experiences are the result of a Near Death Experience (NDE), when a person approaches clinical death for a short period of time and then comes back to life. As someone revives from this experience, he or she reports statements like,
"I came out of my body and felt like I was floating on the ceiling, looking down at the people who were operating on me. "
"As I lifted out of my body I was greeted by an exquisitely beautiful, kind being who made me feel very safe and loved. I have never felt so peaceful and comfortable. "
"I now know that the spiritual dimension exists. I have no doubts."
"I am no longer afraid of death. I know it is a joyful transition. "
"I feel moved to do more work in service to my fellow man. Material goals are just not very important. "
According to a Gallup survey in 1982, people who have had near-death experiences number at least 8 million in North America. How does this kind of spiritual experience affect psychological well-being? Clearly, those who choose to accept their inner experience as valid find a renewed appreciation for life as they have realized new dimensions and new resources of love and peace; this, together with the loss of fear of death and the conviction that there is life after death brings great comfort. Those who feel threatened by their experience or are told to believe that their experience is delusional, a hallucination, unreal, etc., gain no psychological benefit. Those who find their religious convictions challenged by their spiritual experience may likewise be uncomfortable until they resolve their questions. (Pastoral counseling or psychological counseling may be called upon to help a person resolve their questions in these instances.)
The people who have experienced a greater reality through spiritual experience and integrated it into their lives are likely to be better educated, more economically successful, less racist, and substantially higher on scores of psychological well-being (Allison, 1967; Greeley, 1975; Hood, 1974, Thomas and Cooper, 1977, Vaughan and Walsh, 1980). "An appreciation of the holistic, unitive, integrated nature of the universe and one's unity with it" (Vaughan and Walsh, 1980) is further evidence of the positive changes which can come from integrating spiritual experience. Thus, it appears to be a contribution to individuals to help them integrate mystical experiences.
As our resuscitation technology improves increasingly more people will have these experiences when they are revived from near-death. Similarly, people anesthetized with ketamine and a variety of other anesthetics, will find themselves having NDE-like experiences (Rogo, 1984). Psychotropic drugs such as LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy), street drugs which are readily available, although illegal, also may facilitate the phenomena of spiritual experience.
A recent study (Allman et al. 1992) indicates that 4.5% of clients seeing full-time psychologists wanted to talk about their mystical experiences. Obviously, people who unexpectedly drop their fear of death or waylay doubts that the spiritual dimensions exist, or feel complete love and peace for the first time are having experiences which will have a profound impact on psychological health. These changes often include radical changes in values, radical changes in relationship to family and work, and new behaviors. Religious conversion mayor may not be central to this transformation as people often move away from established religion and prefer a more spontaneous spiritual expression in alignment with a sense of the underlying unity of all religions.
Other spiritual experiences include the awakening of expanded perceptual abilities that are not related to paranoid ideation and have a positive, transformative impact. These abilities might include:
precognition: the ability to see into the future through awake vision or dream. This might include extraordinary inspiration such as Mozart hearing a whole symphony or Einstein seeing a new theorem through tapping resources that transcend logical processing.
clairvoyance: the ability to perceive constellations of energy through inner sight which are imperceptible to ordinary vision. Clairvoyant perceiving might include "seeing" roots of problems manifesting as physical disease, mental disturbance, or relationship difficulties. Clairvoyant "seers" can be used for health diagnostics and psychological counsel and are extraordinary resources for knowledge that transcend the limitations of time, space and technology.
clairsentience: the ability to feel energies in one's own body which duplicate the emotions, physical wellness, or thoughts of another being. Similar to clairvoyance, clairsentience can be useful in human health services as well as having applications in personal problem solving. When people feel their unity with the earth itself, it can be a source of great comfort and inspiration.
clairaudience: the ability to hear messages from a source of intelligence which goes beyond the rational information of the present life. Examples include speaking with nonphysical spiritual guides or angels who give uplifting, positive direction and open the person to increased resources of compassion for all beings.
healing: the ability to manifest health-giving changes in the physiology or psychology of oneself or another being through laying on of hands, prayer, or psychic transmission.
psychokinesis: the ability to move material objects through psychic transmission.
Both the influences of medical and pharmaceutical experiences in our lives and psycho-social factors discussed in Chapters 2 and 8 contribute to this being a time in history when many people are able to have spiritual experiences, acquire some of the abilities mentioned above, and make the passageway to the increased well-being that spiritual experiences can promote. The following table published by A. Greeley in American Health in January, 1987, illustrates polls which indicate that spiritual experiences in the USA are on the rise. This is further evidence that the spiritual aspect of life increasingly plays a major role in the psychological lives of the majority of the population.
TABLE 1:
Increases in paranormal experiences in 1973 (in parentheses) and 1986.
| Americans Who | 1973 | 1986 |
| Had contact with the dead (adult pop.) | (27%) | 42% |
| Had contact with the dead (widows) | (51%) | 67% |
| Had visions | (8%) | 29% |
| Experienced ESP | (58%) | 67% |
| Experienced deja vu | (59%) | 67% |
| Experienced clairvoyance | (24%) | 31% |
| Believe in life after death | (*) | 73% |
| Believe the afterlife is Paradise | (*) | 68% |
| Believe that after death they'll be | ||
| reunited with dead loved ones | (*) | 74% |
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