Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
Father, today I would let all things be as You created them, and give Your Son the honor due his sinlessness; the love of brother to his brother and his Friend Through this I am redeemed.
Here we are back to the practical application. Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
A Course in Miracles only works if you work it.
It doesn’t do a damn thing if you only read this blog or if you only read the lesson in the morning. You must actually take the lesson and DO WHAT IT SAYS, and apply it to every situation as it arises.
So every time a fear thought comes up today, you remind yourself: Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
Keep catching yourself all through the day for thoughts that disturb your peace of mind and remind yourself: Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
Angel left a great comment about individuals joining together in silence, prayer and remembrance to heal the world. This is a true thing.
Dear Lisa,
After I read your wonderful post today I think the time is now for minds to join and create this change. The power is within us as we are all aspects of God. I don’t know if you read Greg Braden but he states that the most important part of prayer is to feel in your heart the change that you desire as already accomplished. And in David Hawkins book “Power verses Force” he states it only takes 8000 people on the planet to affect a change! So what if we do an experiment, what if we all came together at the same time, no matter where we are for a few minutes and created the Real World in our hearts and minds. I bet we would see a change in the world very quickly. Maybe we can do this at 12 noon EST everyday for the next two weeks and see what happens.
This is a powerful idea although I would like to suggest that instead of picking one particular time when you stop what you are doing to have a moment of prayer (for example, 12 noon EST) I would like to ask YOU who is reading this to be vigilant throughout the whole day and to give a little time each and every hour.
Once a day is for first graders. You guys here with me are professionals. I KNOW you have the capacity to dedicate your mind to God all day long, every hour, on the hour … or better yet: every 30 minutes, or every 15 minutes, or every 5 minutes, or every minute, or every second.
It is quite possible for you to remember throughout the day that you are ALL LIGHT. You are not a body. You are Spirit. Your Mind is One with all living things. You are connected to everyone and everything.
THIS IS HOW HEALING IS ACCOMPLISHED: Though individuals like you remembering the truth for everyone.
This world is saved through you.
There are some great chapters in A Course in Miracles that talk about this very subject:
From Chapter 2, Section 6:
If a sufficient number of people become truly miracle-minded quickly, the shortening process (of suffering & pain) can be almost immeasurable. But it is essential that these individuals free themselves from fear sooner than would ordinarily be the case, because they MUST emerge from basic conflict if they are to bring peace to the minds of others.
From Lesson 106:
Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening a thousand minds are opened to the truth. And they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them along with you.
From Lesson 97:
Today we try to bring reality still closer to your mind. Each time you practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a thousand years or more are saved. The minutes which you give are multiplied over and over, for the miracle makes use of time but is not ruled by it. Salvation is a miracle, the first and last; the first that is the last, for it is one.
You are the Spirit in Whose Mind abides the miracle in which all time stands still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using these ideas becomes a time which has no length and which has no end. Give, then, these minutes willingly, and count on Him Who promised to lay timelessness beside them. He will offer all His strength to every little effort which you make.
Give Him the minutes which He needs today to help you understand with Him you are the Spirit that abides in Him, and Which calls through His Voice to every living thing; offers His sight to everyone who asks; replaces error with the simple truth.
The Holy Spirit will be glad to take five minutes of each hour from your hands, and carry them around this aching world where pain and misery appear to rule. He will not overlook one open mind that will accept the healing gift they bring, and He will lay them everywhere He knows they will be welcome. And they will increase in healing power each time someone accepts them as his thoughts, and uses them to heal.
Thus will your gift to Him be multiplied a thousand-fold and tens of thousands more. And when it is returned to you, it will surpass in might the little gift you gave as much as does the radiance of the sun outshine the tiny gleam a firefly makes an uncertain moment, and goes out. The steady brilliance of this light remains, and leads you out of darkness, nor will you be able to forget the way again.
See that? All this time you thought you had no power to affect or change the world. You thought you were an unheard voice whose hands were tied. But now is the world’s deliverance here because you are remembering that all power is within you.
IN GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
As you change your mind, the world changes with you.
As you make a decision to stop yourself from following down the path that fear takes you, the whole world is healed.
