living-fully – Wonderings and Wanderings

Near-Death Experiences from Dr. Robert Coppes’s Interviews

Why would someone with a doctorate in economics decide to write a book about near-death experiencers? Amsterdam’s Dr. Robert Coppes is uncertain about the genesis of his interest although he did read Dr Raymond Moody’s book in 1975, Life After Life, the first account of near-death experiences. As a medical doctor, Moody risked his reputation with his research presenting a metaphysical concept of life after death.Coppes’s recent book, Impressions of Near-Death Experiences (Iands), presents generally contemporary stories from over 100 experiencers.

Some have written and spoken widely of their experiences, including Anita Moorjani and Eben Alexander. Others have been reluctant to share, fearing ridicule or disbelief. Coppes related some of his interviews in an Iands presentation that underscored the validity of these stories—the similarity of their events and the changed lives that the experiencers now enjoy. Coppes discovered that they are some of the best tutors for how to live this life.

According to the experiencers, what we see of reality limits our perception of what actually is. They have simultaneously seen the front, back, top, and sides of something. We as humans on earth can only see the front OR the back OR the sides, not all of them at once. They have had different, and ineffable, experiences—from accidents, cardiac arrest, or psychological hardships. Coppes notes that such differences make research problematic. Verbalizing the breadth and depth of their situations becomes almost impossible. Language limits explanations of what NDEers have seen. Coppes compares them to playing Beethoven on a bucket or painting like Rembrandt with two colors of chalk. They all learn so much more than they can recount after returning to their bodies; one compared reentry to an elephant trying to squeeze into a Coca-Cola bottle.

A generality of these experiences is being out-of-body. One person surveyed the scene of her car crash from outside it. She watched the driver who hit her go to her car and turn off the lights so it would look like she was at fault. She won in court, not because the judge believed her but because the defense did not appear. Another woman hovered near the hospital ceiling, surprised that the woman below had a nightgown like hers. She did not realize at first that she was looking down at her own body. She heard her husband talking on the telephone and then found herself in the location of the person to whom he was speaking. A third woman went into her synagogue during a lightning storm, turned around to see what everyone was watching, and saw a woman on the ground outside with a burned umbrella. She realized that that body was hers. The examples continue.

Most of them have life reviews which show no judgment of what they have done. They see their own actions and the reactions of those whom they have either hurt or helped. If they have smiled, they see the pleasure of the recipient. If they have hurt an animal, they feel the animal’s pain. The judgment, therefore, comes from each of the experiencers themselves, not from beings on the Other Side.

The main things the experiencers repeatedly espouse, according to Coppes, are:

Heaven is for all—no exceptions. People may choose evil in this life, but their souls, not their egos, are pure.
We cannot imagine how much we are loved, and we ourselves are all love.
We are One with everything in the universe. Everything is part of the “divine all.”
Whatever someone does to someone else does the exact same thing to himself/herself.
NDEs are real, based on veridical observations.
Everyone on earth, now and for all times, is important.
The greatest lesson is to love, be loved, and just be, just experience life.

Coppes includes these observations and many more from his interviews in his fascinating book. Other important physical results also affect NDEers. Estimates of how long an experiencer takes to reintegrate with life on earth is around seven years. Some become depressed. Many may not be able to tolerate electrical currents—interference with lights, cell phones, or other items. They often feel others’ emotions. They can become more psychic. They realize that organized religion is not as advertised and become more spiritual. And none are afraid of death. Light and unconditional love surround all of us. We just need to notice it. The feeling resembles air pressure because it is all around, but no one observes it. All who have had NDEs say that they now know that “we are one;” “all is everything, and everything is one;” and “God is in everything and unites us all.”

“The Well-Lived Life” according to Dr. Gladys McGarey

On September 28, 2024, Dr. Gladys McGarey transitioned from earth after 103 years (born November 30, 1920). I had known of her because she and her husband had pioneered holistic medicine in the United States, forming the American Holistic Medical Association in 1978 to unite body, mind, and spirit in medical treatment. I had been following her articles in Edgar Cayce’s ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment) magazine for around 30 or so of those years.

