Dancing Past the Dark ~ distressing near-death experiences

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Why keep discussing distressing NDEs?

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Over the past few months, a pattern has been emerging in the comments to these blog posts and in my emails. I have been seeing expressions of discomfort and even anger about this discussion of distressing NDEs, based on the idea that the NDEs represent institutional and/or cultural abuse. The vocabulary includes words such as “falsity,” “manipulation,” “intimidation,” “coercion,” “judgmentalism,” “control.” One respected reader wonders why the discussion even needs to be continued, why it gives the forces of oppression such attention rather than outright denunciation.

Let me say again: “For several months now, these blog posts have been steps on a journey to get down underneath all the preconceptions and assumptions, all the theories and doctrines, and ask, ‘What is bedrock?’ Is it possible to get beyond overlays of supposition to something so simple I am able to trust it? Can we begin to see near-death experiences through lenses other than doctrinal or disbelieving?” [Read more…] about Why keep discussing distressing NDEs?

Distressing Tibetan NDEs: the delogs

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For several months now, these blog posts have been steps on a journey which I described as “to get down underneath all the preconceptions and assumptions, all the theories and doctrines, and ask, ‘What is bedrock?’ Is it possible to get beyond overlays of supposition to something so simple I am able to trust it? Can we begin to see near-death experiences through lenses other than doctrinal or disbelieving?”

Since then, I have largely been exploring the concept of hell, which, at least in the widespread Western Christian version, looks like Dante’s Inferno. This version has been described with various degrees of sadistic theological relish since roughly the second century CE, culminating in the sixteenth century with Dante’s depiction, and is still terrorizing the millions of people who believe it represents the biblical view of God’s wrath as hell in an afterlife.
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Darkness, light, and near-death experience revisited

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On the Wholeness of Darkness and Light

The essay below is being posted because it may be useful for newer readers. I wrote it in 1992 for the IANDS publication Vital Signs, so although regular readers of the blog will find nothing much new here, it may be of some mild historical interest. I have edited it slightly to remove anachronisms and simplify overly wordy writing.

A woman has written to say that she had heard about distressing near-death experiences at an IANDS conference. “It sounded weird,” she said. “Are these just nightmares?”

Well, the experiences appear to share something of the same space as the pleasurable NDEs, and they no doubt do sound weird; but then, so does just about everything in this field when looked at from the perspective of ordinary consciousness. Nevertheless, as we come closer to the fortieth anniversary of Raymond Moody’s first accounts of light-filled, love-filled, rapturous consciousness at the edge of death, it is clear that Life After Life touched a nerve that still quivers. [Read more…] about Darkness, light, and near-death experience revisited

Hunting Sasquatch #2: Developmental Stages and the NDE Forest

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Human beings are patterning creatures. It’s what we do. Put a group of homo sapiens in a new environment, and pretty soon we’re seeing shapes and groupings and inventing explanations for them.

In essence, that is what developmental stage theories are: descriptions of patterns. That is true of almost any psychological or sociological descriptor, like, say, the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, which offers sixteen characteristic groupings of personality traits. But put a group of 21st century post-modern homo sapiens in a room with developmental stage theories and the MBTI, and some number of individuals will protest, “Labels! They’re merely labels! They objectify me! I hate being objectified!” It never fails. [Read more…] about Hunting Sasquatch #2: Developmental Stages and the NDE Forest

Hunting Sasquatch: Developmental stages and the NDE forest

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It’s a lot like hunting Sasquatch, this intense business of parsing distressing near-death experiences. We’ve been covering a lot of ground, yet continually seeing the quarry lumbering off into denser woods just ahead. For a while in the previous post, ‘The Descent Experience,’ I was seeing flickers of comprehension and hints of correspondences (thank you, Sheila Joshi and Barbara Croner!); but then I lost the trail and have only now stumbled onto it again.

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The Descent Experience … and the Distressing NDE

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Very rarely, I read something which strikes me so forcefully that I can’t really talk about it until there has been time to take it all in. Today’s blog post is an example.

The article behind this “something which struck me” is the latest post on Sheila Joshi’s blog Neuroscience and psi.com. It is an extensive essay written by Sheila and Barbara Croner, clinical psychologists from California with an interest in everything (and then some) that is of interest to us here.

Anyone who is a regular participant here will see at once why I recommend their article, aside from Sheila’s being a reader of Dancingpastthedark.com. The essay is purely brilliant. It is dense enough with ideas and information, all of which is relevant to distressing near-death experiences, that the reading will likely take you some time. Yes, it is a scholarly article, but do not let that stand in your way. Please read it! Then come back here with your questions and comments. We’ll talk. You’ll find it worth the effort and the wait. (And besides, her website is gorgeous.)

It begins:

“Since the beginning of time, humanity has described a particular kind of experience that many people have had, but many have not had. It involves terrible suffering. It lasts a very long time. During much of it, there is no help or relief that can be had. Eventually, it draws to an end, culminating in a return to life, often with additional gifts.

“It has been called The Descent Experience, and the oldest known recorded version of a descent myth was written by the Sumerians on clay tablets in the third millennium BCE.  In this version, the goddess Inanna (also known as Ishtar) has to visit the Underworld. There, she is destroyed physically and psychologically in the most gruesome way.  It’s bad, no one will help; it goes on for awhile.  Finally, Enki, the god of wisdom, comes to her rescue in an artful way, deals are made, she is reconstituted, and returns to the world.”

Now go, keep reading…

http://is.gd/DNRHuX