Belief in postmortem survival is common

Psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove writes in “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death” that: The argument for postmortem survival is far from trying to prove a miracle. To a large extent, it is based on phenomenology – “the study of the structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.”

William James, also one of America’s greatest philosophers, linked phenomenology to final argument on Radical Empiricism. It was an important step in challenging David Hume’s rejection of human testimony. James was adamant:

... empiricism must neither admit... any element that is not directly experienced, nor exclude... any element that is directly experienced.

Besides accepting human testimony as important evidence, my essay is based on a metaphysical worldview where postmortem survival can best be thought of as natural. I argue that consciousness, of any kind, occurs because the universe is alive and mindlike.

A belief in postmortem survival of consciousness is common to every culture, nationality, religion, and linguistic group in every region and historical period on Earth. Every single one! Americans’ belief in life after death, for example, has been stable for 75 years at over 70%.

 We have had excellent evidence for postmortem survival for over 160 years. This evidence has always been widely accepted, especially by those who have taken the time and trouble to study it carefully. However, with very few exceptions, academic and scientific institutions treat this evidence as if it never existed.

Bertrand Russell’s belief that consciousness is a product of neurological activity remains today an unconfirmed hypothesis. Nobel laureate Francis Crick, DNA pioneer and author of The Astonishing Hypothesis, expresses a refreshingly truthful scientific attitude. In this video from 1995, Crick acknowledges the religious view favoring an afterlife might well be correct.

Even Martin Gardner, an arch-scoffer of everything paranormal, has acknowledged postmortem survival! In a fascinating book chapter from 1983 titled “Immortality: Why I Do Not Think It Impossible,” Gardner’s opinion went even further than Francis Crick.

Gardner built upon William James’ 1897 filtration theory of brain function. This hypothesis likens the brain to a filter or reducing valve, not the source of consciousness. The brain accesses mind-at-large, or universal consciousness, in all its magnificent potency. Then the brain places into the spotlight of awareness a reduced level most useful for biological survival. James presented this theory as a way of accounting for life after death.

William James had an unusual ability to take the complex and make it simple. His theory – the brain is the filter, rather than the source of consciousness – is one of his powerful and easy to grasp ideas. At the same time there is substantial empirical research to reinforce this hypothesis. We will see this later in studies of psychedelics, terminal lucidity, extrasensory perception, and psychokinesis.

 

Jeffrey Mishlove’s essay, “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death,” received first prize in the 2021 Bigelow Institute’s challenge to provide proof for the survival of human consciousness after death. Footnotes in Mishlove’s essay and videos he refers have been removed in this presentation but are available in his essay, which may be downloaded at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php. Mishlove is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, and YouTube host of “New Thinking Allowed.”

Jeffrey Mishlove confirms an afterlife: Excerpt #1

My Great Uncle Harry Schwam passed away on March 26, 1972. He died in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, at age 84. A religiously observant man, he ran a small, corner grocery store. He came home after attending early Sunday morning religious services, sat down in his favorite chair, and passed away. In California it was two hours earlier, 7:30 a.m. I was still sleeping – captured by, and absorbed in, the most surprising, vivid, and powerful dream of my life.

Uncle Harry appeared and spoke to me about my life, addressing personal issues in a way that penetrated me to the core. I cannot say I knew Harry well during his life. He was over fifty years my senior. I was 25 years old. Yet, in this dream that seemed more real than waking reality, we shared a soul-to-soul communion that defied description.

I awoke and wept, crying joyful tears and simultaneously singing a Hebrew song, Avinu Malkeinu, normally reserved for the most sacred Jewish observances. Something profoundly beautiful and transformative had touched me. Neither before nor since have I had a dream embodying such an intensely sublime, emotional state.

I immediately wrote home and asked about Uncle Harry, mentioning I had a dream about him that morning. Two days later, as soon as she received my letter, my mother phoned with the news of his death. Her voice was suffused with emotion when she asked me, “How did you know? That’s when he died.”

There is only one reasonable way to account for this event, the most earthshaking and unforgettable of my young life. Uncle Harry actually visited me in a dream when he died. Extrasensory perception alone doesn’t account for the overwhelmingly potent emotions associated with his presence. Uncle Harry’s visitation convinced me, beyond all doubt, the soul exists and survives the physical body’s death.

I asked my mother for some object of his to remember him by. Within a week, I received a book with a note saying it had been Uncle Harry’s favorite. To my surprise, it was a book of mystical teaching stories about Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the eighteenth-century miracle worker who founded the Jewish Chassidic tradition.

That’s how I learned Uncle Harry was a mystic at heart. When he died, he had gifted me with a brief, yet unforgettable, taste of another reality.

I gleaned from this indelible experience that postmortem survival is part of humanity’s long history of inner, mystical exploration. Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions, called the philosophy behind this exploration the primordial tradition.