You’ll start to see that you spend almost all day, every day, in fear and worry. This is the human condition.
But you’re not human!
You’re the light of the world.
Now today you can recognize the importance of catching fear thoughts as they arise and making a decision to change your mind … for the Love of God and for the Love of your brother.
Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
You can do this. I have perfect faith in you. You are capable of saving the world.
Through you is a new world ushered in.
You are the new species. The evolution has occurred and is accomplished and you are the shining result.
Welcome to Planet Earth, little one.
Thank you for the work you do. We take this journey for everyone.
The stillness of the peace of God is mine.
I am happy to know about the immediacy of salvation. There is nothing to worry about. There is nothing to fear. If you look carefully you will recognize that what is happening now has been played out before in repetition, throughout history, over and over and over, and is now playing itself out again once more.
So why be concerned??
We know the outcome.
My friend Evan sent a great email to me this morning:
According to Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, here are the five reasons that Rome fell. Any of them sound familiar?
Five reasons for the fall of the great dynasty.
Yes, this all sound familiar. We are repeating history. If it seems like history keeps going around in circles it is because YOU keep going around in circles in your own personal life.
Knowing this, you can make a decision to stop participating in the insanity. You can make a decision to STOP what you are doing, get off the rat wheel, and see something brand new.
These are exciting times indeed!!
A game is being played out. It’s gonna get ugly. It’s already a huge mess. It was a lose-lose situation from the start. If the $700 billion bail-out plan was passed in the House, it would have been a disaster. And now that $700 billion has been rejected, it’s gonna be a disaster. Now matter which route was taken, it was doomed to fail. Why? Because this already happened. The whole charade already fell apart.
And this is how it happened.
Now you can rest and relax. The world is like a 3-D movie being played out on a big screen. You’re an observer, and if you don’t participate in the illusion, it plays out faster.
But because it’s happening all around you, you think it’s real. But it’s not real. It’s just a movie. Let everything be exactly as it is, and let yourself enjoy the show.
Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility. If this is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to a disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. We need but tell our minds, with certainty, “The stillness of the peace of God is mine,” and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God Himself has given to His Son.
Father, Your peace is mine.
What need have I to fear that anything can rob me of what You would have me keep? I cannot lose Your gifts to me. And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for You.
How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?
I’m still one lesson behind. The description lessons (”What is the Christ?” “What is the world?”) throw me off since I’m not used to writing two posts a day.
My apologies. I’ll get to today’s lesson later today.
There is a lot going on right now in terms of energy shifts which is affecting my personal life and is reflected in the world. This world is a place of madness. We are in the middle of the largest BANK HEIST in the history of man, and it’s happening right before our very eyes. $700 billion dollars is going to be taken out of the U.S. Treasury and the rich get richer.
I can’t say we’re allowing it to happen because there really is nothing anyone can do. Our hands are tied. But we’ve been brainwashed into thinking this is a good solution. And we’ve also been brainwashed into skimming over events and saying “Oh well, what can I do?”
And in this department, there is something you can do: STAY AWAKE.
Don’t let television, newspapers, stories, and fear lull you to sleep.
For days now I’ve been trying to find a sentence in the newspaper that describes where the money really goes, and I can’t find a single sentence. Everyone just says “we need to do it to save the economy.”
But where does the money go? I’m a practical girl. Where does the money go? To pay employee salaries? Who gets the money from these bought-up assets that everyone keeps talking about, and then were does that money go? Is $700 billion given to banks for loaning purposes so people can continue to take out mortgages they can’t afford? What’s the money for?
Bush said in his weekly radio address:
“The rescue effort we’re negotiating is not aimed at Wall Street; it is aimed at your street. There is now widespread agreement on the major principles. We must free up the flow of credit to consumers and businesses by reducing the risk posed by troubled assets.”
??
Does anyone have any idea what this actually means?? Where does the money go? How does saving failing companies help the economy? What does it mean to flow up credit? Does it mean that we still have the possibility to put ourselves in even greater debt?
I’m trying to wrap my head around it, and nothing makes any sense to me.
When you try to understand an illusion, you quickly realize that IT’S NOT UNDERSTANDABLE.
