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 Ego's quasi
omniscience is a key to interpret the dying man's conscious experience in its
higher phase.
Precisely, in the
process of dying, all the necessary conditions are met for this amazing power
of omniscience to be displayed in various ways.
Essentially, it is
manifest in the following items:
The objective,
panoramic review of life.
Now, even though
this sudden reminiscence of life at the "last" moment was known in
H.P. Blavatsky's time, her brief analysis of it reveals an unquestionable experimental
knowledge of this strange experience. Comparisons with modern NDE accounts may
be made, as follows:
"He reads his
life [...] as a spectator... .
There was a certain
detachment as I watched all this. I had the sensation that I was on the
outside looking in and it seemed that this reoccurence [sic] of my life
was taking place in front of me and I was viewing it. [fn: 52 R. Noyes & R.
Kletti, "Panoramic Memory a Response to the Threat of
Death".]
[...] I saw my
whole past life take place in many images, as though on a stage as some
distance from me. [fn: 53 A. Heim, "Notizen
über den Tod durch Absturz".]
"[...] as a
spectator looking down into the arena he is quitting".
I acted out my
life, as though I were an actor on a stage upon which I looked down from
practically the highest gallery in the theatre. Both hero and onlooker, I
was as though doubled". [fn 54: Extract from
a letter of Albert Heim to Oskar Pfister (quoted by Carol Zaleski, Otherworld
Journeys, p 130]
Obviously, this
historical reminiscence must be particularly rich with respect to the years of
childhood since
Memory, as we all
know, is strongest with regard to its early associations, then when the
future man is only a child, and more of a soul than of a body. [fn: 55 H.P.B., "Memory
in the Dying".]
Actually, those
pictures of early life are often quite detailed and vivid in NDE accounts:
[...] the
underside of a table seen from all fours, the smell of a pudding, the
pinch of elastic on a Halloween mask; the distance from foot to bicycle
training pedal the contents of a school gym locker - all spill forth with
every sensory detail and accompanying emotion reawakened. [fn:
56 C. Zaleski, Otherworld Journeys, p.128.]
To come back
to our comparison:
"He sees and
now understands himself as he is, unadorned by flattery or
self-deception."
It was like I got
to see some good things I had done and some mistakes I had made, you
know, and try to understand them. [fn: 57 K. Ring. Life
at Death, p.73.]
Some people
characterize this as an educational effort on the part of the being of
light. [fn: 58 R. Moody, Life after Life, p.65.]
The being would ask
something like, [...] "What have you done with your
life to show me?" What was expected in return was [...]
a general self-scrutiny, putting one's whole life in question. [fn
59:C. Zaleski, Otherworld Journeys, p.128.]
"But this
instant is enough to show him the whole chain of causes which have been
at work during his life".
It was like:
"Okay, here's why you had the accident. Here’s why this happened.
Because so and so and so." ... it all had meaning. Definitely. [fn 60: K. Ring, Life
at Death, p.73.]
The
revelation of the human being's responsibility in the minutest details of his
existence, recognized at his last moment, is strikingly brought to light in the
following account of an experiencer, reliving her life as Phyllis:
The reliving
included not only the deeds committed by Phyllis since her birth [...] but also
a reliving of every thought ever thought and every word ever spoken PLUS
the effect of every thought, word and deed upon everyone and anyone
who had ever come within her sphere of influence, whether she actually
knew them or not PLUS the effect of her every thought, word and deed upon
the weather, the air, the soil, plants and animals, the water, everything
else within the creation we call Earth and the space Phyllis once
occupied. [...] I never before realized that we were
responsible and accountable for EVERY SINGLE THING WE DID. That
was overwhelming! [fn 62:P.M.H. Atwater,
I died Three Times in 1977. Quoted by C. Zaleski(Otherworld
Journeys, p. 131)]
The experience
of "total knowledge".
The theosophical
model of death perfectly accounts for this extraordinary flash of enlightenment
"in which the subject seemed to have complete knowledge".
In Moody's words:
Several people have
told me that during their encounters with "death they got brief
glimpses of an entire separate realm of existence in which all knowledge
- whether of past, present, or future - seemed to co-exist in a sort of
timeless state. [...] The experience has been compared, in
various accounts to a flash of universal insight. [fn 65: R.
Moody, Reflections on Life after Life, pp.10-11.]
