Similarities Between NDEs and Mystical Experiences

As veteran NDE (near-death experience) researcher Dr Ken Ring suggests, we should probably view the NDE as a subset of a broader family of mystical experiences.

The great philosopher and psychologist William James (1842 - 1910) listed a number of characteristics of mystical experiences:

1. They are ineffable (Difficult if not impossible to talk about.)
2. They are noetic (Each conveys some deep and profound truth.)
3. They are transient
4. They are ecstatic
5. The mystic is passive
6. There is a sense of union with everything

 Chris Humphrey adds a seventh; the numinous feeling of light.^⁠1 He also points out that point 6 needs some modifying, in that all mystical states are unitary but not necessarily productive of a sense of oneness with everything. This last element, however, was what characterised the mystical experiences of my own that I detailed in Book 1. They are the reason I know, rather than believe, that everything is fundamentally interconnected—all is One—and that consciousness is the ground of all existence. Without the direct experience, there are only opinions and beliefs.

 In a 2007 article, Greyson wrote: 

Walter Pahnke, a minister and psychiatrist, and William Richards, a theologian and psychologist, delineated nine aspects of mystical experience based on the work of William James and British philosopher Walter Stace: a sense of cosmic unity or oneness, transcendence of time and space, deeply positive mood, sense of sacredness, noetic quality or intuitive illumination, paradoxicality, ineffability, transiency, and persistent positive aftereffects. All nine of these features are commonly reported as part of the NDE.^⁠2

 He added that, overall, the most significant aspect common to both experiences may be the transformational aspect. It’s hard to disagree. For me personally, it was a long process integrating this new post-mystical-experience awareness into everyday life. About sixteen years into the aftermath I feel like I’ve really grounded and integrated it and reconciled being here “in the world.” In an earlier version of this manuscript (from around 2012), I thought the majority of integrative work (at least psychologically and emotionally) was probably achieved within the first two to three years (speaking very approximately), but I noted that socially, even then I was still learning how to better relate to people who don’t share my metaphysical awareness. In 2020 I don’t feel this to be such an issue anymore (now fifteen to sixteen years after my early experiences)—I’ve been “assimilated.” *Grin* 

In 1973, psychiatrist Stanley Dean wrote about “ultraconsciousness,” which is equivalent to R. M. Bucke’s idea of cosmic consciousness. He summarised its ten primary characteristics based on his study of the literature:

1. The onset is ushered in by an awareness of light that floods the brain and fills the mind. In the East it is called the “Brahmic splendor.” Walt Whitman speaks of it as ineffable light—“light rare, untellable, lighting the very Light—beyond all signs, descriptions, languages.” Dante writes that it is capable of transhumanizing a man into a god…

2. The individual is bathed in emotions of supercharged joy, rapture, triumph, grandeur, reverential awe, and wonder—an ecstasy so overwhelming that it seems little less than a sort of superpsychic orgasm.

3. A noetic illumination that is quite impossible to describe occurs. In an intuitive flash one has an awareness of the meaning and drift of the universe, an identification and merging with creation, infinity, and immortality, a depth beyond revealed meaning—in short, a conception of an “Over-Self,” so omnipotent that religion has interpreted it as God.

4. There is a feeling of transcendental love and compassion for all living things.

5. Fear of death falls off like a mantle; physical and mental suffering vanish. There is an enhancement of mental and physical vigour and activity, a rejuvenation and prolongation of life. This property should command the special interest of psychiatry and medicine.

6. There is a reappraisal of the material things in life, an enhanced appreciation of beauty.

7. There is an extraordinary quickening of the intellect, an uncovering of latent genius and leadership.

8. There is a sense of mission. The revelation is so moving and profound that the individual is moved to

share it with his fellowmen.

9. A charismatic change occurs in personality—an inner and outer radiance takes over, as if the person is charged with some divinely inspired power, a magnetic force that attracts and inspires others.

10. There is a sudden or gradual development of extraordinary perception, telepathy, precognition, on healing. Though generally regarded as occult, such phenomena may have a more rational explanation; they may be due to an awakening of the transhuman powers of perception latent in all of us.^⁠3 

With this outline of archetypal mystical experiences by Dean, it becomes increasingly obvious that NDEs are a form of mystical experience, with near-identical aftermaths. Regarding point No. 8 I want to add an observation by Ede Frecska: “Meaning emerges from context; more purpose can be acquired from higher hierarchical perspectives.^⁠4”

Thus, the more the NDEr or mystic is able to access a “top-down” or 40,000 foot view of themselves and their place within the cosmos, the more meaningful their life naturally becomes, as their own function and role emerges into view, relative to their previous perspective prior to “waking up.” With access to a larger context, a larger purpose naturally and concurrently arises.

According to Atwater it takes the average adult experiencer at least seven years to adjust to the NDE’s after-effects—some much longer. Children generally take three to four times longer,^⁠5 even though on average their NDEs are not quite as deep or intense.

