Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine(co-authored with Tina Amorok and Mark Micozzi).
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is one of the world’s foremost researchers of the further reaches of the human mind. A psychiatrist who has researched non-ordinary states of consciousness for over 50 years, he is one of the founders of transpersonal psychology. Dr. Grof is the bestselling author of numerous books, and his latest, When the Impossible Happens, presents a mesmerizing firsthand account of inquiry into such topics as survival of consciousness after death, synchronicities, reincarnation, and remembering birth and prenatal life. Dr. Grof lives in Mill Valley and is a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
