It seems the world is netting more and more NDEs by the day. Some days I wonder if modern Near-Death Experiencers are messengers like the mystics or prophets of old, who returned from the wilderness (or the cloister) with messages from the Gods for the societies they lived in. They were vehicles in a sense, transporting and translating Sacred messages to their communities from the Other Side.
Hi Jesse, I agree with your statement that James would be fascinated by the NDE phenomenon. I have long felt the same way about Jung too, especially in light of his own profound experience. I became interested in the phenomenon in 1996 and am astonished at the number of podcasts that have popped up in the last couple of years or so. I do think that the proliferation of reports of all kinds of spiritual experiences, including NDEs, have great potential for effecting a transformation of the collective God-image and we sure are overdue for an upgrade. They also help to legitimise personal subjective experience, which has long been denigrated as an inferior form of evidence. As you point out, the core message of James's book was elevating experience over philosophy and Jung too, was an advocate for personal subjective experience. The point you make about integration is an important one. It is not an easy task. Jung wrote in Answer to Job, about 7 years after his own NDE: "It is altogether amazing how little most people reflect on numinous objects and attempt to come to terms with them, and how laborious such an undertaking is once we have embarked upon it. The numinosity of the object makes it difficult to handle intellectually, since our affectivity is always involved." Aside from experiencers themselves sharing their firsthand experiences, academic research is gaining more credibility. Raymond Moody really started something!
Hi Jesse, Great article which I will comment on more fully when I have reread it but I also noticed the inclusion of names that I knew weren't in the book and the list needs further revision. None of the following are in the book: Julian of Norwich, Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Merton, Thérèse of Lisieux. Sorry to be picky!
You are quite right David! I realized I compiled a list of people who had had a type of spiritual/religious experience, including those quoted by William James in his book, and didn't edit it properly in my draft. Thanks for the catch, its now corrected :)
Hi Jesse, I agree with your statement that James would be fascinated by the NDE phenomenon. I have long felt the same way about Jung too, especially in light of his own profound experience. I became interested in the phenomenon in 1996 and am astonished at the number of podcasts that have popped up in the last couple of years or so. I do think that the proliferation of reports of all kinds of spiritual experiences, including NDEs, have great potential for effecting a transformation of the collective God-image and we sure are overdue for an upgrade. They also help to legitimise personal subjective experience, which has long been denigrated as an inferior form of evidence. As you point out, the core message of James's book was elevating experience over philosophy and Jung too, was an advocate for personal subjective experience. The point you make about integration is an important one. It is not an easy task. Jung wrote in Answer to Job, about 7 years after his own NDE: "It is altogether amazing how little most people reflect on numinous objects and attempt to come to terms with them, and how laborious such an undertaking is once we have embarked upon it. The numinosity of the object makes it difficult to handle intellectually, since our affectivity is always involved." Aside from experiencers themselves sharing their firsthand experiences, academic research is gaining more credibility. Raymond Moody really started something!
Hi Jesse, Great article which I will comment on more fully when I have reread it but I also noticed the inclusion of names that I knew weren't in the book and the list needs further revision. None of the following are in the book: Julian of Norwich, Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Merton, Thérèse of Lisieux. Sorry to be picky!
double checking, thanks for the feedback!
made some edits, appreciate it :)
I'm quite sure a book written in 1902 would not mention Malcolm X. Sure, William James was a far-seeing scholar, and all, but not that far-sighted.
You are quite right David! I realized I compiled a list of people who had had a type of spiritual/religious experience, including those quoted by William James in his book, and didn't edit it properly in my draft. Thanks for the catch, its now corrected :)
😀 Cool.