Huston Smith claimed religions of every age and culture held understandings in common. One such unifying concept is the soul. In a 1987 video, Smith and I discuss the soul and its relationship to science. While today’s science would like to deny the need for such a concept, Smith states neither the soul nor the spiritual reality it implies is going away. It surrounds us – even if it is invisible to our instruments and cannot be measured.

I tried to discuss my Uncle Harry experience with faculty at the University of California, where I was a graduate student in the School of Criminology, with a clinical psychology emphasis. I reached a complete dead end. Basically no one I spoke to at the university had given any thought to postmortem survival. So, I resolved to become my own expert.

Within a year, I left the criminology program with a master’s degree. Taking advantage of graduate division rules, I created an individual, interdisciplinary doctoral major at Berkeley in a field that raised a few eyebrows – parapsychology. I was fortunate to find professors from multiple departments in the widespread university system who would sponsor me.

In 1980, I received what is – sadly, to this day – the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology ever awarded by an accredited, American university. My switch in career focus from criminology to parapsychology was radical. An experience lasting for only a few minutes was the catalyst for this transition that became a permanent fixture of my life. Such extraordinary transformations aren’t uncommon. They accompany many after-death communications.

Jeffrey Mishlove’s essay, “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death,” received first prize in the 2021 Bigelow Institute’s challenge to provide proof for the survival of human consciousness after death. Footnotes in Mishlove’s essay and videos he refers have been removed in this presentation but are available in his essay, which may be downloaded at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php. Mishlove is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, and host of “New Thinking Allowed” on YouTube.

"It was as if my spirit had returned."

I have a memory/vision of viewing my unconscious crumpled body on the ground from ~15-20 feet above. I recall no sound; I was just floating above observing the scene. Everything was very still and silent. No one else was present, not my friend, our horses, or the helicopter and EMTs who came to get me. It was just me in my jeans and pink shirt, laying on my left side crumbled and unconscious. A second memory, later in the day I suspect, of observing myself from above on a gurney in a hospital hallway with warm golden or orange lights or walls near a nursing station and later in CT. I’m sure plenty of people were there but I saw none other than my lifeless body. Both memories are very quiet and serene, I was just floating and observing. It was sad, frightening and peaceful. I was just watching myself or, my body, so still and lifeless. It was if I was given a choice or pondering as to whether to return or move on. Or just put there to observe myself.

I was in a coma for 10 days and woke to hearing loss and brain troubles. My life which had been at its peak, finally, just before the accident crumbled and I became withdrawn, angry, erratic and struggled in school, with self-esteem and in friendships. I went from being voted 'friendlies' and 'cutest couple' in my senior class to becoming a social pariah. I struggled with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem since then.

25 years later (a year ago now), 6 months into recognizing and working on my PTSD and exactly 25 years after the accident, on a beautiful walk in my current state of Massachusetts I found myself on a beautiful street with lovely little old (at least 100 years) houses near my home that I’d never seen before. I felt so comforted and cozy there, as if I was meant to be or live there. The feeling was so comforting and spiritual, unlike anything I’d even felt. Then, a few minutes later on another more familiar street, I felt a sudden rush of joy and exhilaration hit my chest. It was if my spirit had returned. I suddenly felt strong, confident, and happy as my 17-year-old self had felt prior to the accident and all the turmoil it has caused in my life.

Maybe a few weeks or days after that walk, on another walk in a nearby beautiful cemetery on a cloudy afternoon, a sudden spot of focal golden light on a gravestone caught my eye. I retraced my steps and the grave, ~100 years old and one I’d never seen before, was that of a woman with my same name and last initial, Carrie B. She had died young; I think in her 20’s or 30’s. As I retraced my steps to confirm what I’d seen, ravens in the trees above started cawing and rustling leaves and I realized that was identical to the fall day in Missouri exactly 25 years ago when ravens spooked my horse on the trail minutes (seconds?) before my accident. I got the same feeling with being connected to my true self/ spirit as i had the week before on my walk. My whole body was humming, thrilled and comforted. I could not look away.

Can a spirit leave the body and not fully return for 25 years? Since then, I have felt more myself (unlike I’ve felt in 25 years) and the circumstances of my life (I’m finally engaged in living and pursuing my dreams again) have improved immensely.  

NDERF.org 9307

In coma after fall through iced river but revives

My grandfather owned an old inn on the Ottawa River. My mother was 5 months pregnant at the time and sent me and my 4-year-old brother out to play in the snow. It was March and the snow was starting to melt but the river was still frozen over. She told us not to go down to the river. It's a very big yard so there was plenty of room to play and I believe she believed that we would listen to her. However, we saw the sailboats on the river and wanted to go look at them. So, we went to the river.

I stepped on the ice first and then my brother stepped on the ice. Then the ice cracked and he got up on the bank but I went under the water. My brother screamed that I was in the river and my mom ran down but couldn't see me. So, she ran back and screamed up the stairs to wake her youngest brother to help and he came running down to the river. He saw my snowsuit and pulled me out of the water, laid me on the snow bank and tried to give me mouth to mouth. He eventually said I was gone but my mother insisted that I couldn't be. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital where I was in a coma and given a blood transfusion.

