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NeuroTheology
Brain, Science, Spirituality,
Religious Experience
University Press
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NeuroTheology
NeuroTheology
Brain, Science, Spirituality,
Religious Experience
Edited by R. Joseph, Ph.D.
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Figure 138.
Jesus presiding
over the
judgement of
those cast into
hell (by Hans
Memlinc).
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There are a variety of conditions which can hyperactive the limbic system, including death.
The anticipation of death, the terror and dread of impending death, are also made possible by the
limbic system. The limbic system can anticipate, and it can feel fear and anxiety in response to the
unknown.
The Cro-Magnon, and peoples of the Neolithic practiced mortuary rituals because they could
also see beyond death, beyond ones personal demise, which is why these earthen graves contained
tools, food, and ornaments. The souls of the dead would need these items in the next world.
The dead, therefore, were believed to survive the experience of dying. It was believed that they
would retain a personal identity, in the form of a personal soul, which would ascend to the heavens
and join the abode of the spirits and the gods.
The ancients were exceedingly concerned about what happened after death, and what trials
and tribulations they may experience in the hereafter. And they worried about evil spirits, and the
behavior of those souls who when alive had committed evil on Earth.
To protect the living, the enemy dead were sometimes decapitated, their hands and legs re-
moved, and their eyes sewn shut and faces smashed, so that their souls would be unable to rise from
the dead and cause mischief in the afterlife. In this regard, the ancients did not necessarily believe
that every soul would immediately ascend to heaven, but may remain tethered to the earth below.
Those souls that remain earth bound were often believed to be evil spirits, undeserving of a
place among the gods. As detailed in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, it was also be-
lieved that some souls could lose their way and remain earthbound.
Yet others, such as the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, believed that souls almost
never immediately ascended to heaven. Instead, the souls of the dead were believed to spend at least
part of eternity in a realm called purgatory.
PURGATORY
Some conceive purgatory as a spirit-like world that exists between this reality and the reality
of God. During the middle ages many Catholic theologians came to believe that the length of time a
soul might remain in purgatory would depend on the nature and extent of their sins. Purgatory was
like a jail sentence, and once sufficient punishment had been doled out, the soul was free to ascend to
heaven.
Likewise, some of those of the Buddhist faith believed that at death, the self, the Atman,
departs to another world, where it works out the consequences of its karma. Some of these worlds
were pleasant, others were hells where retribution was suffered for evil deeds. When the conse-
quences of its karma was worked out, the self was reincarnated (Brandon, 1967, p.171).
Others of the Christian faith also came to believe that upon death the soul merely goes to sleep;
that sleep is the fate of the soul following death until a second awakening at the time of the final
judgment.
According to John Calvin the souls of the faithful, after completing their term of combat and
travail, are gathered into rest, where they await with joy the fruition of their promised glory; and thus
all things remain in suspense until Jesus Christ appears as the Redeemer.
The Koran endorses certain aspects of this view, such that the dead will have no knowledge of
the time that has elapsed since their death. And when the soul awakes to experience judgment day,
they will think they have just awakened from sleep. Hence, the soul was believed to be unconscious
while the body decayed, and is awakened by the trumpet heralding the last judgment.
The ancients, however, believed that the soul could depart the body during sleep, and that death
was the final liberation of the soul. The soul did not sleep. Instead the soul could remain earth bound
and observe all that took place below, or ascend to heaven where it would be embraced by the light.
However, as pointed out by the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, the soul might also be
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embraced by darkness, or they may lose their way and could be harried for all eternity by demons and
devilish monstrosities in the darkness of the underworld.
SUBTERRANEAN HELL
As the dead were often buried in the earth, it was believed by some that the soul may descend
into the earth womb, into the subterranean realms of the spirits and gods of the dead.
The ancient Greeks believed that at death and with the dissolution of the unity of the body,
thymosthe conscious self and the life principlewas released into the air, and transformed into a
wraith, a shadowy image of the living person, known as the eidolon. It was the life principle, psyche,
which descended into Hades, which was a huge subterranean pit deep beneath the ground. There the
life principle became a wraith, and existed with other eidolons, but devoid of self-consciousness in a
state of perpetual and eternal gloom.
Greek thought was in some respects basically identical to that of the Sumerians, Akkadians,
Babylonians, and Israelites who believed that the spirits of all the dead dwelled for all eternity in a
dreary, lightless, subterranean abode. According to the Sumerians and Akkadians death involved a
horrible transformation where the dead became a diseased, decaying, grisly being which descended
to the underworld, the land of no return.