This world is a place total chaotic confusion.
And then when the economy collapses, we can all say “well, at least we tried to save it” meanwhile $700 billion is still sitting somewhere, in someone’s bank account. It gets distributed, you know. Where does it go?
Into overseas bank accounts where it’s safe.
It goes to politicians, lawyers and corporate CEO’S. They are all laughing right now, throwing wild celebratory parties, and clinking their champagne glasses.
And the taxpayers pick up the tab.
Like I said, BANK HEIST.
It’s practically impossible to get away from the illusion when you are seemingly standing in it. I am feeling a great need for deeper responsibility right now to be in the Mind of God.
How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?
They cannot.
It’s practically impossible to look away, although I can see that I need to. I must. I’m being called to rise up, stand up, get up, and be part of the solution.
I am God’s Son. Illusions cannot satisfy me. I am the savior of the world.
There is no peace within the battlefield.
A problem cannot be solved in the same space in which it was created. The solution is not in time and space. The solution is in your mind.
There is something you can do: Increase your dedication to remember the truth. Keep reminding yourself that this world will change through you.
THIS WORLD WILL CHANGE THROUGH YOU. Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.
What typically happens when things start falling apart is that people start falling into a hole and they become debilitated. I know all about it – it happened to me last week. It was one of the most frightening things that has ever occurred to me. I was seriously afraid for myself.
I began having an “I don’t care” attitude and then I started slipping into oblivion.
What ends up happening in times of great intensity is you start going to sleep. You sedate yourself to get away from it all. I read in the New York Times the other day that since the Wall Street financial crisis, alcohol sales are at an all-time high and hamburger sales are way up.
People start thinking “Oh, whatever. It’s all going to hell anyways. Might as well zone out, pig out, and get drunk.”
Please for the Love of God, stay awake!
There is a lullaby being played in the world now and people are gently drifting off to sleep.
There are huge shifts happening right now and I’m asking you to be especially vigilant. I’m reminding myself over here.
Someone said to me the other day: “We’re in a hole and we don’t even know it.”
When you get sucked into a black hole, you won’t realize it. So stay awake. Stay on your toes. Don’t use your five senses. Just stay alert.
Remember that none of this is real.
Stay present.
We are the Teachers of God. We are here for a purpose that is being revealed in every moment. I might not know what to do exactly in the specifics, but I can stay awake.
I can be vigilant to not get trapped in the illusion. I can at least do that much.
Thank you taking this journey with me.
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self WE SHARE, uniting us with one another, and with God as well.
There’s no religion in this statement. He is the Self we share.
This brings me relief, joy, peace and happiness: We are joined as One, united with one another, and with God as well.
Which means we are equal. There is no space or distance between us. There are no levels. There’s no hierarchy.
“The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be translated into truth.”
This is a REAL THING that you should begin practicing in all your doings. This is not make-pretend. This is not a fantasy. Give everything to Christ. Give all your wishes, all your hopes and all your dreams to Him Who can translate them for you into truth.
You’ll be amazed by what happens.
I want you to see this with your own eyes. This is an experience that must be witnessed first-hand by you. I cannot give this experience to you. You must do the work. I cannot do it for you. I can only tell you about the gifts that are waiting for you to receive and only hope with all my heart that you decide to open these gifts and accept them as your own.
How do you see these gifts? Start talking to Christ. Talk to him like you would talk with your best friend. Confide in him. Tell him all your secrets and desires. Start getting to know him. Really open up.
You can call him Jesus. You can call him Christ. You can call him the Holy Spirit. It is all the same thing. These names are interchangeable.
It might seem strange at first, talking to thin air, but I assure you that Christ is there listening. He will respond to you. You will see your life transformed.
From Chapter 11, Section 8 of A Course in Miracles:
You cannot see the Holy Spirit, but you can see His manifestations. And unless you do, you will not realize He is there. Miracles are His witnesses, and speak for his Presence. What you cannot see becomes real to you only through the witnesses who speak for it. For you can be AWARE of what you cannot see, and it can become compellingly real to you, as its presence becomes manifest THROUGH you. Do His work, for you SHARE in His function. As your function in Heaven is creation, so your function on earth is healing. God shares His function with you in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit shares His with you on earth.
