Religion,

Religious

Experiences &

Spiritualization

The Self, Death and

After Life
UNSCRAMBLE THE
JUMBLE
DIASLUM
DUALISM
EHENNGLTENIMT
ENLIGHTENMENT
MTRLIEAISAM
MATERIALISM
SASUBTCNE
SUBSTANCE
FNAUTLNCOISIM
FUNCTIONALISM
RANRCINAETOIN
REINCARNATION

IAUNDIDVIL
INDIVIDUAL
Contents

Identify the various concept of the self

Understand the different kinds of near death
experiences
Identify the basis of resurrections
Various Concept

of the SELF

Dualism
Materialism
Monistic Pantheism
The Buddhist Doctrine of
No-self
DUALISM

in religion, the doctrine that the world

(or reality) consists of two basic,
opposed, and irreducible principles that
account for all that exists. It has played
an important role in the history of
thought and of religion.
 Nature and significance

In religion, dualism means the belief in two supreme opposed powers or gods, or
sets of divine or demonic beings, that caused the world to exist. It may conveniently
be contrasted with monism, which sees the world as consisting of one principle such
as mind (spirit) or matter; with monotheism; or with various pluralisms and
polytheisms, which see a multiplicity of principles or powers at work. As is indicated
below, however, the situation is not always clear and simple, a matter of one or two or
many, for there are monotheistic, monistic, and polytheistic religions with dualistic
aspects.
 Egypt and Mesopotamia

While there was generally no explicit dualism in ancient Egyptian religion, there was an implicit
dualism in the contrast between the god Seth and the god Osiris. Seth, a violent, aggressive, “foreign,”
sterile god, connected with disorder, the desert, and loneliness, was opposed to Osiris, the god of
fertility and life, active in the waters of the Nile. Seth also possessed some typically dualistic marks of a
mythological character: his action, as well as his personality itself, was ambivalent; and, as a typical
trickster, he was also capable, at times, of constructive action in the cosmos. The myths of Osiris and
Seth may be compared in various ways with those recently discovered among the Dogon people of
the western Sudan, which contrast Nommo, a fertile and happily mated primordial being pictured in
fish form, with Yurugu (“Pale Fox”), an unhappy, sterile character who lives in the wilderness without a
mate. Yurugu is considered to be the element that makes the universe complete (the same role
assigned to Seth in the Egyptian myth).

 MATERIALISM
Materialism is the idea that everything is
either made only of matter or is ultimately
dependent upon matter for its existence
and nature. It is possible for a philosophy to
be materialistic and still accord spirit a
(secondary or dependent) place, but most
forms of materialism tend to reject the
existence of spirit or anything non-physical.
 Materialism and the Mind

A common critique of materialism involves the mind: are mental events material or
themselves the result of matter, or are they the result of something immaterial, like a
soul? Consciousness is not usually thought of as a property of material things —
atoms and tables are not conscious, for example. How is it possible then for particular
configurations of matter to give rise to consciousness?
 Materialism and Determinism

Because materialists only accept the existence or primacy of material things,

they also only accept the existence or primacy of material explanations for
events. Whatever happens in the world, it must be explained and explainable
by reference to matter. Materialism thus tends towards determinism:
because there are material causes for every event, then every event follows
necessarily from its causes.

 Materialism and Science

Materialism is closely associated and aligned with the natural sciences.

Modern science involves the study of the material world around us, learning
about material events, and theorizing about their material causes. Scientists
are materialists in that they only study the material world, although they may
personally believe in non-material entities. Science in the past has tried to
incorporate vitalist ideas and the supernatural, but those efforts failed and
have since been discarded.

 Atheism and Materialism

Atheists are usually materialists of some sort, rejecting the idea that there
exists anything independent of the workings of matter and energy.
Materialism often entails atheism unless a person believes in a purely
physical god, but atheism does not entail materialism. It may be hard to
believe in a god in a materialistic philosophy, but an atheistic philosophy
need not be materialistic.