Bucke researched mystical consciousness and found no cases of it occurring before age thirty, however, since his thesis was that humanity’s consciousness was evolving (at an accelerating rate in my opinion), and his book Cosmic Consciousness dates back to 1901, exceptions to the “rule” were to be increasingly expected (and Bucke predicted as much). My own spontaneous experience of infinite consciousness around the age of twenty is a case in point.

 Graduation from identifying solely with the world of the five senses (a.k.a. “ego death”) represents a massive step in personal evolution. As Evelyn Underhill so succinctly pointed out, the true mystical experience never leaves the human subject at the level at which it found him, compelling him to form new standards for himself and to reach beyond his comfort zone.^⁠6

These experiences “which spiritual genius reports to us”:

•  have a vocational character,
•  introduce the self into a life which is more and more fully controlled by man’s characteristic spiritual activity, prayer, [which is no longer comprised of petitioning some distant deity]
•  effect a fundamental transformation of personality.^⁠7 

All this precisely mirrors the trends observed in NDErs: They thirst for greater knowledge, develop interests in areas of no previous interest to them (such as physics and philosophy), see everything and everyone as part of themselves, develop higher empathy and compassion, become less fixated on status and self-image, more charitably-minded, and cease to fear the spectre of physical death, knowing that consciousness is not generated by their brain, but is in fact eternal. I can say that all of the above happened to me.

One thing left off the above lists by James and Underhill, however, is the fact that NDErs—like many who have profound mystical awakenings—also have a tendency to become much more psychic after “crossing over.” Some people become notorious for causing electronic equipment or lights in their vicinity to fail—by their mere presence.^⁠8 Others find that the mental content of those around them spills unbidden into their awareness.^⁠9 Still others find themselves with incredible healing abilities—even to the extent that this becomes a new career path!^⁠10 Intelligence and self-acceptance increase, following immersion in a realm of total and blissful love and acceptance. Concern about what others think of them diminishes, and materialistic thinking evaporates.^⁠11 

Frequently for NDErs and mystics, there is an experience of access to information from totally beyond their own personal reference frame (whether during the experience or in the aftermath); “downloading” totally unknown information from a transpersonal field of information can become the norm for some people. Tom Sawyer is a classic example. Similarly, Gopi Krishna, as a kundalini experient, found himself writing poetry in foreign languages he’d never learnt—German, French, Italian, Sanskrit, Arabic.^⁠12 Some NDErs speak of being in the presence of “all knowledge” and yet manage to only bring fragments back in conscious awareness.

Overwhelmingly, the aftermath of the NDE and the mystical experience is profoundly positive and transformative (which disproves the idea these experiences are meaningless hallucinations or mental fabrications). The fact that so many people get to witness the transformation of an NDEr taking place is what makes those NDEs qualify as “shared death experiences,” (SDEs) in Moody’s view. He is emphatic: “NDErs are better people because of their experience.”^⁠13

A recent study of 158 NDE patients using artificial intelligence and a process called “text mining” to analyse word usage in reports from the NDErs only confirmed this.^⁠14 Ring established in The Omega Project that this positive outcome trend applies also to UFO abductees and “close encounter” experients in the long run, despite the often traumatic nature of these latter types of encounters. 

To account for the psychospiritual and physiological changes that these groups undergo, Ring postulated that somehow kundalini (electrical) energy was being activated in these people through these “extraordinary encounters.” The result was “a radical, biologically based transformation of the human personality.^⁠15” The trend is towards the refinement of humanity.

Numerous NDErs testimony supports the kundalini hypothesis. Barbara Harris told Ring of the unusual heat radiating from parts of her body post-NDE, including her hands (the palms of the hands contain minor chakras). Fellow NDEr Joseph Dippong (president of the Kundalini Research Institute of Canada) awoke from his NDE to immediately notice the extreme heat through his spinal column, saying he felt like a biological transformation had taken place; observers saw a glowing light around his head and face, while he seemed to radiate utter bliss and joy. Sonja, another of Ring’s NDErs like Harris, is convinced that NDEs “activate the kundalini energy.”

Harris described energy movements over her head and face that were similar to Gopi Krishna’s accounts in Kundalini. She noted that the colour was initially deep red, then oranges, yellows, goldens, then blues, and finally violet. Her regular sleep requirement was low, around four hours per night.^⁠16 After her NDE she got her hands on all the kundalini literature she could and found kundalini syndrome to fit perfectly with her post-NDE symptoms. To her, the NDE and kundalini “contain each other.^⁠17”

Notably, numerous NDErs (including Tom Sawyer) also attest that their mind and brain function differently post-NDE. Increased intelligence, creativity, and mental efficiency are commonly reported by NDErs, along with kundalini experiencers. According to Dippong, the idea that, in rare instances when someone is in danger, the kundalini current can rush into the brain to sustain life, has existed in Eastern traditions for centuries.^⁠18

