Selections from The transpersonal model of death as presented
in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy by Dr Jean-Louis Siémons Pp -9-20 http://www.blavatsky.net/index.php/near-death-experiences/36-topics/reincarnation/near-death-exp/62-what-is-death
The journey to
death is a mapped out itinerary.
Clearly, dying is
not a haphazard adventure. This subjective journey, "through the avenue of
psychic and last of all of spiritual consciousness", follows a definite
programme, an itinerary ascending through a complete scale of levels of
experience, that have been known and classified for a long time by certain
Oriental schools to which Mme Blavatsky referred.
For instance, when
the dying man feels "up there in space", out of his body, he is just
setting foot, so to say, on the lower rung of "astral" consciousness.
This level, Mme Blavatsky explained, "corresponds in everything to the
terrestrial objective" (consciousness) - a fact duly acknowledged by
NDE'ers who often reported seeing at this moment all the details of the
surroundings, only from a different vantage point.
In most cases, it
is from this (lower astral) level that NDE'ers leave all conscious connection
with the physical environment, to enter the darkness of a kind of
"tunnel" (or black space), through which they feel they are moving,
more or less rapidly, to reach a world of Light.
In some cases too,
experiencers have recounted a sequence of experiences, from hellish to
paradisaical, (always in the same order, from bad to good): this
strongly suggests that they consciously tasted something of the intermediary
levels before reaching the glorious summit of the scale.]
normally skip over when they ascend to the inner Light.
With Theosophy,
there is good reason to believe that the personality enjoys a natural protection
from its higher Alter Ego, at the moment of death.
Curiously, a
similar explanation has been arrived at by various modern authors. Thus, in an
interpretation of unpleasant NDE's, Kenneth Ring states:
Why is this domain
so rarely reported compared to the paradisaical realm? One proposal has
it that the tunnel phenomenon serves as a shield to protect the
individual from an awareness of this domain. It will be recalled that the
tunnel effect itself was interpreted as representing a shift in
consciousness from one level to another. Functionally, this state of
affairs can be compared to a traveller riding a subway underneath the
slums of a city: the subway tunnel prevents him ever being directly aware
of his surroundings although the slums are there. Instead, like the
typical near-death survivor, he begins his trip in darkness and emerges
into the light.[fn 29: K. Ring, Life at Death,
p.249. With theosophical teachings in hand, I suggested the same kind of
explanation in Mourir pour Renaître, p.128.]
This passage
gives an excellent image of the situation, from the theosophical viewpoint.
Now, according to
Mme Blavatsky, the sixth division of the astral consciousness
[...] is the
plane from which come all beautiful inspirations of art, poetry and
music; high types of dreams, flashes of genius. Here we have glimpses of past
incarnations [...]. (The Secret Doctrine, Volume 3 (1897), ‘’Divisions of the
astral plane’’ pp. 553-554)
Finally, at
the very top,
WE ARE ON THE
SEVENTH PLANE AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH OR IN EXCEPTIONAL VISIONS. THE
DROWNING MAN IS HERE WHEN HE REMEMBERS HIS PAST LIFE.
In this
perspective, the core experience at death cannot be attributed to an altered
state of consciousness - of the delirium or hallucination-type. Unambiguously,
it is a state of super-consciousness of perfect lucidity.
According to one of
H.P. Blavatsky's masters:
No man dies insane
or unconscious, [fn 31: This is also the
conclusion of some modern authors, like Dr E. Kübler-Ross. See E. Kemf: E.
Kübler-Ross: "There is No Death.]
as some physiologist assert. Even a madman or one in a fit of delirium
tremens will have his instant of perfect lucidity at the moment of
death, though unable to say so to those present. [fn 32:
Extract from a master's letter to A.P. Sinnett, dated Oct. 1882, Mahatma
Letters, p.170.]
Thus, even if
a man, in his last agony, is caught up in the horrible nightmares of the
intermediary levels, his personal consciousness ultimately finds access to the
complete bliss of the upper stage - "the last ecstasis of
death".
The last moment is
lived in a communion between the personal and the transpersonal.
