This article is both a review and commentary on the book Proof of Life After Life by Dr. Raymond Moody as well as an introductory study of Thanatology, or the ancient Greek science of death and dying, as well as the phenomenon of NDEs, or Near Death Experiences.
Introduction: To the Memory of Mrs. Nagata
Writing these blog postings is something like being a magician, and having to pull a rabbit out of a hat; it also brings up issues that all writers have, like confronting the problem of writer’s block. Where the heck is the idea for my next blog posting gonna come from? In one way or another, after tossing these questions around in my mind for a while, the idea finally begins to gel and take form. This blog posting is about the science of Thanatology, which is Greek for the study of death. And it was one of the subjects that my home stay mother in Japan, Mrs. Nagata, would tirelessly study and research; in fact, I remember that she had a dog eared copy of a book by that name, written in her native Japanese, that she was reading and studying. Mrs. Nagata seemed to be like a classical Greek philosopher reborn in our own day and age; like her ancient forebears, she would passionately study just about everything, and we had long, soulful conversations about many profound subjects that would often last late into the night. The Nagata family, who lived in Ikeda City, a suburb of Osaka, was also a very musical family; I would play flute duets with the oldest Nagata son, Masato, and her younger son, Ryoji Nagata, ran a recording and sound studio business with his friends. For me and my adopted Japanese family, the Nagatas, you could say that the family that plays together stays together. Mrs. Nagata often told me that she felt like I was her own son.
I stayed with the Nagata family way back in my twenties, when I was teaching English in and around Osaka, Japan; it was the seventies, which was the golden age of English teaching in Japan. I could make quite good money teaching English only part time, and studied the Japanese bamboo flute, the Shakuhachi, in my spare time on a cultural activities visa. I was also somewhat of a missionary for a spiritual path called Eckankar, which billed itself as the Ancient Science of Soul Travel. As a child, I had had out of body experiences, or OBEs, which led eventually to my finding Eckankar in my college days. Although many would characterize Eckankar as a cult, I nevertheless had some of my most amazing and profound spiritual experiences when I was a member of their organization, and with my linguistic skills in Japanese, I had volunteered to be a missionary or area representative for them. My early out of body experiences were triggered by my profound soul inquiries and contemplations on the ultimate mysteries of life and death: If we are all going to die someday, and none of us can escape it, and if, at some future moment in time, essentially no different from the present moment, I will not even be here in a physical body, and I might not even exist at all, then why o why do I even exist now??? These deep ponderings of mine would trigger spontaneous out of body experiences.
Proof of Life After Life: Is It Really for Real?
The other thing that led to the idea for this blog posting was a book I have been reading in recent days, entitled Proof of Life After Life: Seven Reasons to Believe in the Afterlife by Dr. Raymond Moody, whose blockbuster bestseller Life After Life, which came out in the mid seventies, coined the term NDE, or Near Death Experience, and his coauthor, Paul Perry. Near Death Experiences, says Dr. Moody now, while being very vivid and intense, have one great drawback: they are all too subjective or personal. What is needed to provide final, definite proof of the afterlife was having the NDE, or Near Death Experience, or parts of it, shared with at least one other person, in order to be objectively verified. And so, with this latest book, Dr. Moody has coined the term SDE, or Shared Death Experience. With objective verification from others, the previously subjective NDE steps over the line from the subjective to the objective. In this book, Dr. Moody lists, and subsequently discusses, seven different types of SDEs, or Shared Death Experiences, that he says provides objective proof of the afterlife:
Out of Body Experiences, or OBEs, in which the person who is having a Near Death Experience finds him- or herself out of their physical body while they are otherwise unconscious or clinically dead, and subsequently returns to their body to provide the doctors and nurses who were working on them to save their life with precise, objective details of what went on that they couldn’t have known in their unconscious or clinically dead state. These objective verifications of things experienced during the NDE’s OBE have also been called veridical experiences.
