SURVIVAL? DEATH AS A TRANSITION

Members of the Network will know David Lorimer as an indefatigable Programme Director, masterly Journal Editor and prolific Book Reviewer, very likely coming to appreciate him (as I have been pleased to do over more than twenty years) as friendly, supportive, humble, erudite, well-connected, gentlemanly and generous. If anyone succeeds at the skilful balancing act between intellect, emotion, words and action, between mind, heart and soul, it is David. So the task of reviewing these two books filled me with both a welcome sense of privilege and confident anticipation.

They are in fact re-publications with new or expanded titles. 'Survival?' was originally written in 1982. 'Resonant Mind' was published as 'Whole in One: the near-death experience and the ethic of inter-connectedness' in 1990. The one prepares for the other and, despite some necessary repetition, it was good to read them sequentially, for they build steadily towards what, in the 80s and 90s, would have been a near-revolutionary climax.

In writing about the possibility of personal consciousness surviving death, and related matters, David set himself a monumental task, one he approaches in 'Survival?' in two ways: the first (in the six chapters of Part One) historical; the second (in the six further chapters of Part Two) empirical. He then artfully combines these approaches in the nine chapters of 'Resonant Mind'. His account is comprehensive. At one point he warns, for example, 'Research for this chapter has involved consulting some seventy-five books'; and he sometimes recommends those wanting more detail to look up some of his sources. There are fourteen pages of bibliography in 'Survival?' and twenty in 'Resonant Mind' but (as Introductions to the new editions mention) extensive footnotes from the original publications and the index have been removed, so some difficulties do exist when following particular ideas or seeking precise references.

This will not matter significantly, except to the most discerning readers, because the material presented is sufficiently detailed and wide-ranging, and therefore entirely adequate. But it is not a completely neutral account. David employs the first person plural throughout. The conspiratorial use of 'we' and 'us' naturally implies a contrary and disbelieving 'them'. 'We', his agreeable readers, it seems, are people who follow the declared aims of the Network, among them: 'to integrate intuitive insights with rational analysis'. 'We' are therefore people 'open to new observations and insights'; 'rigorous in evaluating evidence and ideas'; also, 'sensitive to a plurality of viewpoints'.

This is perfectly fine, but the risk of furthering division between 'Us' and 'Them' - those in opposition who continue to hold the prevailing world-view; the supporters of scientific materialism (whose doctrine concludes that mind is solely a by-product of matter and the soul a bygone illusion) - should be acknowledged and guarded against.

One way to improve the situation involves seeking out one's supposed opponents to understand them better, to discover how they have come to formulate and adhere so strongly to their opinions, to divine wherever they may have left their investigations incomplete, and where contrary observations, evidence and arguments are being overlooked, ignored or flatly denied; and this is what David is good at. His historical survey starts with the 'animist outlook' of pre-history, proceeding via ancient Tibetan, Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures to Christianity, via the Old Testament, the Gospel writers and Saint Paul, towards the Middle Ages and the Reformation - all in three chapters and fewer than eighty pages.

A straightforward chapter on, 'Mind and Matter in the Scientific and Cartesian Framework', is then followed by, 'Modern Theories of Body, Mind, Brain and Death', encompassing the work of Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley, J. B. S. Haldane, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, together with their more recent commentators. Those quoted - Sir Cyril Burt, Sir Charles Sherrington, Sir Alister Hardy, Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Karl Barth and a dozen or so others among them - all argue that the mind and personality, while intimately connected with the brain, 'Cannot be wholly identified with it, and need not therefore perish at physical death' ('Survival?' p 162). Thus is the reader prepared for the comprehensive examination of supernormal phenomena that takes up the remainder of 'Survival?'.

Psychical research fits uneasily with both the medieval outlook and Cartesian science. According to G. N. M. Tyrrell, a former President of the Society for Psychical Research, 'People sheer away from it... They feel that they cannot cope with it, and are unwilling to make the drastic overhaul of their cherished convictions, which the subject demands' ('Survival?' p 153). But David counters with reference to David Bohm's 'implicate order', quoting Schopenhauer, Kant and others in strong support of consistent findings regarding clairvoyance, telepathy, out of body experiences (OBEs) near death experiences (NDEs), apparitions and the rest.