According to the Hebrews, this terrible realm of darkness was called Sheol. Sheol, was where
kings and peasants, rich and poor, good and evil, existed in a state of equal and horrible wretchedness.
Hades and the Hebrew Sheol are identical. The good and the wicked, rich and poor, kings and peas-
ants, all descended into hell and assumed this wraith-like existence in the realm of the dead.
Yet others preached that only the evil go to this subterranean hell. The righteous, the just, and
the good, ascend to heaven and live in bliss for all eternity. However, if one went to heaven or hell
depended on how one had lived their life, and how they were judged by the gods.
For those who have disbelieved... shall roast in fire... and their bellies and skin shall be melted.
To them it is said: Taste the punishment of the burning. -Koran
In contrast to the light and bliss of heaven, Hell has commonly been associated with dark-
ness and the underworld. In part, the notion of an underworld is a direct consequence of burial
practices, and perhaps the belief that sinners will fail to rise to heaven but instead will be condemned
to a bleak existence deep beneath the Earth.
The belief in an underworld where sinners burn in hell, is also related to the worship of the sun
as god. That is, during the day the sun god rules the Earth, but each evening it must pass through the
underworld where it may be attacked by the demons of darkness. Every night, therefore, the sun god
would have to fight these demons, and would do so with the rays of the sun. That is, the sun-god
would burn the enemies of god with the fire of the suns rays. Hence, Hell also became associated
with fire, such that, as these beliefs evolved, sinners and enemies of god would be sent to hell where
they would not only be attacked by devils and demons, but would burn in flames for all eternity.
The belief in Hell and in demons and devils is world wide and vivid descriptions of a hellish
underworld and its demonic denizens are also described in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the
Dead. Indeed, these books were written so as to inform believers as to the mysteries of death and the
trials and tribulations one might experience following death so that demons and other devilish mon-
strosities and misfortunes might be avoided.
For example, priests or relatives of the recently departed were expected to read various hymns,
litanies, magical formula, spells, and incantations from the Egyptian Book of the Dead which would
help protect the dead from the multitude of devils and fiends that would seek to devour and destroy
the spirit-soul. These powers of evil had hideous and terrifying shapes and forms, and their haunts
infested the region through which the road of the dead lay when passing from this world to the
Kingdom of Osiris (Budge, 1994). According to the ancient Egyptians, the gods were basically
powerless to protect the souls from these demons which could inflict horrible suffering upon the
spirit souls for all eternity.
Then the Lord of Death will place around thy neck a rope and drag thee along; he will cut off
thy head, tear out thy heart, pull out thy intestines, lick up thy brain, drink thy blood, eat thy flesh,
and gnaw thy bones; but thou will be incapable of dying. Even when the body is hacked to pieces, it
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will revive again and thy will be tortured for all eternity.-Tibetan Book of the Dead.
However, these evils can also be avoided which is the purpose of these texts. They serve as a
roadmap to heaven. In this regard, these texts actually educate the reader as to The Art of Dying so
that an undesirable and hellish death can be avoided.
Unfortunately, or so say these texts, many are condemned to Hell for all eternity. According to
the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a hellish death is due to the power of accumulated evil Karma.
Likewise, according to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, spirit souls may be judged and condemned to
hell for all eternity if they had behaved in an evil and unjust manner when living. Hence, both texts
warn of a judgment day and a life review and warn that those who have committed evil acts will be
judged, found guilty, and then condemned.
Hence, it can be deduced that by 6,000 years ago, that in addition to a heaven and hell, a moral-
religious spiritual conscience and moral-consciousness has evolved. This is reflected by the religious
conviction that the just and the unjust would be rewarded and punished in the next world after they
had died; their good deeds often weighed against the bad.
As is now well established, a sense of morality and a personal conscience (as in: Let your
conscience be your guide) is directly associated with the functional integrity of the frontal lobe
(Joseph, 1986a, 1999a). The frontal lobes are concerned with anticipating consequences and serve to
inhibit or redirect unacceptable impulses in order to avoid punishment.
It also appears that the frontal lobe had fully evolved and reached its peak levels of develop-
ment and expansion during the Upper Paleolithic. In this regard, although there is no physical evi-
dence to indicate that Upper Paleolithic peoples had also evolved a moral conscience or a concern
that the spirit soul would be punished for past misdeeds, Budge (1994) argues that the Book of the
Dead and the beliefs that permeate the pyramid texts, were already quite ancient by the rise of the
first Dynasty, and thus have pre-dynastic, and therefore, Upper Paleolithic origins.