The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of His Presence, and through them, you will learn that He is there. What He enables you to do is clearly NOT of this world, for miracles violate every law of reality, as this world judges it. Every law of time and space, of magnitude and mass, of prediction and control, is transcended, for what the Holy Spirit enables you to do is clearly beyond ALL of them. Perceiving His results, you will understand where He must be, and finally KNOW what He is.
Miracles demonstrate that learning has occurred under the right guidance, for learning is invisible, and what has been learned can be recognized only by its RESULTS.
Christ’s is the vision I will use today.
“Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be the truth of me.”
How about that??
Every instant I am choosing what I want to see.
“Today I choose to look upon what Christ would have me see, to listen to God’s Voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God’s creation.”
I got a great message today which demonstrates Christ vision perfectly and which I would like to share with you:
Dear Lisa,
I am so excited.
I asked Jesus for help yesterday about my mom.
I was outside, doing chores.
So he tells me I don’t need to apologize to her — this is where I was stuck as I thought the only way to communicate with her was to say I was sorry and I was stuck because I wasn’t sorry. Jesus said I should just go up to her and tell her I was willing to be helpful if and when she needed anything.
And the tension just melted away.
She did need some help — putting up an ad on Craiglist, doing something with leaves on her roof, etc. And it felt really good because this mess between us isn’t fixable, apparently. The history of the mess.
But if/when I’m helpful, there is no mess.
So that’s how I communicate with my mom — by being helpful.
Anyway, your blog post prompted me to go ahead and find the courage to do that.
Thank you.
Awesome, huh?? She has demonstrated, through action, a very basic truth: that there is no need for forgiveness at all. She has demonstrated – and beautifully – a very valuable lesson – that it is possible to bypass forgiveness altogether and to arrive at the place that is AFTER forgiveness – being helpful.
Christ’s is the vision I will use today.
I will not use the body’s eyes today.
This is one of the most important lessons you will ever learn. And probably the most difficult because since the time of birth you have depended on the body’s eyes to show you what is happening.
But the body’s eyes show you nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Nothing.
When I say nothing, I do mean nothing.
You might say “I see a lot of love with my body’s eyes” to which I say, YOU SEE NOTHING. One of the hugest traps spiritual seekers fall into is thinking they have learned something new they now can use in their daily life. And what ends up happening if you think you see love with the body’s eyes is that you will start categorizing again.
The whole point of training your mind in a systematic way through the workbook lessons of A Course in Miracles is to stop categorizing.
This path is an undoing.
You are undoing false ideas about yourself and the world.
What always ends up happening to anyone on a spiritual path is that you UNDO worldly beliefs in separation, you start to undo false ideas about yourself, you start uncovering the layers to get to the truth of yourself – AND THAT’S GOOD, ALRIGHTY THEN, WE’RE MAKING SOME PROGRESS – but then what happens is you start learning new spiritual ideas and before you know it, you’re making new layers again … which, by the way, will eventually have to be undone also.
So be vigilant.
It’s better to accept unequivocally that the body’s eyes don’t see anything.
Don’t trust your eyes. Don’t trust your ears.
Someone might say something horrible to you, and if you are using your body’s eyes, you will judge it as something horrible being said to you.
Your spouse might say something loving to you, and you will believe you see love, and that you are safe and secure, and the next day that same person says they’ve met someone else and want a divorce.
So don’t use your body’s eyes.
If you don’t use the body’s eyes, you will see only love. You will see your brother, the Christ, standing before you. You will see Love, no matter what what is happening.
You will begin to see how flimsy and transparent the world really is. It’s a thin veil with no meaning.
From Chapter 18, Section 6:
You cannot distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success.
So there you go. Sometimes when you think you are going backward and making no progress at all, thinking yourself as a failure (as the body’s eyes judge it), you are a total success out in universe, accomplishing more for the totality of healing for the world that you can ever imagine.
And when you think you are a success, spreading the message, doing good works, being a loving person, there is nothing at all happening in terms of energy shifts for the world.
So today’s lesson includes two parts:
1. stop using your body’s eyes.