Part Two begins with a full chapter devoted to the extraordinary life and remarkable psychic abilities of Emmanuel Swedenborg, who was born in Stockholm in 1688. Capable of clairvoyance, pre-cognition, telepathy, and the ability to converse with spirits, his own attitude towards his experiences remained remarkably low-key and persuasively matter-of-fact. Next is a chapter on apparitions of various types, examples being taken from an unsurpassed publication from 1886, 'Phantasms of the Living' by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, in which over 700 cases are described. Two following chapters rely on more recent research and the author, Celia Green's 1968 publication of her findings on studying 400 cases. Twenty-five of these are summarised in Chapter 9 to bring out the principal characteristics of OBEs. A further eighteen case descriptions of NDE's are discussed in Chapter 10.

Accounts in Chapter 11 of, 'Post-Mortem Descriptions of Bodily Death', differ slightly, in that a living person must communicate with the dead and relay their comments: thus the voice of George Hopkins (deceased) is heard through a medium called Leslie Flint, as reported in a 1975 book by Neville Randall that details 500 such cases. Ten accounts are repeated here (including that of 'Bertrand Russell', communicated through Rosemary Brown), the conclusion being that, 'The conscious self survives physical death intact, finds itself released from any pain, experiences feeling freedom and lightness, expressing itself through a body identical in form to the physical body but not subject to its limitations of space and time' ('Survival?' p 292).

In the concluding chapter, there is a succinct summary of the findings of Part Two plus additional comments, for example that people can be thought of as three-fold beings with physical, 'etheric' and 'astral' bodies. William James, too, is quoted: 'The visible world is part of a more spiritual universe', and, 'Union with that higher universe is our true end' ('Survival?' p 302). It all sounds literally divine. *

'Resonant Mind' is similar to 'Survival?' but goes further. In his Introduction, David writes that his aim is, 'To suggest a new metaphysical basis for moral order, the insights for which arise in the empirical soil of the near-death experience'. He highlights in particular both the 'life-review' and 'unitive consciousness', from which he derives a theory of 'empathic resonance', by which people ('we') are able 'to enter the consciousness of another as if it were our own' ('Resonant Mind' p xvi). Chapters on 'Memory and Life-review in NDEs', 'Post-mortem Life Review', and, 'Empathic Resonance and Unitive Consciousness' follow, building adroitly to a bold discussion of 'Moral Order in Karma and Reincarnation' in what is perhaps the richest chapter of the two books so far.

'As you sow, so shall you reap.' This vital idea and its association with rebirth is first traced to ancient Indian origins in the Upanishads by means of a helpful glossary of eleven terms, including 'Brahman', 'Atman', 'Avidya', 'Samsara', 'Dharma' and, of course, 'Karma'. How these ideas and principles fit in with Buddhism and also the works of Plato, form the next section. That they are supported by evidence from so-called 'channelled teachings' and 'hypnotic regression' (into past lives), by the metaphysics of the clairvoyant Edgar Cayce (born in 1877) and the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, follows, before the final section in this chapter expertly summarises and develops an account of 'karmic moral order and spiritual evolution'. Admirably deep, thought-provoking stuff!

Equally dazzling are the integrating chapters on: 'The Emergence of Post-mortem Judgement', 'Eschatology and the Christian Moral Order', and, 'Faith and Works, Heaven and Hell', the last of which harks back to the earlier book, developing such subjects as death and judgement in medieval Europe, the issues of purgatory and the sale of indulgences, then Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Only with Chapter 8, 'The Eclipse of the Spiritual World-view', do we reach the present (or at least 1990), and an earnest critique of 'scientific materialism', as in the following: 'The trend away from living religion has taken many thinkers... towards a position of explicit agnosticism or implicit atheism. In these... the divine and metaphysical orders are eliminated, all phenomena being accounted for by natural physical causes (p 197). The neglected factor is perhaps the inner dimension of spiritual and mystical experience' (p 207). The methodology of scientific materialism leads to a picture of the universe devoid of purpose, value and meaning (p 219). 'We' may not disagree; but then, we cannot in truth speak for 'Them'. In the end, as David has already suggested, it is a deeply personal matter and, 'The reader himself must judge' (Survival? p 182), but this is not the end of the discussion.