It is noteworthy that although the Tibetan (and Egyptian) Book of the Dead warn of a judgment
day, and describe all manner of Hellish devils and demons, this text repeatedly reminds the reader
that these demonic entities are a product of ones own mind. They are illusions erupting from the
depths of the primeval unconscious which is freed of the suppressive restraints of the every day
reality and the illusions of this world.
According to this text, different demons and hells are not only associated with the unconscious
but issue from specific regions of the brain, including, according to descriptions in these texts, tissue
of the mind that appear to be associated with the temporal lobes, the right temporal lobe in particular
(eastern regions of the brain). That is, when facing north, the frontal lobes are the northern part of
the brain, the occipital lobes the southern, and the left and right temporal lobes the western and
eastern portions of the brain.
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him, left the room, and then returned a few minutes later he would have no recall of having met or
spoken to you. Dr. Brenda Milner has worked with H.M. for almost 20 years and yet she is an utter
stranger to him.
H.M. is in fact so amnesic for everything that has occurred since his surgery (although memory
for events prior to his surgery is comparatively exceedingly well preserved), that every time he redis-
covers that his favorite uncle died (actually a few years before his surgery) he suffers the same grief
as if he had just been informed for the first time.
H.M., although without memory for new (non-motor) information, has adequate intelligence,
is painfully aware of his deficit and constantly apologizes for his problem. Right now, Im wonder-
ing he once said, Have I done or said anything amiss? You see, at this moment everything looks
clear to me, but what happened just before? Thats what worries me. Its like waking from a dream.
I just dont remember...Every day is alone in itself, whatever enjoyment Ive had, and whatever
sorrow Ive had...I just dont remember (Blakemore, 1977, p.96).
Presumably the hippocampus acts to protect memory and the encoding of new information
during the storage and consolidation phase via the gating of afferent streams of information and the
filtering/exclusion (or dampening) of irrelevant and interfering stimuli. When the hippocampus is
damaged there results input overload, the neuroaxis is overwhelmed by neural noise, and the consoli-
dation phase of memory is disrupted such that relevant information is not properly stored or even
attended to. Consequently, the ability to form associations (e.g. between stimulus and response) or to
alter preexisting schemas (such as occurs during learning) is attenuated (Douglas, 1967).
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to be forgotten or repressed. However, even emotional context can trigger memory (see also Halgren,
1992) in the absence of specific cognitive cues.
Similarly, it is also possible for emotional and non-emotional memories to be activated in the
absence of active search and retrieval, and thus without hippocampal or frontal lobe participation.
Recognition memory may be triggered by contextual or emotional cues. Indeed, there are a small
group of neurons in the amygdala, as well as a larger group in the inferior temporal lobe which are
involved in recognition memory (Murray, 1992; Rolls, 1992). Because of amygdaloid sensitivity to
visual and emotional cues, even long forgotten memories may be evoked via recognition, even when
search and retrieval repeatedly fails to activate the relevant memory store.
According to Gloor (1992), a perceptual experience similar to a previous one can through
activation of the isocortical population involved in the original experience recreate the entire matrix
which corresponds to it and call forth the memory of the original event and an appropriate affective
response through the activation of amygdaloid neurons. This can occur at a relatively non-cogni-
tive (affective) level, and thus lead to full or partial recall of the original perceptual message associ-
ated with the appropriate affect.
Thus the amygdala is responsible for emotional memory formation and recall whereas the
hippocampus is concerned with recalling and storing verbal-visual-spatial and contextual details in
memory. Thus, damage to the hippocampus can impair retention of context, and contextual fear
conditioning, but it has no effect on the retention of the fear itself or the fear reaction to the original
cue (Kim & Fanselow 1992; Phillips & LeDoux 1992, 1996; Rudy & Morledge 1994). In these
instances, fear-memory is retained due to preservation of the amygdala. However, when both the
amygdala and hippocampus are damaged, striking and profound disturbances in memory function-
ing result (Kesner & Andrus, 1982; Mishkin, 1978).
