This is part #3 of what I presented at the 2015 IANDS conference, somewhat amplified by things I wish there had been time to say in San Antonio. If you missed the previous segments, you might want to scroll down to read the two posts below this.
We need a new post-Copernican viewpoint
Copernicus – Loss of stability. Are we safe?
It was six hundred years ago that Copernicus put forward his earth-demoting observation of the heliocentric solar system. It was not simply a great scientific discovery – it changed everything. We overlook the enormity of that shock to the people of the West –the destruction of their ancient and stable sense of How Things Work, their cosmos, their very earth, their central identity, their orderly universe governing orderly social conventions. Our thoughts and language show how we are still clutching at remnants of those more secure times, still struggling theologically, philosophically, and psychologically to adapt to this “new” reality.
It took until the 20th century for the Roman Catholic Church to acknowledge that Copernicus was onto something, and to apologize to Galileo (350 years after the fact of his house arrest!) But it is not only the Church which lagged. There have been more discoveries since Copernicus, and more epochal changes reshaping reality. It is now our turn to notice how we are resisting changes in the way we think. It is time to let go of our own leftover medieval thinking, time to learn a new bravery with which to face unfamiliarity in our universe.
Quantum mechanics – the loss of substance and certainty
Until six hundred years ago, Europeans thought they were cosmically stable. In the same way, we have thought we were physically solid. We still think that, although quantum physics has told us for a century that nothing is materially substantial. From the perspective of our atoms, neither trees and cows, nor we, are as we think, but are buzzy electromagnetic activities, a spatter of particles in fields made up almost entirely of empty space. Quantum mechanics says that we’re built on indeterminacy, that nothing holds still, and that what is invisible may be more important than what we can see and count and measure. Science itself can fall down rabbit holes. We have lost both our substantiality and our certainty.
Rise of fundamentalisms
Sometimes it all feels like just too much. As one NDEr recalls crying out during a vivid out-of-body experience: “Put me back! Put me back!” It is much the same feeling as that of fundamentalists of varying religions around the globe, who want the safety of the Copernican universe and a clearly stratified feudal society, everything with a place and in its place. But no, we do not have that.
In his blog Entangled States of October 26 (a reference obviously being added to this post well after the conference presentation), Episcopal Bishop Nick Knisely quotes Savannah Cox, writing in Salon about the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky:
A closer look at the Petersburg attraction reveals that the questions raised in the museum are deeply existential, and ones which are steeped in — and troubled by — an atheistic logic: If it is indeed true that Adam and Eve did not literally exist, as science says, then there is no original sin. If there is no original sin, then Jesus did not have to die for it. If Jesus did die, but not for our sins, then why is he our savior? If he is not our savior, then what is he? What are we?
Viewed this way, the Creation Museum becomes less of a clearly demarcated home for the irrational, but rather a metaphysical space for individuals deeply troubled by emerging forms of authoritative rationality. … It is a space where the likeminded can physically enter a mindset that they know, and that they worry — if science has anything to say about it — might one day become unknown. … Indeed, the Creation Museum offers itself as a vital, life-affirming buffer against the spiritually weathering effects, and warnings, of coming worlds.[i]
Depth Psychology – old questions in new vocabulary – Who are we?
As a culture, we were still struggling with all of those issues when along came more information about invisibles: Freud’s id, ego, and superego followed on the heels of quantum interconnectedness. And then Carl Jung’s understanding of the unconscious mind led to his describing a collective unconscious, like an archive of all the experiences of all our ancestors, sorted by pattern. Bursting new information on mind and the human brain has continued jostling with reports of individuation and interdependence, announcing radical changes in how we conceive of ourselves relative to the universe. We are slowly shifting focus about our existence: that it’s not about external forces working on us but about our need to go inside, where we find…who am I? It is not only fundamentalists who long for the familiar security of old ideas with which to cuddle up in the dark. Moving on challenges everyone.
