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A Near-Life Experience
October 17, 2006
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by Steve Bhaerman

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of performing at the Universal Light Expo in Columbus, Ohio. I had such a great time there, that I came up with a new slogan for their tourist bureau: “It’s time for America to discover Columbus for a change!”

Anyway, as I was wandering around the expo area, I noticed a table for an organization for those who’ve had near death experiences. Something inspired me to go over there, and I found myself talking with a woman who had gone into the hospital for “routine” surgery and ended up having an out-of-this-world experience.

She described the usual tunnels and lights and merging with Universal Oneness, and told me she consciously decided she had to return here because she was “really pissed.”

“I was very angry at my church,” she said, “and angry with our education system in general for promoting so much fear. I decided I needed to come back here and set people straight. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we believe, we all end up in the same place. Fear of death is the biggest scam perpetrated on humankind.”

In reality, she seemed anything but angry. She was peaceful and clear, and her point was well-taken. I was reminded of the classic distinction between spirituality and religion: “Spirituality is our relationship with the Divine. Religion is crowd control.”

Paradoxically, the more connected we humans are with the Divine, the less the need for crowd control. And in these times when mob rule seems like a less pressing concern than mobster rule, we need all the Divine connection we can connect with.

Perhaps you’ve seen the e-mail circulating about a cosmic window today, October 17th through midday tomorrow, where supposedly our thoughts -- whatever they may be -- are magnified and manifested. The idea during this period of time is to focus exclusively on what we want to see manifest in our life and on earth, and gently move our thoughts away from fear and distress. To some, this may seem like denial. Ignoring the news, after all, seems to be the epitome of ... ignorance. Indeed, we’ve noticed in our lives and the world, that there is no true bliss that comes from denial.

And yet, we’ve also seen the despair, impotence and paralysis that comes from staying focused on the problem alone. Yes, it is true that “the truth shall upset you free,” but without a clear and positive direction to move toward, that “truth” soon becomes a prison and all you’re left with is the upset.

To paraphrase Einstein, a problem cannot be solved at the same level it was created. Instead of the dueling dualities of immersion in problems vs. blissful ignorance, we might go for a “both/and” approach. Rather than deny the “awful truth,” we need to empower at the same time “the awesome opportunity.” Sadly, those of us who’ve come of age in this so-called “civilization” have a much easier time anticipating a horrific future than a healthy and joyous one. Sure, we only wish the best for ourselves and our children, but what kinds of pictures do we have of what this “best” might look like?

Generations of sci-fi movies have offered us vivid negative scenarios from Big Brother to Soylent Green. Where are the positive futures? Where are those pictures? Where are those healing sci-fi movies? Since postmodernism seems to associate art with deconstruction rather than reconstruction, we seem to have very few tangible, beautiful and real heavenly futures to imagine, other than celestial harps and clouds.

As the saying goes, no story no world. Unless we are able to imagine a different story -- and make that imagined story as real to our senses as this one is -- our chances of having a new world is nil. So these next hours are a practice session for “tell a vision” -- telling our visions and building our field of dreams. In a “do-happy” world where we are exhorted, “Don’t just stand there, DO something,” maybe the something to do is to just stand there. Or sit there. And allow ourselves to be internally vulnerable enough to imagine.

Imagine what it would be like to get up in the morning and know that a critical mass of humans understand that we’re all in it together and live accordingly. What would that feel like? How might it manifest? What would you be feeling, hearing and seeing on your way to work? Would your work be different than it is now? How would it be different to live in a world where every child knows he or she can be all that they can be -- without necessarily joining the army? What would it smell like and taste like if we spent our days living the Golden Rule instead of acceding to the rule of gold? Imagine ... you’re on your way to the voting booth and you’re about to cast your vote for the greater of two goods!

What we would call “heaven” is not a destination, it’s a practice. Ram Dass tells the story of the difference between heaven and hell. Both are strangely similar in that there is a huge banquet set before us, only our arms are too short to allow us to feed ourselves. In hell, people hopelessly starve. In heaven, people have learned to feed each other.

So what about this meditation today? Can it help?


About eight years ago, I was at a conference in Florida with, among others, Gregg Braden. President Clinton was in the midst of his impeachment crisis. In the face of personal attack, he did the only thing a man of his courage and integrity could do. He dispatched planes to bomb Iraq. We’d heard this news at the conference, and Gregg -- who had just written his book about prayer -- was leading a worldwide meditation at the conference. The focus of the meditation was “peace,” but in order for the prayer to be effective, Gregg told us, that word “peace” had to become tangible. It had to evoke pictures and even more importantly, a powerful positive feeling. Feelings, he said, are the fuel for prayers. Feelings are what help them come alive and become real.
As I sat in the meditation, I saw a vivid picture. There was a huge stage, and from each side of the stage came avowed enemies. I think I imagined them as Israelis and Palestinians, but it could have been Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, or for that matter Democrats and Republicans. In this ceremony I envisioned, each “enemy” solemnly (and yet joyfully) approaches his “other.” There is a shout, “PRESENT ARMS!” And each, arms outstretched, hugs the other. After the hug, the procession continues across the stage and the next pair of imagined “enemies” does the same thing. (The Swami later wrote about the necessity of teaching children the proper use of arms -- hugging.)

Throughout the 20 or so minute meditation, I envisioned this healing procession, as one after the other “enemies” found and affirmed their human heart. I don’t know what others envisioned, but it was a powerful experience for me. The next day, we heard the news. Inexplicably, the American bombers returned to base without dropping a bomb.

Did we meditators “cause” that to happen? If so, to quote Bulwinkle, “Oops, dunno muh own strength!” But, like chicken soup, it certainly didn’t hurt. Fact is, we DON’T know our own strength because our so-called culture has been concerted in keeping us from it. Through fear and domination, through replaying the past over and over again, we are left with a “realism” that convinces us that the future is merely a replay of the past.

And yet, the one constant factor in life is not just change, but evolution. This is an unstoppable process. The caterpillar doesn’t say, “Oh, I changed my mind” in the middle of metamorphosis. As beings with unique consciousness, we humans have the power of co-creators, to imagine a new world and then live into it. Today is a good day to imagine the new world we are living into. Near-death experiences? If there’s such a thing as reincarnation, been there and done that. Now what we need is a near-life experience where we vividly imagine and affirm the life on earth we were really destined to live.

L’Chaim!

Steve Bhaerman

https://www.wakeuplaughing.com/



A Note on Notes
Dear Friends:

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