Therefore, the role of the amygdala in memory and learning seems to involve activities related
to reward, orientation, and attention, as well as emotional arousal and social-emotional recognition
(Gloor, 1992, 1997; Rolls, 1992; Sarter & Markowitsch, 1985). If some event is associated with
positive or negative emotional states it is more likely to be learned and remembered. That is, reward
increases the probability of attention being paid to a particular stimulus or consequence as a function
of its association with reinforcement (Gaffan 1992; Douglas, 1967; Kesner & Andrus, 1982).
Moreover, the amygdala appears to reinforce and maintain hippocampal activity via the iden-
tification of motivationally significant information and the generation of pleasurable rewards (through
action on the lateral hypothalamus). However, the amygdala and hippocampus act differentially in
regard to the effects of positive vs. negative reinforcement on learning and memory, particularly
when highly stressed or repetitively aroused in a negative fashion. For example, whereas the hippoc-
ampus produces theta in response to noxious stimuli the amygdala increases its activity following the
reception of a reward (Norton, 1970).
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mons, angels, and even God, as well as claim demonic and angelic possession or the sensation of
having left their body (Bear 1979; Gloor 1986, 1992; Horowitz, Adams & Rutkin 1968; MacLean
1990; Mesulam 1981; Penfield & Perot 1963; Schenk, & Bear 1981; Weingarten, et al. 1977; Will-
iams 1956).
In consequence, under conditions such as death, these limbic system structures may become
excessively aroused, freed of inhibitory restraint, and begin to recall and judge personal memories,
as well as hallucinate all manner of forms and images, including those of gods, demons, angels and
devils who pass judgment.
JUDGMENT DAY
It is commonly believed that some souls will go to heaven, and others would spend eternity in
hell. The determination of which soul would go where, thus gave rise to the concept of being judged.
The nature of ones afterlife depended on how one was judged and the nature of ones good and evil
deeds. Death, therefore, also became a final judgment day where the wicked were punished, and the
good rewarded with eternal heavenly bliss.
We do not know if the Cro-Magnon believed in hell or a final judgment. The ancient Sumerians,
Babylonians, and Egyptians, as well as the ancient peoples of the Indus valley, and ancient China
clearly believed that a final judgment awaited man after death.
For example, in the Rig-Veda we are told that the good are invited to live in heaven, whereas
the wicked are hurled by the deities Soma and Indra into an eternally dark prison from whence there
is no return.
According to the ancient Egyptians, the woman and man who respected and maintained maat
that is, truth, justice, and righteousnesswould achieve a state of eternal beatitude, whereas those
who did not could expect to suffer in a dreary Hellish underworld where they and the enemies of the
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sun god Ra would burn for all eternityroasted by the burning rays of the sun. Most of these ideas
were laid out in considerable detail in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts.
The Pyramid Texts were composed and compiled by the priests of Heliopolis, to help the dead
pharaohs achieve eternal bliss in the afterlife. Only the morally just could expect to enter heaven.
Nevertheless, the dead, both good and evil, would have to defend themselves against every accusa-
tion. Life in the afterworld could be easily imperiled by accusations of those who had been wronged.
Yet, in ancient Egypt, it was believed that the chief accuser would be memory, the deads own
memories, and the deads own heart would recount and remember their good or evil deeds. Indeed, it
would be hell to be plagued for all eternity by every bad memory and all associated feelings of guilt
and psychic pain.
This same belief is recounted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead: You are now before Yama,
King of the Dead. The mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also
his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounces your own judgment, which in turn
determines your rebirth.
However, whereas the Tibetan Buddhists believed that the souls of the dead passed judgment
on themselves, the ancient Egyptians believed that the Great God Osiris would pass judgment. Osiris,
would hold and weigh the scales of justice.
JUDGMENT
The Great God of the ancient Egyptians did not pass judgment alone, for in this he was assisted
by a council of 12, a tribunal of the Great God. As detailed in the Book of the Dead, the jackal-headed
god of death, Anubis, adjusts the scales of justice which will determine ones fate; to his right stands Thoth,
the ibis-headed god of wisdomthe divine scribe who records the final verdict. And behind Osiris crouches
a horrible hybrid monster, the eater of the dead.
The council which judges the deficient, thou knowest that they are not lenient on the day of
judging the miserable, the hour of doing their duty. It is woe when the accuser is one of knowledge.