 Monestic and

Panentheism

Monism is the metaphysical view that all is of one essential essence, substance or energy.
Monism is to be distinguished from dualism, which holds that ultimately there are two
kinds of substance, and from pluralism, which holds that ultimately there are many kinds
of substance.
Monism is often seen in relation to pantheism, panentheism, and an immanent God.
Monism is often seen as partitioned into three different kinds:
1. Physicalism or materialism, which holds that only the physical is real, and that the
mental can be reduced to the physical
2. Idealism or phenomenalism, which holds the converse
3. Neutral monism, which holds that both the mental and the physical can be reduced to
some sort of third substance, or energy
 The Buddhist

Doctrine of No

Self

Anatta is the Pali or the crude version of the Sanskrit word, Anatma, meaning Not-Self. It is also often called the Non Self or
No Self. Anatta refers to the absence of Self (ana + atma). Anatta also means objective reality or what is not Self or what is
other than the Self. Anatta represents all that exists outside the Self or other than the Self.

The roots of Anatta or Anatma are not in Buddhism or in the teachings of the Buddha, but in the ascetic traditions of
Hinduism and Jainism of ancient India. It is also not specific to Buddhism only. The Buddha made it popular by making it
the central aspect of his teachings. In the belief systems of ancient India, especially those of Hinduism and Jainism, Anatta
represented the objective or perceptual aspect of the existential reality. It also represented the outward approach or the
perceptual, mindful approach to achieve liberation, in contrast to the inward, witness approach or the withdrawal
approach to experience the subjective Self (Atma or Atman).
 Anatta as Not-self

The Buddha taught the nonexistence of eternal Souls in the beings. He held
that the eternal Self was an illusion, a notion or a formation of the mind. It
had no basis in reality. According to him, the world was bereft of a soul (or
God), and so was the case with the microcosm of any living being. It was
neither possible nor believable that an eternal, imperishable and stable soul
could exist anywhere or in any being, when a mere observation showed that
beings were subject to change, aging, decay and death. All sentient beings,
and even the objects were in the process of becoming and changing from
one state to another.

 Near Death

Experiences

According to Dr. Jeffrey Long, there is no uniformly accepted definition of near-

death experience.
According to Dr. Bruce Greyson, a near-death experience is a common pattern of
events that many people experience when they are experiencing intense threat, are
seriously ill or come close to death. NDEs are intensely vivid and often life-
transforming experiences, many of which occur under extreme physiological
conditions such as trauma, ceasing of brain activity, deep general anesthesia or
cardiac arrest in which no awareness or sensory experiences of any kind should be
possible according to the prevailing views in neuroscience.

Although NDEs vary from one person to another, they often include such features as the
following:
· feeling very comfortable and free of pain
· a sensation of leaving the body, sometimes being able to see the physical body while floating
above it
· the mind functioning more clearly and more rapidly than us
· a sensation of being drawn into a tunnel or darkness
· a brilliant light, sometimes at the end of the tunnel
· a sense of overwhelming peace, well-being, or absolute, unconditional love
· a sense of having access to unlimited knowledge
· a “life review,” or recall of important events in the past
· a preview of future events yet to come
· encounters with deceased loved ones, or with other beings that may be identified as religious
figures
 THE SCIENCE OF
NDE

Men and women who have died and been

successfully resuscitated sometimes undergo
what is called “near-death experiences”
(NDEs).
The argument revolves around the theory of
consciousness.
Is consciousness produced by the brain, as some sort of
epiphenomenon?
Or is consciousness separate, existing alongside but
separate from the physical nervous system?
The following elements of the experiences lend support to their veracity:

1. They are widely experienced by persons from diverse backgrounds

and belief systems

2. There are common characteristics to the experiences

3. The experiences are sometimes quite specific with information

otherwise unavailable to the person (such as locating objects in the room
during surgery which were not present while the patient was
alive/awake; describing an event in another location which occurred
during surgery, etc.)

Near-Death
Experiences
Evidence for
Their Reality

Jeffrey Long, MD (2014)

 LINE OF EVIDENCE #1
Lucid, organized experiences while unconscious, comatose,
or clinically dead
The NDERF survey asked, “How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the
experience compare to your normal, everyday consciousness and alertness?” Of 1,122 NDErs
surveyed, 835 (74.4%) indicated they had “More consciousness and alertness than normal”; 229
(20.4%) experienced “Normal consciousness and alertness”; and only 58 (5.2%) had “Less
consciousness and alertness than normal.”
“If your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience was different from your
normal everyday consciousness and alertness, please explain.” In response to this question, NDErs
commonly reported that consciousness during their experiences was “clear”, “more aware”, and
often associated with heightened awareness.

