Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 15:01:01 -0500 (CDT)
Message-Id: <199607202001.PAA21705@tristero.io.com>
To: twc-l@halmarax.demon.co.uk
From: cswenson@mail.io.com (Charles Swenson)
Subject: "Near death experience" as a rebirthing experience
After lurking for quite a while, I'll throw this into the mix.
After some twenty five years of exploring drugs, both as part
spiritual search and part force of habit, I began a two year exploration of
ketamine's potential as a psycholytic tool.
The initial experience was truly profound---I thought I'd o.d.'ed
and was going to die, resulting in the psychological equivalent of a
near-death experience. The next two years resulting in a growing devotion
to seeking out some sort of meaning from this NDE. It bottomed out with me
in a closet, terrifying m'wife and child by moaning wraith-like "I'm a
walking zombie, I'm one of the living dead", thinking I'd indeed died using
the drug to enhance m'life.
Needless to say, I didn't die, but the overall experience was one of
re-birthing. The horrors of m'previous incarnation in this life as an
alcoholic and drug addict are of great value to me now, showing me just how
truly miraculous and precious life is, even in it's simplest manifestation.
To try to tie this into the TWC format, I guess what I am really
trying to say is that a pre-terminal encounter with a "near death
experience" can indeed open the door to a more fulfilling "near life
experience" in "the freshening breeze of now".
Sailing from moment to moment
On the freshening breeze of now
Relying on life not to fail us
Knowing it will, but not how
Yet still we trust
As still we must
In the freshening breeze of now...
(Charles Swenson, 7/19/96/0005)
With more to come, I throw this into the fray...
Charles Swenson
~~~Paradigms? Is that when you think ten times more of your two
cents worth than of anyone elses?~~~