Michael Chow - Week 2
In reading Professor Valverde's article on her near death experience, I was entranced by how remarkably similar it was to the near death experience narrated by Anita Moorjani. Both experienced "knowing" they were dead. Both experienced making a conscious decision to fight to stay alive.
In Anita Moorjani's Ted talk, she explains how she could see her body in third person, how she was detached from her physical body, how she felt a deep connection to everyone and how she felt we all share the same consciousness. It's striking how similar this is to the psychedelic experience of ego death. In my experience, I felt like I was literally dying, though from an outside perspective, I was perfectly, physically fine. At first, I was fighting it off and wanted to be alive, but as my ego dissolved, I felt extremely connected to the entire world, to the ground I was lying on, to the grass around me, to everything living on earth. At that moment, I had peace and clarity, the same way Anita describes her moment of clarity with the flashlight-in-a-warehouse example. I felt a one-ness and extreme zen.
I don't mean an ounce of disrespect when I say I can relate to the near death experience of Anita. Of course, I didn't actually physically die nor was I anywhere near the physical state she was in- but the mind state I was in was near-identical. All of this makes me wonder how our main stream beliefs about life and death have drifted so far from these clear truths.
Given the three levels of consciousness we know to exist: conscious, unconscious, subconscious, and that we mainly operate in the conscious, it's funny that we believe (while conscious) the things we believe about ourselves, when in reality, the truth comes out in our subconscious and unconscious states. How can we learn to grow more connected and realize the one-ness between every single creature on earth, without nearly-dying?
In Anita Moorjani's Ted talk, she explains how she could see her body in third person, how she was detached from her physical body, how she felt a deep connection to everyone and how she felt we all share the same consciousness. It's striking how similar this is to the psychedelic experience of ego death. In my experience, I felt like I was literally dying, though from an outside perspective, I was perfectly, physically fine. At first, I was fighting it off and wanted to be alive, but as my ego dissolved, I felt extremely connected to the entire world, to the ground I was lying on, to the grass around me, to everything living on earth. At that moment, I had peace and clarity, the same way Anita describes her moment of clarity with the flashlight-in-a-warehouse example. I felt a one-ness and extreme zen.I don't mean an ounce of disrespect when I say I can relate to the near death experience of Anita. Of course, I didn't actually physically die nor was I anywhere near the physical state she was in- but the mind state I was in was near-identical. All of this makes me wonder how our main stream beliefs about life and death have drifted so far from these clear truths.
Given the three levels of consciousness we know to exist: conscious, unconscious, subconscious, and that we mainly operate in the conscious, it's funny that we believe (while conscious) the things we believe about ourselves, when in reality, the truth comes out in our subconscious and unconscious states. How can we learn to grow more connected and realize the one-ness between every single creature on earth, without nearly-dying?
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