I didn't have any recollection of the actual event. I only learned of it when I saw the scar on my ankle from the blood transfusion. I always had the sense that I was different and that people weren't being their true selves. I always felt the need to help others and was drawn to religion and dreamed of being a nun when I was young. One of the strongest guiding principles was that I felt a strong desire to do something that would help greater humanity.

There was always a lingering memory or presence of a memory that stayed with me but I was only able to describe it years later because I didn't attribute it to being near death because I didn't know that I had almost died. So, once the understanding of what happened to me became clearer the memory became clearer as well.

I was not in my body but somewhere else. In a space that I can only describe as Heaven. Heaven was almost like being in the clouds but I wouldn't say it is this realm. It is another realm. There are not trees or earthly things, just space and it was sort of mystical. I was aware of the presence of someone with me. However, I couldn't see this person. Yet, he was all around me like surround sound and he could speak to me with his mind. We communicated telepathically. He showed me how wonderful life was and to not be afraid. Life is a miracle. He instilled in me an everlasting excitement for life and also gave me an understanding of how I can help others by sharing this excitement. This is all I remember.

Of course, it wasn't my time otherwise I wouldn't be here today. The doctors said it was the ice that saved me by slowing my heart rate down. It is a miracle that I'm alive as I'm sure I was under for a period of time that one normally wouldn't survive given how long it took between falling in the water and getting to the hospital. I'm so grateful to be alive and I try to share the excitement that I felt during my NDE with as many people as I can even if it's just through smiling and showing love. 

NDERF.org #9311

Attempted suicide led to a new sense of purpose

My friend left my room and went outside with her boyfriend. I went to their room so I’d be found. My dog Alice was with me. I drew up a heavy shot of heroine. Then, I sat with my legs crossed and tucked under each other. I was in the middle of the floor. I took the shot. I attempt to get up, but couldn't. I had fallen face down.

I remember what I felt like. I was waking up out of the sleep of a lifetime and into a pool of the most overwhelming emotion of peace, serenity, and love. As I opened my eyes and sat up, I could see between the human world and another amazing place. When I stood up, my vision or view focused on this new, wonderful place. I was met by a group of people. I knew all of them; they were former family members and a few friends. There were also a few I didn't know; one female and one male. The ground felt like I was floating midair above it. If I could feel it, I would liken it to silken grass but it was multi-colored. There were no trees. Yet there was a clear, golden-yellow sky like an early morning sun that goes into mid-morning. My family began to tell me it was time to go back. I argued with them. Then in what felt like the snap of a finger, I was back in my body and really sitting up. There was a tube going down my nose and someone just finishing cutting my shirt to place the electric shock pads on my body. 

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes.  I tried and killed myself with drugs. 

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Time seemed to go faster or slower than usual What’s seemed like 6 hours was way less. 

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm. It wasn’t a field I was in even though it seemed as one. Then when my family, friends, and the field disappeared, I was with the two strangers the bright light behind them.

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Overwhelming feelings of peace, love, understanding, knowing without fear.  

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes. It confirmed there is something bigger than ourselves and bigger than this little pointless earthly life, that might actually have a greater purpose for our next stop.  

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience.

NDERF.org # 9310

O God, our help in ages past

O God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

 

Words by Isaac Watts, pub. 1719; St. Anne hymn tune

Sung at the Westmister Abbey in 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsHIwXTjAOU

NDE after giving birth: "I felt like God was there."

I was almost 19 years old and had just given birth to my first child a couple of hours before my experience. I recall I had the urge to use the restroom, and I attempted to get up from my bed without assistance. My mother and younger sister were in the room and holding the baby. When I stood up and felt an immense rush, like my water had broken, but it was blood. I saw the blood on the floor, and remember thinking, 'That's not right.'

The next thing I recall is feeling warm. I couldn't see anything but darkness. I didn't feel afraid. It was almost comfortable and cozy, like a warm hug. I couldn't hear anything. But just before I went into the darkness, I heard what I think was a nurse yelling for a crash cart.

I'm not sure how long I was in this dark and comfortable state of void, and I don't recall any events immediately after. I do remember waking up in my hospital bed, and my mother looked scared and was doting over me. Later on, over the years, she has told me she thought she had lost me forever. I don't fear dying and always remember how comforting that experience was. I knew I was okay; I didn't have a fear at all. The dark wasn't cold or scary. I have always been afraid of the dark but this wasn't that kind of dark. Following this experience, I began my journey to become a Registered Nurse and have been since the age of 23.  

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm. I was in a place without stress, without fears. It was a darkness but I knew I was with love. It was void of anything, no sounds no lights, nobody, but it was full of love and comfort.

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Yes I felt like God was there. Surrounding me, I felt love and peace.  

 

NDERF.org, #9319