Do not trust in length of years, for they regard a lifetime as but an hour. A man remains after death,
and his deeds are placed beside him in heaps. However, existence yonder is for eternity, and he who
complains of it is a fool. But as for him who reaches it without wrong-doing, he shall exist yonder
like a god, stepping out freely like the lords of eternity. -Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Not only is it futile for the guilty to proclaim their innocence, but the consequences, the man-
ner in which the balance sways depends on ones own heart and memories, which will testify against
the dead. According to the ancient Egyptians, the heart will be laid upon the scales and weighed
against the lightness of a feather and balanced against Maat; Maat being truth.
good outweighs the evil, salvation would be at hand, for it could be expected that the offenses
of which thou art accused will be eliminated, thy fault wiped out by the balancing of the balance, in
the day of the evaluation of qualities; thou causes the weighing to be made as Thoth. -Egyptian
Book of the Dead.
As noted, according to the ancient Egyptians the final judgment is listed into a book. Jewish,
Christian and Islamic faith also involves a book in which the final judgment is listed.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written
in the books, by what they had done. -R.S.V. 10:11-15.
According to the ancient Hebrews, a sinner might have his name erased from the book: who
ever sins against me, I will blot out of my book. Exodus 33:33. And with this erasure, by having
ones name blotted out, the soul of the dead would be condemned for all eternity, forgotten forever,
never to be remembered even by the Lord God.
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Figure 142. Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead weighing the souls of the dead.
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Figure 143. The Archangel Michael weighing the souls of the dead. Detail from the Last
Judgement (by Hans Memlinc.)
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Figure 144. Ani and his wife Thuthu entering the Hall of Judgement.
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Figure 145. Anubis testing the balance upon which sits a feather (right) and the
heart (in container, left).
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Figure 147. Thoth recording the judgement. The Devourer of the dead crouches behind him.
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Figure 148. Ani kneeling before the thron of Osiris (next page).
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Figure 149. Osiris upon his throne. Behind him are the gods Isis and Nephyths.
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abode of the gods in heaven at which point the dead bask in a shining, glorious light and are led into
the presence of dead relatives and brethren, and finally to the divine being Osiris, who is said to have
made men and women to be born again and where they then dwell in bliss for all eternity having
achieved everlasting life: My soul is God. My soul is eternity (Budge, 1994).
It is noteworthy that the soul, at first, usually does not know it is dead, that the body has died.
According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead: When the consciousness-principle gettest outside the
body, it sayeth to itself, Am I dead, or am I not dead? It cannot determine. It can see that the body is
being stripped of its garments. It seeth its relatives and heareth the weepings and wailings of friends
and relatives, and although it seeth them and heareth them calling upon him, they seeth him not.
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ences, including dissociation, depersonalization and the splitting off of ego functions. They may feel
as if they have separated from their bodies and floated away, or were on the ceiling looking down
(Campbell 1988; Courtois 1995; Grinker and Spiegel 1945; James 1958; Neihardt and Black Elk
1932/1989; Noyes and Kletti 1977; Parson 1988; Southard 1919; Terr 1990). Consider the following
accounts:
The next thing I knew I wasnt in the truck anymore; I was looking down from 50 to 100 feel
in the air. I had a clear image of myself... as though watching it on a television screen. I had a
sensation of floating. It was almost like stepping out of reality. I seemed to step out of this world
(Noyes and Kletti 1977).
Or as a close friend described his experience: I was shooting down the freeway doing about
100 in my Mustang when a Firebird up ahead suddenly cut me off. As I switched lanes to avoid him,
he also switched lanes at which point I hit the breaks and began to lose control. The Mustang began
to slide and spin... I felt real terror I was probably going to be killed... I was trying to control the
Mustang and avoid turning over, or hitting any of the surrounding cars or the guard rail time
seemed to slow down and then I suddenly realized that part of my mind was a few feet outside the car
looking all around; zooming above it and then beside it and behind it and in front of it, looking at and
analyzing the respective positions of my spinning Mustang and the cars surrounding me. Simulta-
neously I was inside trying to steer and control it in accordance with the multiple perspectives I was
suddenly given by that part of my mind that was outside. It was like my mind split and one con-
sciousness was inside the car, while the other was zooming all around outside and giving me visual
feedback that enabled me to avoid hitting anyone or destroying my Mustang.
As noted, many patients who are diagnosed as clinically dead and then return to life report
that after leaving their body they enter a dark tunnel and are then enveloped in a soothing radiant light.
The same is reported in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead.
