The title isn’t a criticism. Dr. Raymond Moody, who originated the term “near death experience” in the 1970’s, did his doctoral dissertation on “the concept of unintelligibility, what makes something nonsensical.” In an interview on the excellent Past Lives Podcast*, he describes his work as :
Once we get the concepts (of what makes something nonsensical) down, then it becomes much easier to talk in a rational framework about the afterlife. And I knew beginning 30 years ago that eventually, somebody who’d been through my nonsense course or workshop would happen to have a near death experience. And when they did, I knew … that once you know the principles of how nonsense works, then when you have a near death experience, it puts it in a wholly new light and gives you a way to describe it and make it more intelligible.
Substitute a past life for the near death experience, and you have a fascinating way to approach that which defies logic and is outside of ordinary physical reality. I work regularly with a shamanic journeying group here in Asheville, and those journeys were my introduction to comprehending non-ordinary experiences that border on the nonsensical. I’ve done past life session with many people from this group and they have described some amazing experiences. The instructions given are the same in both shamanic journeying and my own group work:
Trust the first image.
After hearing Raymond Moody interviewed, I may have to add:
Especially if it makes no sense.
Later in the podcast, Dr. Moody says something surprising:
I am 74 years old; I am sick and tired of Raymond Moody. The idea that I would be this one person and personality for eternity is horrifying to me…That I have to bear this name Raymond Moody on and on until infinity, that’s just totally unacceptable to me. But as I gather, there’s some kind of developmental process that, after you’ve died, your mind, your identity, your soul…seems to transform into some other kind of state of consciousness or existence.
An interesting perspective from a man who’s been doing this deep consciousness work for over 50 years but only acknowledged the reality of reincarnation after both of his adopted children related “remembrances” from a past life. Check out the podcast:
*http://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/past-lives-podcast-ep60-raymond-moody/