2. stop judging
This can be a little tricky and trippy when you first begin practicing not using your body’s eyes, but you will get good at it and it becomes a happy game that transforms your life and the world.
Imagine someone ignoring you, or telling you they hate you, or ripping you to shreds, and you not being swayed by emotion at all?? Imagine staying in perfect constant peace while everything around you is swirling in chaos.
This is what is offered to you.
I will not use the body’s eyes today.
My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.
Yesterday was a huge healing day for me. There were some situations in my life (from months ago) that needed to be cleaned up. I knew intuitively that I’d left a mess that for someone else to clean up – justifying with the old excuse “out of sight, out of mind” but I knew that eventually I’d have to go back to the original spot and clean it up myself.
You can’t get away from your own mind.
If you leave something undone, you will eventually have to go back and correct it and make it right.
This is what true forgiveness is. You dot every i and cross every t.
Your actions must become impeccable, and if you are stuck in your life, there is more than likely a blockage in you from something left undone from months or years ago.
It is my experience that you don’t have to find these messes by going to your past … they will keep popping up in your mind in the present.
Every time you think of a particular person or situation, you might start to get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Something that feels wrong or bad.
So the day before yesterday (let’s back up here a bit), I drove to the Madison airport to pick up a Greta and it’s a 40-minute drive, which means I had lots of time to think. Lately I’ve been thinking of where to go, what to do, where to live. Everything has been really confusing to me.
So there I am, driving to the Madison airport, and in a flash I knew exactly what I needed to do. It had nothing to do with a living situation, or work, or money, or anything, I just suddenly could see THE BLOCK. I could see THE OBSTACLE. I could see THE ROCK in the middle of the river that was stopping the flow.
And then I knew exactly what I needed to do: I needed to have a conversation with a friend and to ask her for forgiveness. I’d been selfish and irresponsible in certain areas of my life, and it had directly hurt her.
It was crystal clear in my mind about what needed to be done and a tremendous peace came over me and the rest of the trip to Madison flew by in brilliant light.
THE ONLY THING GOING ON HERE IN THE WORLD IS THE HEALING OF YOUR MIND.
Look for places where you left a mess.
Look for places where you were irresponsible and selfish.
Look at where you might have to make a phone call or talk with someone in person and say you’re sorry.
If the mess is with someone who is no longer here in a body, then find that person in your mind and clean it up there. Ask for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not ever about the other person. It’s always about you.
Forgiveness removes the blocks and obstacles. You begin to look upon everyone – including yourself – in a new way.
That’s yesterday’s lesson – MY SIGHT GOES FORTH TO LOOK UPON CHRIST’S VISION – and that is the journey, the path and the goal.
As fate would have it, I couldn’t get an internet connection yesterday. I couldn’t believe it.
As Jesus would have it, I moved!!
It’s more accurate to say Jesus moved me.
It’s even more accurate to say: Jesus catapulted me. I didn’t actually do anything. I took a few baby steps, which opened up the flood gates. I simply allowed events to happen and they happened and now I’m moved into a new sunny, bright location.
Those Esther-Abraham videos from a few days ago have been surprisingly helpful to me to remember to “stop paddling upstream against the current and to start letting yourself flow downstream.”
It’s great be reminded that “There is no getting from here to there, because there is no there. There is only here.”
Who would have guessed that when you stay in the here, you move to the there?? It’s a paradox, and a thrilling one indeed.
Also helpful was that little escalator video from Youtube. Did you watch it? It’s only about one minute long, and if you feel stuck … this video will change your life.
Watching this escalator video made me realized the insanity of my own condition of yelling for help because I was stalled on a broken escalator. What a joke. So these past few days I realized I could just as easily move my feet and walk to the top of the stairs. And so I took a few baby steps, and then Jesus took some giant steps for me.
It must be true: God helps those who help themselves.
Yesterday was the most brilliant surprising day of my life. Everything happened by grace. Right now I’m propped up in my bed, surrounded by boxes, feeling delighted. There is still much more to do, much more to move, but I’m thrilled I’m able to get an internet connection this morning.
Magic Blogging Desk is still at the old location so if it feels like I’ve lost my touch, you know why.