In the XIXth
century, Theosophy emphasized the importance of the panoramic review of life,
as a central feature in the process of dying. The following passages insist on
the fully detailed, all-comprehensive and extremely rapid character of the
vision (in accordance, with many modern NDE accounts):
At the solemn
moment of death every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of
his past life marshalled before him, in its minutest details [fn 35: H.P.B., The
Key to Theosophy, p.162.]
In brief,
A long life,
perhaps, lived over again in the space of one short second! [fn 36: H.P.B.,
"Memory in the Dying".]
This review,
in perfect lucidity, takes place (as seen before) when the personal consciousness
has reached the highest level open to it on the ascending scale. Then, at that
level,
For one short
instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-knowing Ego[fn 37:
H.P.B., The Key, p.162.]
"Entering the
Light", or "encountering the being of light" - an imaged
interpretation by the personal self of its re-union with its deep-rooted source
of self-consciousness.
No wonder that
NDE'ers should feel unable to describe their experience in usual terms of daily
life language.
In Moody's words,
It has a very definite personality. The love and the
warmth which emanate from this being to the dying person are utterly
beyond words, and he feels completely surrounded by it and taken up in
it, completely at ease and accepted in the presence of this being. He senses an irresistible magnetic attraction to
this light. He is ineluctably drawn to it [fn 43:R. Moody, Life
after Life, p.59.]
Quite often,
in their efforts of description, experiencers use different labels to identify
this "presence - God, Christ, Angel, Guide, or what not. Obviously, in
their complete ignorance of deep (spiritual) psychology, they could hardly find
better terms to translate, in an intelligible mode, this unexpected encounter
with their own individual Ego-Self, which seems to "know all about
them", to bear them "a total love and acceptance" and to have
with them a kind of intimate, "personal" exchange. For very good
reasons indeed - in the light of Theosophy - if we remember that this Ego
is not a stranger to its terrestrial personality, but remains closely
"interested" in its destiny: from birth to death, the transpersonal
individuality broods over (or "meditates") its earthly representative
(or emanation), registering the latter's behaviour and inspiring it with its
own knowledge and energy, through the unspoken language of intuition, dreams,
etc.
Interestingly, this
theosophical interpretation finds definite echoes in near-death literature.
Thus, with Kenneth Ring, we have these pertinent remarks:
Moody spoke of a
"being of light" and though none of our respondents used this
phrase some seemed to be aware of a "presence" (or
"voice") in association with the light[...]. Here we must,
I think, make a speculative leap. I submit that this presence voice is
actually - oneself! It is not merely a projection of one's personality,
however, but one's total self; or what in some traditions is called the
higher self. In this view, the individual personality is but a split-off
fragment of the total self with which it is reunited at the point of
death. During ordinary life, the individual personality functions in a
seemingly autonomous way, as though it were a separate entity. In fact,
however, it is invisibly tied to the larger self structure of which it is
apart". [fn 44:K. Ring. Life at
Death, p.240.]
Equally relevant is
the following speculation preferred by Kenneth Ring:
What has this to do
with the light? The answer is - or so I would say - that this higher self
is so awesome, so overwhelming, so loving, and unconditionally accepting
(like an all-forgiving mother) and so foreign to one's individualized
consciousness that one perceives it as separate from oneself as
unmistakably other. It manifests itself as a brilliant golden light, but
it is actually oneself, in a higher form, that one is seeing". [fn 46:Ibid. p 240]
To conclude, again
in Ring's words - perfectly in line with Theosophy:
The golden light is
actually a reflection of one's own inherent divine nature and symbolizes
the higher self. [fn: 47 Ibid. pp.240-241.
In this passage, the term reflection is quite correct. At this
stage, this golden light perceived by the dying man is only a very
limited effect, on the psychic sphere, of the glorious radiance of the
divine universal SELF hidden in the hearts of all creatures, according to
the Upanishads.]
The fact that
some persons believe that they had "a conversation with God" makes no
difference in this context:
Since most people are
used to thinking dualistically of God as somehow "up there"
while they remain "down here" they can be expected to interpret
their experience with their higher self as a direct encounter with God.
The idea of "God" is after all; more familiar to most people
than is the notion of a higher self. [fn: 48 Ibid. p. 241.]
Part 2
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