The integration of myths
As Richard Tarnas has noted (see Part #2), we in the developed Western nations, who have for a very long time been governed by the two great myths of Progress and Fall, are now being forced by new existential demands to find new patterns able to synthesize the truths of both myths. We all have our fundamentalist weak spots; so, for example, it is no great surprise that our judgmental views of dNDEs are coming out of pre-Copernican thinking about guilt and punishment.
In researching for this presentation, a Google search for NDE plus horror popped up with a prospectus about an NDE game, of all things. But not only a game, this was—in very large letters—a “3D zombie apocalypse simulator with HUGE POTENTIAL, set in a huge open world. To survive, you have to loot houses, department stores, etc. for food, drink and places to sleep. This game will feature an advanced combat system and a fort building system like no other and it has very good potential if pulled off right.”
Sound like any NDE thinking we know? Here’s why I say it’s pre-Copernican: because the developers and their audience are still thinking death = horror = punishment = NDE. It’s one end of a spectrum of dystopian hopelessness, and it’s horrible.
But then comes their punchline. “NDE”: not dead enough. Zombies.
We are on our own.
Further, we are on our own in a culture of highly developed dualism, of binary thinking, of separations and divisions, where Progress continually wars its often glibly positive battles with medieval thinking about judgment and punishment and hell and Fall, a world of zombies and demons-as-creatures, and the imposition of horrors from an external source.
When are we going to put some credence into the cosmology we know to be truer—the cosmology big enough to include all aspects of consciousness and the human psyche, not only the pretty parts? When will we freely acknowledge a riotous and often ugly collective unconscious in which we seem to be embedded and from which we draw our deepest images? We can begin by facing squarely the evidence that just as beautiful NDEs occur in scoundrels and the spiritually anesthetized as well as in people of exceptional character and a worthy spiritual life, so, too, distressing NDEs occur in people of a whole range of character development and spirituality, and do not indicate only those who are by nature wrong—angry, fearful, depressed, guilt-ridden, mean, cold, hostile, unloving, unspiritual, God-denying, sinful, and more–who have been told that the experience transforming their understanding of their lives did not qualify as spiritual and wasn’t really an NDE. It is past time to recognize that in spiritual terms a distressing near-death experience makes more sense as a challenge rather than punishment or finger-wagging judgment, and that it is very likely the equivalent of having the worst possible sort of emotional bad hair day.
[Stay tuned for the final thrilling episode…coming next weekend.]
[i] Savannah Cox, My Creation Museum quest: A skeptic’s genuine search for faith, science and humanity in a most unlikely place – Salon.com, reposted by (Episcopal Bishop) Nick Knisely in his blog Entangled States, http://entangledstates.org/2015/10/26/the-creation-museum-more-about-the-founders-fears-than-their-faith/
Hi Nan
You said:
“It is past time to recognize that in spiritual terms a distressing near-death experience makes more sense as a challenge rather than punishment or finger-wagging judgment…”
You’re on the right track, but I just wanted to add this: “Challenge” isn’t the right word … it’s constructivist teaching.
Another great book is “American Fascists: The Christian Right And The War On America, by Chris Hedges. The fundamentalist Christians have infiltrated the politics of the Government. The Koch brothers and other Corporations fund the Right Wing Christian organizations. This way they get them to vote and persuade politicians to vote as they want them to. Many politicians elected are Right Wing Christians. Holy war or any action is advocated to cleanse the world of the unclean unbelievers, either by eradication, or conversion. To me, things are not looking good. I think We, the people who have had and explore the near death experience should be asserting ourselves collectively in a unified way to counteract the Christian Right. We recognize Jesus with full value, and many of us in crossing over have had direct contact. Love for all has always been the returning message. My experience is not strong enough to be an example. I just touched upon another reality enough to know that many other realities exist right along beside this one. Love is the only thing that conquers fear. Fear, and using it to manipulate for advantage, is the path of the Christian Right.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/19/1224991/-As-Fundies-Die-Off-the-Religious-Left-Grows?detail=emailclass
This is well worth an uplifting read.