Presumably, in that the hippocampus, amygdala, and inferior temporal lobe receive direct and
indirect visual input and contain neurons sensitive to the fovea and upper visual fields, hyperactivation
of this region also induces the sensation of seeing a radiant light. The massive release of opiates (due
to physical trauma leading to death) would account for the immediate loss of fear and the experi-
ence of tranquillity and joy. Continued activation of these brain regions would also account for the
hallucinations of seeing dead relatives, that are commonly reported by those who have died, as
well as the life review, in which ones past life flashes before their eyes.
At death, the amygdala and hippocampus would begin to remember, and memories that were
emotional and personal, and all accompanying emotions, such as guilt, would be experienced as part
of death. That is, not just the memory, but the awful feeling of the memory would be reexperienced.
These structures, therefore, account for the feeling of floating above the body, the life review, and the
judgment imposed on the self by their guilty or guilt-free conscience.
The hyperactivation of these limbic structures, therefore, explains why those who have near
death experiences report feelings of peace, rapture and joy as they were bathed by the light and
stood in the all knowing presence of God or other divine beings including friends and relatives
who had previously passed away. Indeed, these exact same feelings and experiences can be induced
by electrically stimulating the inferior temporal lobe and amygdala-hippocampal complex.
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BLACK ELK
Compare Eadies description with that of Black Elk (Neihardt and Black Elk, 1932/1989), a
Lakota Sioux Medicine Man and spiritual leader (born in 1863). During a visit to England (he was
part of Buffalo Bills Wild West Show) he suddenly fell out of his chair as if dead, and then experi-
enced himself being lifted up. In fact, his companions thought he had died.
According to Black Elk: Far down below I could see houses and towns and green land and
streams... I was very happy now. I kept on going very fast...Then I was right over Pine Ridge. I
looked down (and) saw my fathers and mothers teepee. They went outside, and she was cooking...
My mother looked up, and I felt sure she saw me... then I started back, going very fast...Then I was
lying on my back in bed and the girl and her father and a doctor were looking at me in a queer way...I
had been dead three days (they told him)...and they were getting ready to buy my coffin (pp. 226-
228).
This was not Black Elks first out of body experience, however. Black Elk demonstrated nu-
merous behaviors and symptoms suggestive of temporal lobe epilepsy. Beginning even in childhood
Black Elk repeatedly experienced queer feelings and heard voices, had visions, and suffered nu-
merous instances of sudden and terrible fear and depression accompanied by weeping, as well as
trance states in which he would fall to the ground as if dead.
Black Elk also had other visions similar to those reporting life-after-death experiences, in-
cluding the following incident that occurred during one of his trance and out-of-body states: Twelve
men were coming towards me, and they said, Our father, the two-legged chief, you shall see... There
was a man standing. He was not Wasichu (white) and he was not an Indian. While I was staring at
him his body began to change and became very beautiful with all colors of light, and around him
there was light... (p. 245).
Similar accounts, including descriptions of a tribunal of 12 are detailed in the Egyptian Book
of the Dead.
Ms. Eadie (like many others who have experienced life after death) came upon a man stand-
ing in the light which radiated all around him. As I got closer the light became brilliant...I saw that
the light was golden, as if his whole body had a golden halo around it, and I could see that the golden
halo burst out from around him and spread into a brilliant, magnificent whiteness that extended out
for some distances (pp. 40-41).
ASTRAL ANTIQUITY
Muhammed reports that while sleeping and dreaming he was lifted into the air and transported
by the angel Gabriel from Arabia to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There he was greeted by three
men, who he believed to be Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, as well as a crowd of other prophets. He was
then lifted up and entered a divine sphere and came upon the garden of promise and, according to the
Koran, saw a lote-tree veiled in a veil of nameless splendor.
In Hinduism, the lote tree symbolizes the limit of this reality and rational thought.
St. Augustine reports he was lifted up by an ardent affection towards eternal being itself... we
climbed beyond all corporate objects and the heaven itself, where sun, moon, and stars shed light on
the earth.
Some individuals (and their followers) claim to be able to voluntarily leave their body (Mon-
roe, 1994), this includes any number of mystics, and New Age spiritualists, as well as some priests,
prophets and shamen. Indeed, Monroe (1994) founded an Institute to study this phenomenon, and
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claims that others can learn this technique. Monroe, however, notes that when he had his first out-of-
body experience he had felt extremely frightened.
That so many people, regardless of culture or antiquity, have similar experiences (or hallucina-
tions) while in trance states,ying,ivingteseir [(bity)99.1(2i)0ed hpresumabemedueof-
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