The final chapter of 'Resonant Mind' is called 'Ethics, Interconnectedness and Responsibility', indicating a possibly grim future for mankind, accompanied by... 'The generalised fear evoked by... a prospect of global collapse... allied to an equally widespread apathy and helplessness.' It reminds readers, 'One thing is certain: that our bodies will one day die', adding plainly, 'Our philosophy of life is intimately related to our philosophy and expectations of death'. Here is the challenge, to resist despair, and the book's final pages are occupied by a much more positive, even uplifting section called, 'Towards a Living Ethic' - an ethic of love and reverence for life - containing sub-sections on moral development, education, and the power of creative thought, leading people throughout life towards (quoting Lawrence Kohlberg), 'A sense of connectedness between the individual mind and heart and the larger cosmic whole or order which they call almost equally readily God, Nature, Life or ultimate reality' (p 242).

In his final paragraph, turning from death back to life, David concludes, 'Our true meaning and vocation lie in answering the call to wholeness and fulfilment of Love, the great integrating principle of the inner world, so that it becomes a harmonising and radiant force in our feelings, thoughts and actions.' This consummation of all his preceding ideas, so lucidly and comprehensively expressed and integrated throughout the two books, serves to explain the man, an exemplar to all, 'Us' and 'Them' alike. If not exactly a call to arms, his vision represents at least a wise invitation to immediate and necessary further deep personal contemplation and mutual support.

*

David Lorimer has done everyone an enormous favour. 'Survival?' and 'Resonant Mind' together represent a remarkable, generous and masterly achievement. The only other serious regret readers may have concerns the time lapse between original publication and re-issue. In many ways, the arguments stand, but there has been no significant updating of the two texts, and there have been some important trends and developments in the intervening years. In addition to recently published work on NDEs, for instance, Iain McGilchrist's much lauded book, 'The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World', published in 2009, is a useful case in point.

According to McGilchrist, the two brain hemispheres function similarly but run on markedly different agendas. They support two valuable ways of being in the world that are antithetical to each other. Scientific materialism is arguably compatible mainly with the workings of the 'dualist' left side of the brain. This deals with parts of the whole, with pieces of information in isolation, fixing and making each thing explicit by bringing it under the spotlight of attention, but in doing so rendering things inert, mechanical and lifeless. Overemphasis on left brain function, then, results in dehumanisation, in people who will listen but cannot understand, who look but cannot really see. The left brain is so averse to uncertainty and doubt that it often copes by arbitrarily picking just one interpretation as correct. Capable solely of binary (either/or, right/wrong) thinking, it prefers what is familiar, impatient with all other possibilities, which it construes therefore as wrong. The left brain thus commonly insists it is right, even when mistaken and in the face of evidence.

Much more in tune with 'Us', and with the aims of the Network, is the brain's 'holistic' right hemisphere. This, in contrast, pays attention to whatever is new, exhibiting breadth and flexibility of attention like a floodlight, allowing people to experience (to know intimately, rather than simply know about) the unified, live, complex, embodied world of individual, unique beings; a net of interdependencies, a world with which we are all ('Us' and 'Them') deeply connected. It is the seat, therefore, of what David calls 'empathetic resonance', of self-awareness, humour, creativity and intuition, of joy, peace, wisdom, compassion and love.

These insights carry an obligation to re-frame the debate, not as external - between 'Us' and 'Them' - but as internal, within the compass of a single brain and mind, a single consciousness. They allow and encourage us (all of us) to think of ourselves as capable of both rational, evidence-sifting, materialist thought and emotion-laden, empathic, intuitive, even mystical experience; and not be satisfied until we fulfil and integrate our dormant potential for both. We can be confident that harbouring the tension between the two agendas will impel growth towards points of resolution, epiphanies large and small that accumulate along the road to wisdom and maturity. The task is less to convince intransigent left-brain dominated others ('Them') of the hitherto neglected right-brain way of understanding and experiencing the world. It is rather to re-establish and retain - long before death - a balance between the two complementary halves within ourselves; to champion spiritual values over material ambitions and, guided by an undoubtedly spiritual sense of all-encompassing sacred unity, steadfastly to maintain 'the ethic of love and reverence for life' about which David has so eloquently written. As I see it, this is the true gift and message behind these wonderful books.