During her last year, she wrote The Well-Lived Life: A 103-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age. For each of her secrets, she offers examples from her own life or those of her patients. One of the five children of two doctors (her mother was one of the first women to receive a DO [osteopathy] and her father was both an MD and a DO), she spent her youth in India where her parents offered health care to village people, including “untouchables,” who had never had it.

Dr. Gladys writes in her introduction of two early experiences. Someone brought a suffering elephant into the village where her mother was working, and her mother proclaimed that she was not a vet. Nothing else had helped this wounded elephant so its owner begged. Her mother found a splinter in the elephant’s hoof, talked quietly to the elephant, and it let her retrieve it. She asked Gladys to prepare a solution to put on the infection, and while she was preparing the medicine, Gladys loved the experience enough to realize that she must become a doctor. (Her kindergarten teacher thought her stupid since she couldn’t read. But her next teacher realized that she was dyslexic.) Therefore, Gladys knew she would have to work especially hard. The elephant, delighted after its treatment, swung Gladys and her sister up on its back and took them to play in the nearby river, not only that day but for many days after.

The second event occurred when the family was traveling by train from Delhi to Bombay in 1930, en route for a furlough in the US. The train slowed inexplicably, and many people were running alongside it. When the train stopped, Gladys saw a man in a dhoti carrying a staff. She realized that she was seeing the revered Gandhi. He turned, and she thinks he looked at her directly because she had never seen someone who had such unconditional love in his eyes, the kind that “recognizes and accepts everything you are.” He was leading the famous nonviolent Salt March against the exorbitant British tax on salt.

An overview of the six secrets on which she expounds reveal her astute philosophy for living.

“You are here for a reason.”

Her “juice” was to be a doctor, and she endured hardships and hostile male attitudes while working toward her goal. She feels strongly that for one to do anything, one needs to find “juice” in the act. Without juice, a zest for living, at all stages of life, we shirk our reason for being on earth.

“All life needs to move.”

Finding movement throughout life helps us forgive ourselves for things we have done. We need to feel our shame with humor, to overcome the silliness of it, and laugh to release the adrenals. She relates a story of trying to get her groceries into her car when she was still driving at 99. A man offered his help, and instead of accepting it, she was affronted that he didn’t think she complete the task. He said that even though he was 86, he was stronger than he looked. She quickly realized that the argument in the parking lot between two old people, 99 and 86, was ridiculous and that she could only laugh at her adolescent response.

“Love is the most powerful medicine.”

Dr. Gladys believes that “our life force is activated by love.” We need to love ourselves and understand that even a tiny match of light will lighten the dark in a cavern. We all have difficulty receiving love because we have so often been hurt or rejected. We need to love everyone, but we don’t have to like them. We can always find something to love even if it’s that they love their kids or have an attractive hairdo. We help ourselves heal by loving ourselves and letting our life flow within us and around others.

“You are never truly alone.”

Dr. Gladys understands that, “connecting with community amplifies our individual life force by realigning it with our collective life force.” Even though we may want to withdraw, we need to expose ourselves to others. (Those who are “germless” are weaker than those who play in the dirt.) But when you are around others, in community, you can set your boundaries by knowing yourself. “When we contribute positively to our collective life force, our individual life force benefits.” Good community comes from the power of listening. We must ask what others need rather than telling them what we think they need.

“Everything is your teacher.”

To listen and learn, one must have discipline and commitment, neither one easy to keep. The hardest moments will be difficult. She cites hitting a curb as the impetus for her to stop driving. She didn’t want to give up that freedom, but hitting a child would be much worse. She talks about the role of dreams in learning as well as learning to stop fighting change. For her, her husband’s decision to leave her was exceedingly painful. Eventually she accepted the divorce and made it into a positive experience. She knew that she was the only one who could turn herself around; she needed to be identified as “Dr. Gladys” and not a “divorced woman.” She asks “What do I have to learn? What does this experience have to teach me? How else could I view this?”

“Spend your energy wisely.”

To her, “life is energy.” She believes that “when we align our energy with life, we create a give-and-take, sharing relationship with Source.” We need to know what risks are worth taking and put energy toward what is moving so that we don’t get stuck. We have to decide what we want to keep and acknowledge when we need to let it go. “Love is always worth your energy. Good community is always worth your energy.”

