It’s all quite exciting–from the UK, Peter Hulme has posted parts #2 and #3 of his in-depth review of Dancing Past the Dark. As our good friend Rabbitdawg has commented, this is the first thorough review the book has had in its year-and-a-half of existence, so this feels almost as good as an Oscar.
#3: http://phulme.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/review-dancing-past-the-dark-33/
#2: http://phulme.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/review-dancing-past-the-dark-23/
#1: http://phulme.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/review-dancing-past-the-dark-15/
Enjoy! Your comments will be welcome (and they don’t have to be complimentary, just courteous).
Nan – Your book is beautifully researched, really well written, subtle, scholarly, refreshingly complex thinking, and an antidote to contemporary New Age orthodoxy.
I’m really struck by your idea that many dNDEs and distressing STEs might be distressing because we Westerners are so shocked by the challenge they present to our sense of self and to our preference for an object-filled reality.
I wonder if St. John of the Cross is relevant here, in that he says there *is* help present during a dark night of the soul, but the Soul can’t perceive it because it has too much schmutz to perceive the Light. As, the process progresses, and the Soul is cleansed, it can then perceive the help that was always there. This jibes with a full Void which we unprepared Westerners initially perceive as an empty, abandoning Void.
Also, I really like that you don’t think the “Law of Attraction” explains EVERYTHING, for example, that people going through dSTEs attracted them or chose them.
I’m tending to think that people do NOT have dSTEs because they have more unresolved childhood trauma than people who have radiant STEs, or more negative worldviews.
Take Philip Jacobs, for example. Really neat guy, British whirling dervish. He was spiritually precocious, meditating and studying from early teens, yet he went into a yucko, spiritually-transformative, long bout with Lyme in adulthood from which he emerged with even more wisdom.
Could dNDErs be going through more of a purge than the radiant NDErs? I’m not saying the dNDErs had more schmutz to begin with, just that their *assignment* requires greater purging. Maybe it’s something they’re doing for the sake of the collective (Chris Bache’s idea) or to heal their personal lineages beyond just themselves???
Your book is a deeply useful, erudite, and unique contribution. It’s going to influence the discourse.
I also just listened to your interview with Christiana Gaudet, and really enjoyed it. I wish you would do more interviews. I think what you are saying will help a lot of people. Keep going!
Sheila, your comments always make me think and re-think! I do like the idea of the “purging,” which seems to me to make sense. (Not that everything has to make sense, but it sure helps.) As an image, it fits wonderfully, like just the right puzzle piece. Like you, I don’t see any necessary connection between unresolved childhood trauma or negative worldview, though they would certainly influence the later interpretation of a dNDE.
As for the “Law of Attraction,” I tell you, it’s not easy flying in the face of all that conviction and occult tradition! How do I know I’m on steady ground? I don’t; but the other is not only not compelling to me, but seems downright blasphemous when used as a mechanism to get what one wants, or to serve as a too-easy source of blame. There’s something there, I think, but it’s not superficial. Something about levels and depths, maybe. If anyone has an explanation of what I mean by “levels and depths,” do, please, speak up!
The interview with Christiana Gaudet was pure pleasure! We both had a great time.
Re purging – that idea also fits within the traditions of Kundalini and shamanic initiation – that you are being purged, dismantled, rebuilt.
Re LOA – Oh, yeah, it’s hard to disagree with tradition and the current orthodoxy! In a really simple way, I just can’t believe we are each omnipotent. First of all, how would our omnipotences interact with each other? 🙂 Secondly, what happened to God (Tao, Cosmic Consciousness, call it what you will) and the also-ancient tradition that God’s will is, um, pretty mighty?! 😉
Our lives just seem likely to be a combo of our intention (conscious and unconscious) and Something Else’s.
“Our lives just seem likely to be a combo of our intention (conscious and unconscious) and Something Else’s”
As close to a perfect explanation as we’re likely to find!
Not only am I heartened to see that a professionally designed blog associated with an internationally respected five million member religion is bringing attention to Dancing Past the Dark, I see progress in the fact that the writer feels comfortable bringing up the subject of distressing near-death experiences in a minimally sectarian way.
Admittedly, the Baha’i faith isn’t exactly known for being a hellfire ‘n brimstone-style path to God, and it’s much more open to discussion than most, but Pete Hulme’s inspiring intellectual unpacking of the book tells me that we’ve come a long way since the Maurice Rawlings days.
Another positive sign I’ve noticed lately is Dr. Penny Sartori’s new book, The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences. She devotes a full chapter to dNDE’s, and continues to bring them up periodically throughout the course of the entire book – as if distressing NDE’s were as ‘normal’ as radiant ones.
It starting to look like the days of dismissing the darker side of our collective unconscious with Pollyanna-ish spin, or pithy throwaway lines like “beyond the scope of this book” won’t work anymore. The modern day NDE community is way too savvy for that.
Perhaps other researchers will take the cue and realize that looking at the full spectrum of human spiritual experience will exponentially pay dividends by lending credibility to their studies, and more importantly, unveil greater insights into our psychological/spiritual condition. This acceptance by health professionals and clergy can only have a positive therapeutic benefit for our spiritually impoverished society as a whole.
Faster, please!
You can probably hear the cheering from over here. Thanks.
Nancy ,i have an important(for me) question for you.Are you afraid of death?
Toma, the short answer to your question: No, I don’t think so. For a more satisfactory answer, watch for a post in the next week or so.
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