Precognitive Experiences are experiences in which someone gets a hunch or premonition of another person’s impending or as yet unknown death which is later revealed to be accurate and correct. This suggests that the dying person was able to communicate psychically or spiritually about their impending or undiscovered death with the precognitive percipient.
The Transforming Light refers to the various ways in which the spiritual light or power of a Near Death Experience can positively change the recipient’s life for the better, in ways that are objectively visible and verifiable to others, especially to those who knew the person well before their Near Death Experience, or NDE. Scientific studies incorporating a number of these cases have been done and statistically analyzed to prove the spiritually transformational nature of the NDE.
Terminal Lucidity is a phenomenon in which terminally ill people who have previously been comatose, unconscious or incapacitated revive themselves into full functional lucidity and bodily activity for a brief period and then die shortly thereafter. Sometimes the phenomenon of Terminal Lucidity occurs when the provable absence of things like brain waves or other vital signs indicates that such a lucid episodes should be physically impossible.
Spontaneous Muses, Healings and Skills refers to the awakening of new or hidden talents and abilities that the NDE can bring about, which are objectively verifiable to others who knew the NDEr previously. Although the precise reason why NDEs have this power or effect on people is unknown, the fact that it happens is objectively verifiable in many different cases, and is another testament to the transformational power of the NDE.
Light, Mist and Music are three common elements of an NDE or a person’s death or passing that can accompany such events and experiences, which are often seen, experienced and verified by others. Here again, the precise cause or causes for these phenomena are unknown, but the fact that it happens is objectively verifiable.
The Psychomanteum is a kind of healing temple or sanctuary that Dr. Moody has devised to which people can go to contact the spirits of deceased relatives or loved ones. The main method or modality that is used to make this contact is what is called scrying in the occult, or gazing into a dark colored mirror in order to summon and visualize these spirits. Sometimes, says Dr. Moody, the spirit of the deceased steps out of the mirror in order to materialize in front of the percipient. You can even build your own Psychomanteum in your very own home, says Dr. Moody.
Enter the Ancient Greeks
Throughout his book, Dr. Moody refers frequently to the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato, who wrote about death and NDEs in his dialogues. At the end of Plato’s Republic, for example, Plato relates the Myth of Er, which is probably the oldest story of a Near Death Experience that there is. Er, who was a soldier wounded on the battlefield, is able to visit the land of the dead, and even witness the process of souls going to the afterlife and returning from it to earthly existence, and then return back to life to tell others about what he saw. In his book, Dr. Moody tells us that even the philosophical genius Plato felt that, when it comes to death and the afterlife, that case studies were all we had to go on, since it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to set up the whole thing as a laboratory experiment that can be duplicated and verified. That’s why, says Dr. Moody, he has been so aggressively and proactively seeking out and collecting as many case histories and accounts as he can.
A short Video summarizing Plato’s Phaedo. Courtesy of YouTube.
The classical Greek philosophers studied everything – and I mean everything – not only regarding life and the world / universe we live in, but about death and the hereafter as well. When it comes to Plato’s ideas about the afterlife, perhaps the most important dialogue of Plato is Phaedo; it describes the death of Socrates, the master philosopher, and how he faces his death sentence with calmness, equanimity and good cheer. Socrates, says Plato, was falsely accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced to death for it by drinking the poison Hemlock. Hemlock, or the Conium maculatum herb, was a poisonous plant that slowly and painlessly put its victims to death by lulling them into a deep sleep in which their breathing, heartbeat and other vital functions would stop; it was used as a humane method of capital punishment back in ancient Greece. Socrates has to drink a lot of the Hemlock potion before he finally dies, and while the Hemlock is slowly taking effect, he discourses with his friends and disciples on the mysteries of life after death and the philosophical arguments for it.
