You haven’t seen much from me in the way of blog posts recently because I’ve been obsessing over the next book. Now it’s near enough to done that I can come up for air and say something about it.
The Buddha in Hell and Other Alarms:
Distressing Near-Death Experiences in Perspective.
This book is less about specific research data and more about interpretation of NDEs, especially where questions of hell are concerned. I’ve pulled together everything I’ve ever written which circles around the question, “How can we understand these things?”–blog posts, conference presentations, other articles, and drafts, all now greatly expanded to be workable as a book. The result is more conversational than Dancing Past the Dark, as much of it was written in response to questions or comments on the blog. For richness, you will find the amazing essay by Sheila Joshi and Barbara Croner, “The Descent Experience,” which you may remember from a couple of years ago.
Look for the ebook to be available before June. There will be a paperback also; stay tuned for more information.
I will very shortly be posting part of the opening chapter “The Buddha in Hell Redux,” which has been substantially rewritten since it appeared on the blog back in 2012. It’s a taster!
Looking forward to it !
I can hardly wait for the release of your new book. Thank you in advance for writing it. Spending time in hell 16 years ago gave me not only PTSD, but lots of time to think about the experiences, and to try and make some sense of it all. Your first book was a life raft for my soul. Hoping I’ll make it to safety with your next book.
You’re why I’ve kept writing. We’ll just figure this out together. Thank you!
The plane we’re in now is Hell like enough for me. Just look at the negative forces converging on us right now, and the mentality of the collective human condition that’s progressively creating and propelling it. I in spirit form intend to stick around and help out, if I can, when the human condition hits the fan. My heart attack experience has convinced me that guardian spirits are right here, right now. I was confronted by one. I’ll see you in Hell.
I wish I could completely disagree! Deep breaths and let’s hang in together.
What else is there to do. Could it be that only by facing the mass negative insanity confronting us, and retaining and expanding our ability to understand and love anyway is the point of all this.
In the wake of all the mainstream Christian ‘Heavenly tourism’ pablum, this book should get plenty of attention. It will be one of only two books of its kind. Both written by you, of course.
Lean on every friend and enemy you’ve got to make a ruckus. Praise from supporters is always wonderful, but condemnation from sinners-in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god Bible beater types can be even better. Send ’em a copies for review just to stir the puddin’. Raise…you know…
🙂
What’ the name of your new book?
New book is The Buddha in Hell and Other Alarms: Distressing Near-Death Experiences in Perspective.
The ebook is expected out within the month; paperback to follow. See today’s blog post.
I want to ask that is Buddha in hell
The title comes from what a monk in Myanmar said, that he had a near-death experience and saw the Buddha in a lake of fire. I suggest there can be more than one way of understanding what he described.
Survive, get what you need to survive, and reproduce, are the the main in common motivations for all life. Coupled with that is nothing can win, unless something else loses. Add fear into the mix, and we’re left with self serving competition. The only way to be safe is to have more than you need to survive. If something else has to suffer in the achieving this security, so be it. How do we change this for the better? Beats me. Perhaps loving anyway as we face it, is the point of all this.
“…loving anyway as we face it”…I think you’ve nailed the Great ‘It’! Thanks, Dave.
I have so much to share, but am conscious I had better not post a book! First let me say, I have JUST ordered your book Dancing Past the Dark, and am really looking forward to it. I think what your doing is deep, real, and extraordinarily important.
In a private email to you, I mention this book which has been an enormous influence on me and thus is highly recommended, because the author, Monica Sjoo, does into depth exposing the ‘light obsessed’ new age mindset ancient to modern. For surely this is why there is such resistance amongst the ‘NDE radiance’ groups against the ‘dark’ experiences.
The book is titled Return of the Dark/Light Mother or New Age Armageddon?
When patriarchal history and mythos is looked at deeply we very see this great fear and violence against women, the feminine, ‘the unconscious’ (anciently known as the Underworld, Otherworld) as well as against the sensual physical body and even nature itself, regarded by this mindset to be feminine, as was thought about ‘the Deep’, hence there are the stories in the Bible of the patriarchal ‘God’ battling with sea monsters like Leviathan, and this same motif is found from the very beginnings of patriarchal myths, written down, another example being Marduk versus Tiamat and so on.
What we are seeing in the world, the wars, exploitation of peoples–especially those with a darker-than-white skin tone, against other species, the terrible pollution, even of the oceans and on and on is this very same deep contempt for nature and life. THIS is ‘hell’. It may not seem to for the observer having no empathetic connection with knowing about or observing it, but it is for the victims of it.
Julian, thanks for this. I have been reading whatever I can find by/about Monica Sjoo and her co-author Barbara Mor–two remarkable women with far greater courage and passion than worldly comfort, despite their success in shaping ideas. Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Even so, there is enough material online to give plenty of encouragement for deep thought about our reality-shaping myths. Those readers who give up too soon after a merely literal reading of the ancients–whether it’s classic legends or sacred scriptures–are missing not only a lot of understanding but maybe, even,
missing the whole point!