Dave, I read that article not 15 minutes ago! Agree, it is remarkably interesting. Maybe a longer wait than you or I is likely to make, but I find the prospect heartening. Thanks!
Well, my wife and I go to a fundamentalist church, infallible bible and all, within 75 miles of the new arc, just being built across the Ohio river. Ken Ham has spoken at our church (I did not go). Really I had not realized how conservative our church had become until I saw people being driven away by its teaching.
What to do?? Earlier this year one of my wife’s friends put me on to Richard Rohr, his “Falling upward” was quite a revelation. His “The Naked Now” was even more so. In truth what he is teaching is heresy, if you are a fundy. Rohr even addresses the “Jesus died for our sins” view which is evidently only about 1000 years old. Anyway, it looks to me like some form of mystical approach may be called for if Christianity is to survive.
I must add that I am not a mystic– at least not yet.
Dave M, you are a brave soul! Richard Rohr is helping a lot of folks discover there is vibrant spiritual life outside the blinkered walls of conservative religious teachings. (You might also be intertested in the writings of formerly-fundy theologians Peter Enns and Brian McLaren.) I agree that some version of mystical practice is making more and more sense if Christianity is to have a future. Such a huge ship to turn around, even a little! Thanks for your comment.
I found it heartening too. I for one will be glad to get off the planet before the “you know what” hit’s the fan. However, in spirit form I’d like to hang in and do what I can to help. Not just my loved ones, but anyone. I know that there are guardian spirits right here, right now. When I was having my heart attack, A female guardian spirit gave me a tongue lashing that I remember to this day. “It didn’t have to get to this”, “you fat lazy..#$%”. I remember the hissing sound and tone of her voice clearly, as I write this. Of course I’ll have to clean up my vocabulary a little.
Dave W, don’t you think there may be a whole new vocabulary waiting? It’s not all going to be pastels, I’m sure!
I speak in bold colors. It’s just my way. Forget about pussy footing through the dog pound. The true meaning of any words is in the music of the way they’re delivered, the rhythm accentuation and tone. Vocabulary and it’s written down definitions pales in comparison to this. Jesus got across to people through the music of the way he said things. This is how he touched the depths within them. In saying this I fully realize that that if I were ever to be knighted for my speech, It would be Sir “Crude” at your service.
One of the underlying hopes at the inception of the internet was that cross-cultural communication would expand, people would be presented with a wide variety of world views, and an understanding and peaceful world would quickly unfold right before our eyes, perhaps in less than a generation.
Instead, what we’re seeing are folks choosing to visit websites and media that reinforce their pre-existing biases.
But there’s hope. That is, there is hope for people willing to do the work.
Anyone wanting to find their own truth, whether it concerns politics, spirituality, science. various social issues or whatever, can find answers, or at least directions toward answers for many of their most pressing concerns.
But a genuine search, especially when it comes to deeper ontological issues, requires a lot of time and courage. Entertaining unfamiliar worldviews and different epistemic systems is often a deeply disturbing journey, yet the resulting payoff can lift old burdens and open doors to unimagined vista’s.
For this to happen on a wide social level, it will be up to individuals to question authority. Whether that authority is parental, governmental, religious, or one’s peers, it usually takes a foundation-shaking event to trigger an honest search. System’s are fractured, and the remaining individuals regroup.
The world is shaking. Many old solid ‘truths’ are becoming embarrassingly hollow, even to their current believers, and I don’t think future generations will put up with them.
Sometimes it takes pain to initiate bravery.
As usual, you’ve got it exactly. Thank you yet again.
I hear you Dawg, but what worries me the most are the people who don’t even bother to look. Those who oppress do know exactly what they’re doing and why. We can say….when they cross over they’ll have to answer for what they did…we’ll see. Those who enable oppressors out of apathy and cross over…what do they get? I say this without any judgment of others. I for one, am fully aware of all the ways I’ve fallen short.