The true philosopher, says Socrates, is not afraid to face death; in fact, he welcomes it as the Soul’s final release from the body and all its enticing and corrupting pleasures and sensations. The physical mind and senses, says Socrates, are poor preceptors of the truth, and the philosopher longs for the time when he will finally be free of them and free to perceive Truth as it is, without their hindrance. Socrates puts forth four main arguments for the reality of the Soul and its continued existence after death:
The Cyclical Argument – All movement and change in this universe are cyclical, not linear, because if things all changed in only one direction, when the final or most extreme state was reached, things would be unable to change any further. And so, in this universe of constant change, things have to move in cycles, because this allows for constant change. When Socrates makes the Cyclical Argument, you really get the feeling that, like the complementary opposites of Yin and Yang in Chinese philosophy, life and death are really just two sides of the same coin. Once life spends or exhausts itself, death ensues, so it’s quite reasonable to conclude that the after death state is probably a process which, when it has run its full course, leads in turn back to life, or rebirth. The dead came from the living, and the living are reborn from the dead; this argument is quite congruent with the doctrine of Metempsychosis, which is the Transmigration of Souls, or reincarnation.
The Recollection Argument – Our word “educate”, comes from an old Greek word meaning, “to bring out”. In other words, a good teacher or educator will ask questions that lead the pupil or student to bring out, or bring forth, things or ideas that he really knew deep inside all along. Abstract concepts like “equality” derive from what Plato called the perfect Forms, or Archetypes, which people instinctively know or recognize, even when encountering them for the first time in their earthly existence, because, before they came into physical embodiment, they knew their perfect forms or archetypes in their prior spiritual existence. And even if the physical forms they encounter are only imperfect facsimiles, the similarity to the perfect forms is close enough that recognition takes place. When coupled with the Cyclical Argument, this makes a strong case for the immortality of the Soul, which can be seen as going back and forth, in cyclical fashion, between the two opposite yet complementary states of life and death.
The Affinity Argument – This is kind of like the Law of Attraction in that, after death, the Soul goes its own way, being attracted to that which it has a natural or inherent affinity for, and the body goes its own way, with its constituent parts and elements decomposing and returning to the earth from whence they came. This rests on Plato’s “two worlds” theory of metaphysics, which posits that the Soul, by its essential nature, belongs to the spiritual world of pure or perfect forms, or archetypes, which are unalloyed or non-composite and changeless. On the other hand, the body is a composite of many parts or elements, and is always changing throughout life; when the Soul withdraws at death, the body decays and returns to the earth. If a man is well trained in the fundamental principles of philosophy and is inwardly oriented towards the things of the Spirit, he is free to return to the spiritual world from whence he came upon the death of the physical body, but if he has become too attached or deluded by the things of this world, he can often become a troubled, earth bound spirit or phantom.
The Argument of Opposites – Things or states that are contrary in nature cannot coexist together. For example, fire is hot, and snow is cold; the two cannot coexist in the same place at the same time, because when the one comes, the other must either be extinguished, or it must flee. Similarly, death and the Soul cannot coexist together; when death comes, the Soul must flee – or, more precisely, when the Soul leaves the body, death must ensue because the Soul is pure life and consciousness, whereas death is its polar opposite. The Soul keeps the body alive as long as it is inhabiting a body; since the body has no life inherent within it, when the Soul withdraws, the body must die and decay. I have always considered the miracle of Life, and its incredible complexity, organization and conscious awareness to be one of the best arguments for the existence of God, and, by extension, the immortal Soul.
Midway through the dialogue, Socrates’ companions bring up certain objections to these theories, which Socrates then proceeds to answer or refute. These concerns or objections mirror the very doubts that many have about the immortality of the Soul, even today. It is interesting to note that, while many dogmatic conservative Christians tout Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as the only way to salvation, Socrates, as the perfect philosopher, also willingly gave up his own life rather than to compromise his principles. In that way, Socrates could also be seen as a philosophical redeemer, or at least as a spiritual guide or wayshower. And there are no overly zealous missionaries looking to shove Socrates’ way down our throats, thank God!
Why Study Death and Dying? Why Try to Contact the Dead?