Dr. Gladys asks herself each morning, “what are we going to learn today?” She suggests that all of us do the same.

For anecdotes and examples that will offer further clarity for Dr. Gladys’s ideas, read her book, published by Atria in 2024.

Wow! Part 2

That we can affect the universe’s quantum field with merely our thoughts is both frightening and empowering. Science has shown that we are all entangled and united in this quantum field. In 2012, scientists validated the field of energy that underlies all existence. The conclusion was that the field is entangled, holographic, and fractal. In fact, 3 scientists received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving entanglement, more familiarly known as the “butterfly effect”—a butterfly fluttering on one side of the world can affect the air on the other side of the world.

Braden notes that each of us is our own quantum field. As matter in the universe, we are physically separate, but energy unites and entangles us. Every particle in the universe reflects the whole—we are the quantum field. If you picture the mirrors on a disco ball, you might have an idea of what that means. Each one of us is a tiny square mirror, made of the same stuff as all of the other tiny mirrors. We are glued at minuscule angles different from each of the other mirrors. Thus, we are all separate, but we form a whole that functions as one object, glistening in the light it reflects.

Psychological positivity in our energy often encourages others and gives them permission to be successful. Braden mentions Roger Bannister’s 4-minute mile run in 1954, the first ever, after runners had been attempting and failing for years. But within six weeks of his achievement, another racer broke that time. Others have overcome that psychological block so that by 2022, nearly 1800 had broken this barrier. When we emit success and love into the quantum field, we fill the field with what we would want others to do for us. Braden suggests, “Be the best version of self because we love ourselves enough to be the best we can be.” He says that we have always been “wired to thrive,” and only our thoughts thwart our success.

We can transcend our perceived limitations through our intuition—that divine part of us that we want to share with others. “We must become the things in the field that we want. We can’t feed the field what we don’t want.” And we must accept that we are “divine.” And when we accept this state, we will appreciate the beauty we “live with,” “live by,” and “upon which we base our lives.”

For more information about Gregg Braden, consult his website, greggbraden.com.

For more information about Global Oneness, see Humanitystream.org.

Wow!

Did you know that our bodies emit enough voltage to light a 100W electric light bulb—or more when we’re exercising? The body, according to Gregg Braden, houses 50 trillion cells. Each cell contains 100 trillion atoms. Every cell has input and output photons of light, enough for each body to generate an electrical potential of nearly 3.5 trillion volts. When we enter a room where people are gathered, we are all separate bodies, but our energy interacts with the energy of all the others in the room. We become one, and as our energy expands outside the room, it joins energy throughout the universe. We control the emotional state of our energy. If we want to live in a world of peace and love rather than fear and frustration, we must transmit a loving energy into the quantum field. Then with other positive energies, we can become this world of peace and love we desire.

Humanity’s Team, a streaming platform, espouses Global Oneness for everyone on the planet by the year 2040. During this year’s Global Oneness Summit, the founder Steve Farrell interviewed Gregg Braden. Braden, a trained structural geologist PhD, began his career working on the Strategic Defense Initiative during the Reagan era. While in this position, trying to conceive the necessary weapons to win the “Cold War,” he decided to vacation in Egypt. There, he wanted to see the sunrise from Mt. Sinai. What he experienced was a scene so beautiful that he wondered “If I left this world today, would I feel complete with my life?” When his answer was “no,” he decided to quit his job and do only what would fulfill a “yes” answer for him. He became a best-selling NY Times author, a scientific researcher and seeker, a musician, a speaker, a teacher. He refused any invitation to which he could not respond “yes.” Since then, he daily praises “the Beauty I live with, the Beauty I live by, and the Beauty upon which I base my life.”

In his interview, Braden asserted that we, as humans, have been taught since early childhood that we are not “worthy,” that we are not “enough.” He disagrees. He calls humans “soft technology” who are much more than we have been led to believe. When compared to “hard” technology (the computer), the human brain exceeds it in capability, 100 million times more efficient than a computer chip. (After all, our human genome has never changed. All technology today comes from human sources.) He references a Stanford study at the Salk Institute comparing brain synapses to a microprocessor. The computer is, of course, faster. However, a chip’s material, silicon, restricts its ability. It can never attain any greater capability than that of the material’s capacity. The human brain has unlimited possibility. When the brain’s neurons reach an alleged apex, they morph and adapt so that they open a new dimension and expand past that prior perceived limit.