I’ll go pick up the desk and the rest of my things this afternoon.
I didn’t turn the computer on at all yesterday until last night at midnight. You cannot even begin to imagine my joy at finding such overwhelming support from all of you!!! Thank you. I cried. It was midnight and I was crying. Oh my God. Thank you.
It was funny to me that under normal circumstances I would have been checking my email every hour, on the hour, (okay, let’s be honest here: every 5 minutes) to see if there were donations or messages, but yesterday my hands were tied and I couldn’t do a damn thing. LOL. Not only that, but it didn’t occur to me to even try to find a computer. Usually if I can’t get an internet connection (I tried for an hour yesterday morning to make the thing work, no luck), I scramble to find one. Last summer there I was out at the ocean in Maine, and come hell or high water, I found an internet connection! Then there was the time I was on a remote hill in Greece, you think that stopped me from blogging?? Not. I found an internet connection.
No matter where I travel, I find an internet connection. It’s always my first priority.
But there was so much going on yesterday that I didn’t even think about a computer.
So, here I am. I love you all.
I have to leave here for another couple of hours, and so yesterday’s lesson and today’s lesson are a little late. Forgive me during this transition period.
The great news is: You have the book. You have the lessons. You have an internal Teacher who is with you always and Who is waiting for you to acknowledge Him.
As I have always said, it’s one thing to be a curious bystander on this blog waiting to see what I’m doing in my life … IT’S A WHOLE OTHER BALLGAME to start witnessing miracles in your own life.
And that’s what I want to see happen. I want to see you begin to practice these lessons – to really start trusting, start praying, start talking to Jesus, start asking for things, and to be in a constant state of appreciation.
This is where it gets really fun.
I love you a lot.
lisa
I need your help.
Please let me know if you are able to support Gorgeous for God financially on a regular basis.
I feel privileged to be able to do this work – to write, teach and inspire – and I have been blessed in this ministry work by friends who have contributed financially, with words of encouragement and in prayer. It is my goal to continue this outreach by continually offering hope and inspiration through writing and communicating.
God has blessed me over the years – it is a thrill and honor to express Jesus’ beautiful message of hope and joy and to bring people together in Christ so that our lives are changed.
I am very thankful for you.
I cannot do this alone anymore and I am asking for your support. I would like to encourage you to make a financial contribution to help continue this work.
Many thanks in advance to those who choose to serve and contribute.
NOTHING is as it seems. The world is in tremendous chaos right at this moment which means you need to be especially vigilant to move away from your five senses. Do not believe anything your body’s eyes or ears report. Start listening with your heart. Start trusting your gut.
Today’s lesson says:
“Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying tongues. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe. And it is only this we seek today.”
Here is a letter printed in Salon.com, and it is shocking, but while I was reading it I had a thought: I wonder if this article itself was ghost-written to wreck the McCain campaign? The gift of this article is that is shows me that my five senses have become utterly useless. I cannot trust anything my body’s eyes see or my body’s ear hear.
I ghost-wrote letters to the editor for the McCain campaign.
by Margriet Oostveen
I spent a morning in John McCain’s Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq.
To read the whole article, click here:
Here is an article just published today from Time magazine: What Happens When You Die?
To read the full article, click on the photo or here: What Happens When You Die?
I wrote about this very topic two days ago: There is no death.
Here’s part of the Time magazine article:
What Happens When You Die?
by M.J. Stephy
A fellow at New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world’s leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind “out-of-body” experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project’s origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.
What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?
Eye-opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven’t even told anybody else about it because they’re afraid of what people will think of them. I have about 500 or so cases of people that I’ve interviewed since I first started out more than 10 years ago. It’s the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened, and they couldn’t explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles – not just the patients’ side but also the doctors’ side – and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn’t told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.
Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?
Because we’re pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that’s it. Death is a moment – you know you’re either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they’re social perceptions. If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels – beyond the level of the atoms – Newton’s laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy – even Einstein himself didn’t believe in it.
Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can’t separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us back to our roots. It may take us back to the first moments after the Big Bang, the very beginning. With our study, for the first time, we have the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see what happens at the end for us. Does something continue?
