Life after death is not yet a scientific issue, but
it is becoming a clinical issue. Patients who are resuscitated
after close calls with death often have inspiring tales of afterlife
adventures to tell. So, doctors involved in the care of these patients
need to be able to listen sympathetically. The survivors of close
calls also need to be reassured that they are not alone. Several
medical studies show that an appreciable percentage of those who
return form death’s door tell of leaving their bodies and entering
into a bright, comforting light of love. These patients also tell
of reunions with loved ones lost to death during these life-changing
out-of –body interludes.
Seeing apparitions of loved ones lost to death, or feeling their
presence vividly is also a surprisingly common experience. So, again,
clinicians need to be able to discuss these experiences with patents,
who sometimes need counseling to help them integrate such profound,
spiritual experiences into their everyday lives.
Anyone who works with patients in the throes of grief will know how
common apparitions of the deceased are. Grief counselors will also
be aware that these apparitional encounters usually seem to help
in the healing process. And, again, grief counselors will also attest
how often grieving patients say, ”If I only had five more minutes.” —five
more minutes to say the good byes and I love you and other things
left unsaid, and to tidy up unfinished business.
Incredible as it may seem, techniques for evoking the spirits of
the deceased were well know to the ancient Greeks and were practiced
by medical doctors in Europe well into the Middle Ages. So it is
actually just the latest wrinkle in a human tradition that goes back
to prehistory. Indeed, we can even say that evocation of the deceased
is part of the collective cultural heritage of humankind.
In Ancient Greece, evocation of spirits was practiced in astonishing,
subterranean institutions known as psychomanteums, or, as it is often
translated, oracles of the dead. The most famous other the Oracles
of the dead was the far northwestern corner of Greece, just south
of modern day Albania. It is the place Homer talks about in THE ODYSSEY,
and that many other, great, ancient Greek writers describe. In the
1970s, Dr. Sotirious Dakaris, an eminent Greek archeologist, rediscovered
the place and excavated it. It consists of large dormitory rooms
and long hallways, all arranged around a central, apparition hallway
about fifty feet long. In antiquity, the place was built entirely
beneath the earth, with the darkness providing ideal conditions of
sensory deprivation. In the apparition chamber, archeologists found
the remnants of a huge bronze cauldron. Carbon marks on the walls
showed that torches provided dim illumination in the underground
chamber.
When I read Dr. Dakaris’ findings, I conjectured that the cauldron
was a means of inducing visions. In the Middle East even today, people
polish silver bowls, fill them with olive oil, and illuminate the
darkened room indirectly with candlelight. |
Under those conditions, when gazing into
the optical depths of the silver bowl, many people see three-dimensional,
fully colored, moving visions. I figured that this must have been
what was going on at the Oracle of the Dead, so I resolved to try
it out.
I had a friend, who is a carpenter and a craftsman, build a small,
darkened room with a mirror on the wall at the front of the room.
I placed a comfortable easy chair three feet in front of the wall,
with a small lamp behind the chair. The arrangement is set up so
that the person sitting in the chair does not see his or her own
reflection, but only a clear depth. I found that my graduate students
and medical colleagues were eager to participate as subjects. So,
we set off together on an adventure of calling up the spirits of
the deceased just as the ancient Greeks had done.
By reading ancient Greek texts and combining what I read there with
my psychiatric knowledge of grief counseling, I developed a method
of preparing subjects for this experience. Basically, it consists
simply of getting them to talk and reminisce about a departed loved
one they wish to see again. After they bring up their memories of
the deceased, they sit in the apparition chamber, relax and gaze
into the mirror.
Under those circumstances, about one half or more of the subjects
have vivid, life like encounters with the spirits of the deceased.
They see their loved ones in three-dimensions, full color, and seeming
vibrantly alive. About one-third of the subjects who have experiences
report hearing the audible voice of the deceased. Almost all the
rest say, that although they heard no audible voice, they had an
experience of heart-to heart communications during which they felt
they were in contact with the departed. Most importantly, these subjects
say that they feel their experiences brought them closer to resolution
of their grief.
Subsequent to my work, other psychologists have recreated my procedure
and achieved identical results. All of us who have worked with it
agree that the method holds promise as a technique for helping people
with grief.
It is too early for science to tackle the biggest of the big questions
of existence and humankind’s ultimate mystery. Instead, I am
content to put forward this technique, which may be of clinical and
spiritual benefit to those who have lost loved ones and who are struggling
with grief.
 Author,
researcher, teacher and world renowned expert on Near Death Experiences.
He has over 25 years of experience working with the bereaved. The
phrase “Life after Life” has become synomous with Dr.
Moody’s work www.lifeafterlife.com He is presenting a workshop
on his
“Reunions” work at The Inner Space Feb 24 - 26, 2006.
Call 404-252-4540 to register. |