 LINE OF EVIDENCE #2
Seeing ongoing events from a location apart from
the physical body while unconscious (out-of-body
experience)

A common characteristic of near-death experiences is an out-of-body experience. An out-of-

body experience (OBE) is the apparent separation of consciousness from the body. About 45%
of near-death experiencers report OBEs which involves them seeing and often hearing ongoing
earthly events from a perspective that is apart, and usually above, their physical bodies.
Following cardiac arrest, NDErs may see, and later accurately describe, their own resuscitation.

 LINE OF EVIDENCE #3
Near-death experiences with vision in the blind and
supernormal vision

“I slowly breathed in the water and became unconscious. A beautiful lady dressed in bright white light
pulled me out. The lady looked into my eyes asked me what I wanted. I was unable to think of
anything until it occurred to me to travel around the lake. As I did so, I saw detail that I would not
have seen in “real” life. I could go anywhere, even to the tops of trees, simply by my intending to go
there. I was legally blind. For the first time I was able to see leaves on trees, bird’s feathers, bird’s eyes,
details on telephone poles and what was in people’s back yards. I was seeing far better than 20/20
vision."
 LINE OF EVIDENCE #3
A review of narrative responses to this question revealed
that vision during NDEs was often apparently
supernormal. Here are some illustrative examples from
NDEs:

“Colors were beyond any I had ever seen.”

“Everything seemed so much more colorful and brighter than normal.”
“My vision was greatly increased. I was able to see things as close or as far as I needed. There
was no strain involved it was almost like auto zooming a camera.”
“I had 360-degree vision, I could see above, below, on my right, on my left, behind, I could see
everywhere at the same time!”

 LINE OF EVIDENCE #4
Near-death experiences that occur while under
general anesthesia

“During my surgery I felt myself lift from my body and go above the operating table. The doctor
told me later that they had kept my heart open and stopped for a long time, and they had a
great amount of difficulty getting my heart started again. That must have been when I left my
body because I could see the doctors nervously trying to get my heart going. It was strange to
be so detached from my physical body. I was curious about what they were doing but not
concerned. Then, as I drifted farther away, I saw my father at the head of the table. He looked
up at me, which did give me a surprise because he had been dead now for almost a year.”
 LINE OF EVIDENCE #5
Near-death experiences and life reviews

“I went into a dark place with nothing around me, but I wasn’t scared. It was really peaceful
there. I then began to see my whole life unfolding before me like a film projected on a screen,
from babyhood to adult life. It was so real! I was looking at myself, but better than a 3-D movie
as I was also capable of sensing the feelings of the persons I had interacted with through the
years. I could feel the good and bad emotions I made them go through.”

 LINE OF EVIDENCE #6
Encountering deceased loved ones in near-
death experiences

necessary for me to understand, at the age
“I approached the boundary. No explanation was

of ten, that once I cross[ed] the boundary, I could never come back— period. I was more than
thrilled to cross. I intended to cross, but my ancestors over another boundary caught my

attention. They were talking in telepathy, which caught my attention. I was born profoundly
deaf and had all hearing family members, all of which knew sign language! I could read or
communicate with about twenty ancestors of mine and others through telepathic methods. It
overwhelmed me. I could not believe how many people I could telepathize with
simultaneously.”

The lack of significant differences in the content of near-death experiences

around the world, including NDEs from non-Western countries, suggests that
NDE content is not substantially modified by preexisting cultural influences.

Other common forms of altered consciousness, such as dreams or hallucinations,

are much more likely to be significantly influenced by prior cultural beliefs and
life experiences. The lack of significant differences in the content of NDEs around
the world is consistent with the concept that NDEs occur independently from
physical brain function as currently understood.
Near death
experiences 'are
not the afterlife –
just a brainstorm!

- Jonathan Leake,
2010
Bright lights may be caused by a cascade of electrical activity in the dying brain, a study of the
brainwaves at the end of life suggests

Many people experience the sensation as a religious vision and treat it as confirmation of an
afterlife. However, the scientists behind the new research believe that is wrong.

Bright lights may be caused by a cascade of electrical activity in the dying brain, a study of the
brainwaves at the end of life suggests

A study of the brainwaves of dying patients showed a surge of electrical activity in the moments
before their lives ended.
The causes of NDEs are
complex and not fully known.
While many medical and
psychological explanations
have been offered, they
remain speculative and often
fall short of explaining the
entire phenomenon.

– Dr. Bruce Greyson

The Basis of
The Basis of
Resurrection

Resurrection