Awakening and the Afterlife

 

This episode of the blog builds on existing, independent research to generate ideas about possible connections between a) awakening to a deeper realisation of who we are and b) our consciousness after the process we call death.

Although religious traditions and ancient philosophies are among the many sources to have written about such things, I’ll be drawing mainly on contemporary sources.

Research into the survival of consciousness after death

Good progress has been made in recent years in gathering research support for the continuation of consciousness after death. One of the best sources of research studies into the afterlife that I know of is the result of the 2021 Bigelow essay competition on ‘Best Evidence for Survival of Human Consciousness after Death’. The website address that contains links to all the prize-winning essays has changed a couple of times, but the one I have put into the Bibliography section below worked for me recently.

One of the papers (Delorme, Radin and Wahbeh, 2022) included a wide-ranging review of the evidence and rated the quality of that evidence on a scale from A (Strong) to F (none). The nine major categories of afterlife evidence were assigned quality ratings from B (Good) to C (Suggestive). Here they are from strongest to weakest:

OBE - Out of Body Experience

EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomena

A source that received relatively less attention in the Bigelow prize-winning essays, however, is that of pure OBEs, i.e. OBEs that were NOT part of a Near-Death Experience (NDE). Some people report having hundreds, if not thousands of OBEs and describe many involving engagement with people who have died and the worlds that they inhabit. I have put links below to the writings of three people who report having large numbers of OBEs involving what they experienced as the afterlife and who have also written accessibly about what they found: William Buhlman, 2009; Mike Marable, 2023 and Jurgen Ziewe, 2015.

It is interesting to note that the afterlife described in these latter sources is different from that given as part of NDE reports. Bear in mind that those having an NDE generally only have one such experience in their life and the circumstances are usually extreme: accidents, violent assaults, severe illness and so on. The afterlife experiences reported by those who have many hundreds of OBEs tend to be much more mundane, during most of their encounters, than the dramatic experiences of the one-off NDE. The afterlife worlds they report are often very similar to the everyday worlds that most of us experience day-to-day – just ordinary towns and cities, populated by people doing ordinary jobs and going to the kind of places we are very familiar with, such as bars, coffee shops, sports venues and so on. So, although they report an apparently infinite variety of afterlife worlds, including higher and lower worlds, they also say that most people have a more mundane afterlife experience, at least to begin with.

Similarly, the writers who report having many OBEs involving the afterlife, tend to draw similar conclusions from them: for example, that our personalities, emotions, values, beliefs etc. are the same or similar immediately after death as they were before! In other words, if we were greedy and selfish before death then we will likely be so after death and, not only that, but the afterlife world we occupy would be experienced as greedy and selfish also. Similar considerations apply to those who were kind and helpful before death. After death their personalities were consistent with that, as were the circumstances and the entities they met. For the sake of convenience I will refer to this as the ‘consistent continuing consciousness’ (or CCC for short) model of the afterlife.

Jurgen Ziewe (Ziewe, 2015) is very explicit about this:

“The place you will live in after you die is a manifestation of your inner life.”

I think this is a good point to remind readers that these experiences and conclusions are speculation for me. Those who have had, and have written about, their OBEs are convinced, as a result, that there is an afterlife and that it has the features they describe, but I have not had such OBE experiences so I simply note what they say with interest.

Let us just wonder for a moment that, if there is something to these accounts of consciousness continuing beyond death and that it has the features described by those who have had hundreds of OBEs, what might the consequences be for the afterlife experiences of those on a path of awakening to a deeper reality?

Research into awakening experiences

Steve Taylor, a psychologist at Leeds Becket University who researches awakening experiences, has studied the features described by those who have had such awakening experiences. In one study with colleague Krisztina Egeto-Szabo (Taylor & Egeto-Szabo, 2017), he found four main triggers of awakening experiences:
    • Psychological turmoil
    • Contact with nature
    • Spiritual practice and
    • Engagement with spiritual literature (or audio or video materials)

His studies have also found a wide range of intensities of awakening experiences. Low intensity experiences included such things as feeling more alive, being in surroundings that seem alive and having a greater sense of clarity.

The authors describe medium intensity experiences as follows:
“A medium intensity awakening experience may include a powerful sense that all things are pervaded with – or manifestations of – a benevolent and radiant ‘spirit- force,’ so that they are all essentially one. The individual may feel part of this oneness, realizing that he or she is not a separate and isolated ego. He or she may feel a strong sense of compassion and love for others, recognising that other individuals are part of the same spiritual ground as them” (Taylor & Egeto-Szabo, 2017).

High intensity experiences include the whole material world dissolving into an ocean of blissful spirit, or feeling that they and the universe are one.

Among the most prevalent and longer-term after-effects of such experiences was a shift in perspectives and values, including feelings of transformation and liberation, knowing that they were not separate from others and awakening to an inner truth that is always there (Taylor & Egeto-Szabo, 2017).

Can these observations about awakening experiences be linked in some way with the descriptions, including those given above, of consciousness surviving after death?

Awakening and the afterlife

On the CCC model described above, we might reasonably speculate that those who have such awakening experiences would be among the likeliest candidates to transition into the higher levels of the afterlife, as described by Jurgen Ziewe, for example.

It is well worth reading Jurgen Ziewe’s experiences in full, but here I will simply paraphrase one of his main conclusions which is that, while we live in this world, much of what we think and do is shaped by the struggle for survival common to all animals. Whereas one of the features of those living in what he calls the superconscious, or higher levels of the afterlife is that they are now aware of the immortality of consciousness so survival is no longer an issue. Feelings of fear and aggression, and their related behaviours for example, are no longer relevant. A consequence is that life in that part of the afterlife becomes more enjoyable to a point of blissfulness (Ziewe, 2015).

Something that I take from the research of Steve Taylor, including the study mentioned above, is that those who have deeper awakening experiences also seem to have moved away from a mindset dominated by survival needs and towards something that we might characterise as more spiritual, for want of a better, less loaded, word.

The point I have been leading towards is the possibility that the apparent parallels between the present-life awakening experiences described by Steve Taylor and others, and the higher-level afterlife experiences described by Jurgen Ziewe and others, are not arbitrary. For most of us, this idea, that awakening experiences may lead to a better life now and perhaps also after death, can only be a speculative possibility. However, to me, this is an important possibility that is worthy of further research and reflection. And, at the very least, let's be a bit kinder to each other...


From ‘The Way of the Bodhisattva’ by 8th century monk, philosopher and poet Shantideva:

For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world.


Bibliography and Videography

Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (n.d.) Essay contest. Accessed on 8th January 2024: https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/index.php/bics-contest-publishing/

Buhlman, W. (2009). Adventures beyond the body: How to experience out-of-body travel. HarperOne.

Delorme, A., Radin, D. and Wahbeh, H. (2022). Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness. Accessed on 8th January 2024: https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/delorme-radin-wahbeh-survival-consciousness.pdf

Marable, M. (2023). How to have a good life after you’re dead: Explorations into the afterlife. Oxford Book Writers.

Taylor, S. and Egeto-Szabo, K. (2017). Exploring awakening experiences: A study of awakening experiences in terms of their triggers, characteristics, duration and after-effects. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 49(1), 45-65.

Ziewe, J. (2015). Vistas of infinity: How to enjoy life when you are dead. ISBN 978-1-326-35338-4


Key words 

afterlife, awakening, enlightenment, Bigelow, consciousness, superconscious,


Image

A royalty-free image representing transition to the afterlife

Link

https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2024/01/awakening-and-afterlife.html