Why is it even worth our while to study death and dying? When you’re dead, you’re dead, and that’s it – so why study it? Why try to contact the spirits of the dead? Aren’t all those who claim to do so merely frauds and charlatans, out to exploit the grieving? These might be the prevailing consensus opinions, but seriously – what can we expect to gain out of a study of death and dying? Why even bother? To sum things up from a more positive and open minded perspective, there are basically two big reasons for engaging in these endeavors: The first reason is to help people heal from grief at the tragic loss of their loved ones. And the second reason or purpose is to give our own lives an extended framework that will hopefully give our lives more meaning and purpose. To those who are steeped in modern scientific skepticism and materialism, the approaching end of their life may bring a gloomy cloud of utter hopelessness and cynicism. If my whole existence will soon be completely snuffed out, why even bother to cultivate myself and try to be a better human being?
On the one extreme, you have the gullible and naïve who are ripe for manipulation and exploitation by the unscrupulous charlatan; you might say that these individuals are blinded by their desperate need to believe – call it blind faith, if you will. On the other extreme, there are those who cling just as desperately to the total materialistic reductionism of modern scientific dogma. Science can be a great thing, but science in itself can become its own dogmatic belief system – a belief system that can be so closed and rigid that it will not even dare to consider any evidence that might contradict those cherished dogmas. I once watched a movie about Saint Bernadette and the discovery of the miraculous healing springs at Lourdes, France. In the movie’s introduction, the narrator said that for some, no proof is needed, whereas for others, no amount of proof could ever be enough. This sums up the continuum of faith versus doubt or disbelief in a nutshell. Hopefully, one wants to find a happy medium or a Golden Mean between these two extremes – in other words, one wants objective evidence or proof of an afterlife, but exactly how much proof is required in order to believe may vary from one individual to the next, depending upon their inner spiritual nature and temperament.
As I was reading Dr. Moody’s book, I became thrilled at the prospect of the therapeutic potential of various services related to death and dying. Most obviously, trained counselors and therapists are needed to counsel those who are grieving, with specific training in the latest revelations from the pioneers in the study of NDEs and the science of the survival of human consciousness after bodily death. For those who are into hypnosis and past life regression therapy, this would obviously be beneficial, as many who have gone through it report the sudden remission of various psychosomatic disorders that had their origins in past lives when the original traumatic event that initiated those disorders is relived and brought to consciousness again. And of course, the Psychomanteum that Dr. Moody writes about in his book would be a very valuable healing tool; Dr. Moody writes in his book that he was quite surprised that the actual results he obtained with it far exceeded his expectations. In many cases, all that the bereaved need is a chance to see their dear departed loved ones once again, just to know that they are alright.
The Case for Reincarnation
The ancient Greeks were firm believers in reincarnation, which they called Metempsychosis, or the Transmigration of Souls. Perhaps the ancient Greek philosopher whose name is most closely linked with the doctrine is Pythagoras, who is said to have remembered all his past lives. This core belief in reincarnation can be seen by the structure of Socrates’ arguments and the reasoning behind them; the Recollection argument proves that the Soul must have existed in the spiritual world of perfect Forms before its earthly birth, while the Cyclical Argument sees both birth and death, or the world of the living and the world of the dead, as two sides of the same coin. Christianity as we know it today is actually the perfect fusion or blending of both the Judaic and the Hellenistic streams of religion and spirituality; I call it the “mystery religionization” of Judaism, with Jesus Christ in the starring role as its dying and rising savior deity. The gospel writers were mostly educated Greeks who skillfully wove hidden threads from classical Greek religion and philosophy into the gospels they wrote. Jesus openly proclaims the doctrine of reincarnation to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, telling them that the Old Testament prophet Elijah has reincarnated as John the Baptist.