We can definitely infer that conscious contact with “the other side” is triggering significant “epigenetic” changes in NDErs—how else can we account for the spontaneous awakening of psi abilities/siddhis if not through the activation of the electrical charge reservoir at the base of the spine known as kundalini? Other serious researchers have also linked kundalini with NDEs, including Margot Grey and Bruce Greyson.^⁠19 This makes sense of the electrical disturbances caused by some NDErs and abductees. Kundalini—which represents a powerful bioelectric charge—is antagonistic to electricity, and Trevor Constable has shown in Sky Creatures that the energy of UFOs has often caused the failure of electrical systems in close proximity. Bearden may consider kundalini an “anenergy” (analogue to energy); perhaps the phase-conjugate time-reversed aspect of kundalini is what wreaks havoc with regular electrical systems and neutralises it.

It is possible that while not every NDEr necessarily experiences a kundalini awakening, many do, and it may be the prime driving force for their subsequent psychobiological transformation. Clearly not all NDErs are affected in the exact same ways across the board—some are more transformed than others—some receive dramatic kundalini activations, while others do not. 

One thing NDEs do consistently—which need not involve a massive kundalini activation—is further activate the heart chakra/“fourth ray.” Hence the persistent theme/s of increased compassion, empathy, self-acceptance, and a more generalised attitude of love for everyone and everything. This fourth ray activation, according to the channelled Ra material is (to wit) the current major evolutionary leap humans must make en masse in order that the potential new civilisation we might create is not aborted before it has a chance. In fact, we do see the first tentative pangs of this “fourth ray birth” occurring—awkwardly, falteringly, but occurring none the less.

In short, as John White observes, kundalini activation can trigger ego death, divinising the persona, birthing a “universally centred and cosmically conscious” human.^⁠20 Planetary implications for a potential mass kundalini activation are tremendous.

For Krishna, kundalini was the evolutionary energy behind humanity. He wrote that all psychics, mediums, and others with supernormal gifts owed their gifts to awakened kundalini operating within the head without quite reaching the highest centre (crown) —likewise for people of intellectual, literary, or artistic genius.^⁠21 He, like the NDErs discussed above, also stated that his mind’s functioning was permanently altered.^⁠22 It seems germane to mention, as Krishna did, that the archstone of yoga is the emphatic conviction that “by properly directed effort it is possible for a man to complete the evolutionary cycle of human existence in one life and blossom into a transfigured adept in tune with the infinite Reality beyond the phenomenal world…^⁠23” 

The power that “properly directed effort” awakens is, of course, the bioelectric current of Shakti/kundalini, the universal creatrix. (The serpent power—the life force itself—is archetypally feminine.)

Krishna felt, over time, a growing conviction that the transcendental state of being he acquired through his kundalini journey was “the next higher phase of consciousness which humanity is destined to acquire in course of time as its normal possession.^⁠24”

He believed, in fact, that the future safety of the human race depended on it.^⁠25

¹ Humphrey, UFOs, Psi, and Spiritual Evolution, 151.

² Greyson, The Mystical Impact of Near-Death Experiences, SHIFT: AT THE FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS, #17, DECEMBER 2007–FEBRUARY 2008.

³ Dean, Metapsychiatry: The Interface Between Psychiatry and Mysticism, American Journal of  Psychiatry 130:9, September 1973

⁴ Ede Frecska in Inner Paths to Outer Space, 173.

⁵ Atwater, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences, 113, 372. See her more recent commentary on this in The Forever Angels.

⁶ Underhill, Man and the Supernatural, 41–2.

⁷ Ibid., 40.

⁸ See Ring, The Omega Project.

⁹ See Sutherland, Transformed by the Light.

¹⁰ Ibid. Also see Atwater, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences.

¹¹ See Ring, Heading Towards Omega. These trends were marked in Sutherland’s worthy study also.

¹² Krishna, Kundalini, 212.

¹³ See Moody and Perry, Proof of Life After Life, chapter 4.

¹⁴ Jaclyn Carbone, Near-death experience: London man shares what it’s like to die — and then come back, https://globalnews.ca/news/6511832/near-death-experience-london-man-shares-what-its-like-to-die-and-then-come-back/

Also, Celine Zadorsky, ‘I died for eleven and a half minutes': New study looks at near-death experiences, https://london.ctvnews.ca/i-died-for-eleven-and-a-half-minutes-new-study-looks-at-near-death-experiences-1.4792437

¹⁵ Ring, Heading Towards Omega, 168.

¹⁶ Ibid., 236-9.

¹⁷ Ibid., 245.

¹⁸ Dippong, Dawn of Perception, in Ring, Heading Toward Omega, 245.

¹⁹ Ibid., 170.

²⁰ White, Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment, quoted in Ring, Heading Toward Omega, 251.

²¹ Krishna, Kundalini, 88.

²² See Krishna, chapter 6.

²³ Ibid., 123.

²⁴ Ibid., 227.

²⁵ Ibid., 230.