“…so, too, distressing NDEs occur in people of a whole range of character development and spirituality, and do not indicate only those who are by nature wrong—angry, fearful, depressed, guilt-ridden, mean, cold, hostile, unloving, unspiritual, God-denying, sinful, and more”…
I think there should be a category for dSTEs (distressing spiritually transformative events) — which after reading these three articles seem to give support to this. After reading many stories ranging from ancient christian mystics to skimming accounts from shamans, there often seems to be this element of encountering dark elements. Most precognitive dreams/visions seem to fall into this category. Yes, it destroys what you believe to be true. Totally and absolutely.
I think that is why the Alex Malarky NDE story was not accepted and discredited, as it does start out this way. The little boy saw a dark figure first right before the accident. And the ongoing conversations between Alex and angelic or heaven beings didn’t fit in with the current mindset of his mother’s peer group. It did not fit the world view that was held in this social group. I don’t think this is exclusive (that is a just a problem of Christian groups), it is human nature to want to conform to a group standard, very few are willing to go outside those norms. However some of us, are forced to, to re-evaluate what we held to be true.
I appreciated how you emphasized that there is nothing defective about a person who may have a dNDE or what I am going to add, an dSTE.
People taking fixed stands on Ideological beliefs in my opinion, such as it is, do so out of fear. To offset fear, there’s safety in numbers. The more people who believe as you do, the more secure you feel within the group that thinks as you do. This is not only in religion, but also in politics. Anything that rocks the boat is greeted with anger and suspicion. People tend to conceptualize to a certain degree, and it stops right there. Fixed, never to evolve any further. Alternate views are rejected. True concepts flow and keep evolving until there’s no need to think about them, you just feel them.
Interesting piece by NYT columnist David Brooks on the Islamic State and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence” —
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/opinion/finding-peace-within-the-holy-texts.html?_r=0
Yes, very interesting! Thanks, Sheila.
Nancy…now that I have finally discovered a way to reach you…can we talk one on one? 540-786-4596
My apologies to other bloggers for this interruption.
You betcha, Dianna! These other bloggers will be happy to know it’s a reunion of old friends.
16 years ago I had a horrific NDE. I spent what seemed like a couple of years in Purgatory/Hell. The demons wanted me to despair, but I continued to try and talk other people there into resisting and to help others. I suffered terribly at the demons’ hands. Eventually, I found myself in a place where every atom was God’s love. I was greeted by my former fiance, whom I helped with his leukemia treatments. He had died two months before I did…I was so weakened by caring for him. He told me I had too much to do, and had to go back. After all that time in Hell…it was so unfair to go back. Over the years I have discovered the people and situations that have been improved and changed because I was here. I can’t wait to go HOME, but will be patient. Thank you for your book, Nancy. I finally felt that I wasn’t a terrible person, just challenged to go back into an imperfect world and give it help and hope.
Kathy, thank you so much for writing. And thank you for “I finally felt that I wasn’t a terrible person, just challenged to go back into an imperfect world and give it help and hope.” That’s really the heart of everything, isn’t it?
Thank you so much for your response to my post, Nan. Over the last 16 years, I have read many books on NDE’s, been a member of Seattle IANDS for years, where I heard of other people tell of their experiences, and listened to speakers on the subject. But nothing touched me or healed me like your book. I finished it, and am now reading it again. A friend of mine told me of this site yesterday, and I want to thank you for your courage and wisdom to write your books and provide this site. God bless you and your kindness.
Kathy, what a good link, knowing you’re with Seattle IANDS! (My peeps, as the NDE world goes.) Kim and I have been close friends for–eek!–almost 35 years, and I’ve counted Greg, Lee Campbell, Joyce Hawkes, and others as friends almost as long. My first talk there was a conference in, I think, 1984. Great memories! Thank you for your wonderfully assuring notes here. So greatly appreciated. My love to the group, the folks, and now you.
It is truly a small world, isn’t it? Will definitely give your best to those wonderful, kind and devoted people at the next meeting. Maybe you can come up some time for a talk with us!