There are other passages from the Christian gospels as well that make allusions to this timeless and universal doctrine. In the prenatal visitation scene from Luke’s gospel, the fetus of John the Baptist, then in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, jumps for joy when Mary, then newly pregnant with Jesus, steps into Elizabeth’s house. This suggests that Jesus and John the Baptist were twin souls, with John the Baptist being Elijah reincarnated, and Jesus being his past life disciple, Elisha, reincarnated as well. Because Jesus had spiritually perfected himself in his previous lifetime as Elisha, all that was needed to reawaken him to his previously exalted spiritual level of consciousness was for John to baptize him in the River Jordan. In the ninth chapter of John’s gospel, when Jesus and his disciples encounter a man who had been blind since birth, the disciples ask him who had sinned, this man or his parents, that he had been born blind. Jesus adroitly sidesteps this question and proceeds to heal this man of his blindness. The very fact that Jesus could have rebuked the disciples for believing in reincarnation but didn’t do so is tacit admission that at the very least, he had no problems with this doctrine.
For the first five hundred years of Christianity’s history, Christians were free to believe in the doctrine of reincarnation if they chose to do so. Reincarnation, and the teachings of the early Christian philosopher Origen, who was its strongest proponent, were finally banned from Christianity at the Second Council of Constantinople, which was convened by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 553 AD. Justinian was the last of the great Byzantine emperors to be involved in the systematic persecution of Hellenistic religion and philosophy, and really wanted to put the finishing touches on the process – the last nail in the coffin, as it were. And one core belief of the old Hellenistic philosophies and mystery religions was reincarnation. If Christians were no longer free to believe in reincarnation if they chose to do so, this gave the clergy a lot more power and control over their lives.
Today, many sects and denominations of dogmatic, conservative Christians believe in an angry and wrathful God who is only too eager to condemn them to hell for all eternity for their sins, or even if they hold the wrong beliefs. But this puts God on a very low moral and ethical level: God, like Al Capone, is making you an offer you can’t refuse: Accept my Son as your personal Lord and Savior or fry in hell for all eternity! But are conservative Christian beliefs in a jealous, wrathful “gangster God” really a sane and rational way to look at the Supreme Being and one’s relationship with him? And is this way of thinking and believing really a true and accurate depiction of spiritual reality? If we accept the doctrine of reincarnation, then we see this physical world we are born into as being one big school house, with different souls being born at different times, and in different situations and circumstances, in order to learn important spiritual lessons that they could not learn otherwise. Where each embodied Soul is now is exactly where their previous lifetimes have led him or her, and each will continue on in their spiritual journey and evolution exactly where they left off in this lifetime. If this lifetime we are currently living is subject to so many difficult and nuanced problems and choices that we have to make, is it really reasonable to believe that the afterlife will be so starkly black or white?
If one is truly to be a healer, then one important form of healing, I feel, is to liberate entrapped souls from negative and toxic beliefs, like the ones held by conservative, fundamentalist forms of Christianity, such as those I have described above. I have been privileged to see the drama of reincarnation play out in my own life, concretely demonstrating how my current lifetime is indelibly linked to lifetimes that went before. It seems like this website of mine, on classical Greek Medicine, just might turn out to be my crowning achievement in this lifetime, and I firmly believe that it very well may never have happened if it had not been for the fateful intervention or stepping into my life of someone from my own karmic past, seemingly under coincidental circumstances. And I am referring to my dear friend Sam, without whom this website would never have been possible. My Romanian friend Sam (in this lifetime at least), who I knew in a previous lifetime, could be called the godfather of this website, as it was his idea, after I unexpectedly wound up in Romania under implausible circumstances, that I start a website – and this is the result!
An Invitation to Dialogue: What Would You Like to See in These Blog Postings?
I know that I have written about a subject that is a bit off the beaten path in this blog posting. Such topics may appeal to you, or they may not, and you might be yearning for something different. Dear Reader: This is just as much your website as it is mine, and so your personal feedback on this question is vitally important. Also, any questions or comments you might have about this latest blog posting you are also free to ask, and I will answer to the best of my ability. Please address your email comments to: davido@greekmedicine.net .