In 1991, scientists identified the neural network in the heart. Further research reveals that coherence between our brains and our hearts helps spread positive energy. Scientists have measured the magnetic field of the heart and discovered that it extends 5-8 feet out from the body. Since energy has no boundaries, why does this field extend only 8 feet? The answer: the machine can only measure out to 8 feet. Therefore, the energy potentially extends much further into the universe. How can we ascertain that this energy has quality? Braden asks, “Do we love ourselves enough to embrace the truth of being human today and the responsibility that comes with it?” We need to decide what we want the world to be and project that world ourselves by directing our own biology. We need to expand our emotion to love rather than contract it in fear.

Reducing stress increases our immune responses. If we slow our breathing, we can bring coherence (reduced stress) between our heart and our brain. The breathing is simple: slowly inhale four counts, stop the breath briefly at the top of the inhale, and then exhale 8 counts. Such breathing triggers the parasympathetic response by affecting the Vagus nerve and relieving bodily tension. It also increases measurable heart rate variability. The more variability we have, the more resilience we have when things change. (One simple addition to aid this process is to think of something for which you have gratitude.) The breathing also affects DNA. The protein chromatin sheafs our DNA. Spooling winds our DNA and controls its elasticity. When not wound too tightly, DNA spools more efficiently. Scientists now know that our body’s stress level strongly affects the tightness of the spooling. Less stress positively affects DNA function. And we can reduce our mechanical stress, regardless of its source, with only three minutes a day of breathing into coherence. If we chose diets without added chemicals or food prepared properly and try not to breath toxic air, we can further contain molecular stress. When we began treating our bodies, our temples, the way they should be treated and listen more to our hearts, we can retain our power. The question we must ask is “what power have we given away to fear?” Each of us can only answer that question for ourselves.

(To be continued)

An Inspiration

How and why people change during a lifetime can be illuminating. Evolving can be exciting, challenging, chaotic, and, simply, scary. What’s important is that it happens.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis decided, after a career selling Kodak copiers, to attend Princeton Seminary and become a minister. As the first Black senior clergy at Manhattan’s Middle Church (established in 1628), she has led a multicultural, progressive congregation through its individual trials and an especially public fire. One of her seven books, Fierce Love, espouses living life, exactly as she says—“fiercely.”

Dr. Lewis divides her book into three sections—“You,” “You and your Posse,” and “You and the World.” She enlarges each of those with three chapters, each titled with a facet of her philosophy:

1. “Love Yourself Unconditionally—It all starts here.”
2. “Speak Truthfully. It will set you free.”
3. “Travel Lightly. Downsize the burdens you carry.”
4. “Show Kindness and Affection Wildly. Make fierce love real.”
5. “Confront Boldly. Transform your circumstances with Moral Courage.”
6. “Think Inclusively. They’re your people, too!”
7. “Live Justly. Choose fairness and equality every day.”
8. “Find Joy Purposefully. It is the water of life.”
9. “Believe Assiduously. Have faith in love.”

In a recent interview with Dr. Lewis, the Rev. Dr. Bill Kerley, from the United Methodist Church in Houston, asked her how she could have hope in these turbulent contemporary times. She has seen many different sides of humanity, even within her own family’s negative response to Caucasians, including her two white husbands. Yet, she still believes that we all need each other, and thoughtful awareness will one day infuse all of us.

She concludes her book with these words: “I want to convert you, to convince you, to proselytize you. I want you to believe with me in our shared capacity to make a better life and a better world, together. I hope you’ll believe assiduously in love, in the fiercest love of all.”

If I lived near her church, I would consider joining her congregation. After all, such a positive message, spiritual rather than “religious,” would be both appealing and refreshing. Generally, all we need is joy and love to survive—and thrive. . . . Search for her on Google to see how much she has accomplished for the communities with which she has been connected.