One woman
reported:
This seems to have
taken place after I had seen my life pass before me. It seemed that all
of a sudden, all knowledge - of all that had started from the very
beginning, that would go on without end - that for a second I knew all
the secrets of all ages, all the meaning of the universe, the stars, the
moon - of everything. [fn 66: Ibid. p 11]
Another
informant confirmed:
[...] there
followed a panoramic vision, impossible to describe, showing everything
"from the beginning of time to the end of time". [fn
67: K. Ring, Heading toward Omega, p.199.]
An
interesting point made by one of Ring's respondents concerning this state of
total knowledge was that he did not acquire it at the moment: "he remembered
it [..] he was, in effect, all knowledge". [fn 6: Ibid p.
199] This really denotes a rare peak experience in which all
sense of dualism seems to vanish, the personal consciousness being, for a
flashing moment, in complete union with the Egoic consciousness, merged in the
light of the HIGHER SELF (the One root of all conscious beings) "which
alone is [permanently] and completely omniscient." [fn 69:
H.P.B., The Key to Theosophy, p.132. The individual Ego is said to be potentially
omniscient, and to manifest a quasi omniscience when the conditions
permit; it becomes de facto omniscient, exclusively in nirvana,
when merged in the Universal Soul (Key, p.133). During one lifetime,
when it "meditates" its personality, from its own level (beyond space
and time), it is practically omniscient as regards its own earth-related
evolution.]
In the case of
NDE's, however,
[...] all agree
that this feeling of complete knowledge did not persist after their
return; that they did not bring back any sort of omniscience. [fn
71: R. Moody, Reflections on Life after Life, p.10.]
This is not
surprising, because, according to Theosophy, the memory of such exceptional
visions cannot be impressed upon the physical brain - except through a special
training in the line of spiritual yoga.
"Supernatural rescues
The preceding
explanations are still valid in cases when people are rescued from a fatal
danger by a providential help, in the form of an inner light guiding
them to the only safe exit from a dark place, or of a voice calling
out their name to stop them in the fog on the edge of a cliff, or commanding to
move in the only possible direction of escape. [fn 74:Cf.
R. Moody, Reflections on Life after Life, pp.23-28.]
In the theosophical
view, these are in no way cases of supernatural interposition of God, or
Christ, but (rare) examples of situations in which the Ego has the opportunity
to take command over its personality in a moment of great emergency, when the
latter loses all control (or even is unaware of its impending death).
Then, it happens
that the human automaton executes, with an incredible precision, the
only movements or gestures that could draw the man safe and sound out of the
jaws of death.
The apparent
choice to come back.
Many
informants have declared that they unwillingly reintegrated their bodies, so complete
was the bliss they were merged in. Other ones insisted that a kind of choice
was left to them, either to trespass the border of life, or to return in order
to fulfill an earthly mission. They were "authorized", they felt, not
to die, as a result of their will to come back.
It is easy to argue
that their hour had not yet come: resuscitated beyond their control, they could
later on invent moral reasons, attributing their return to a generous decision
on their part. This argument, however, may not dovetail with all facts. [fn
75: There is an interesting example in R. Moody's Life after Life (pp.
101-107): during a kind of OBE, a patient was first warned of his impending
death by the being of light. Accepting his fate at first, with serenity, the
man became worried, the day before his appointed end in a surgical operation,
because great troubles were in store for his wife, on account of an adopted
nephew. He wrote some instructions to his wife and ... broke out in tears. At
that moment again, the "presence" made itself felt, imprinting these
thoughts in the patient's mind: "Jack, why are you crying? [...] since you
are asking for someone else and thinking of others - not Jack - I will grant
you, what you want. You will live until you see your nephew become a man".]
With Theosophy, one
cannot overlook the possibility of a surge of will at the last moment,
with the effect of displacing an equilibrium of opposite forces in the sense of
restoring life, as long as there remains a chance for such a return.
After all, the
panoramic vision of existence, bringing to a vivid light all the links with
other people - and particularly the loved ones - may well generate in the dying
person an all-powerful desire to come back to those loved ones, for a real
service of them. This essentially altruistic motive, which is in perfect
harmony with the higher Ego's deep nature, could be strong enough, at the
critical instant, to force a resuscitation process, with the help of the
Ego, at unison with its terrestrial personality's aspiration.
Postulating as it does free-will in every man, Theosophy would not
refuse it a last opportunity to change the line of a destiny.
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