Description

From the Session Abstract

The Near-Death Experience as a Spiritually Transformative Experience: An Alchemical and Jungian Point of View

The aftereffects of the NDE include spiritual changes and transformative mystical, alchemical states; for this particular event unchains a number of aftereffects, which in some cases are guided, not only by the near-death experience itself, but also by dreams containing alchemical imagery throughout the process of spiritual and personal transformation, as the NDErs adjust and integrate the Near-Death Experience into their lives. Alchemical dreams contain images of an archetypal nature, representative of symbols of the process of individuation and process or production of a new centre of personality.
Many studies coincide in revealing that all the features of the NDE suggest that there is an imperative need in society to integrate the extraordinary in our lives. As a society, we need a science that is keen to integrate objective and subjective venues in order to discover the objective side of consciousness and the subjective side of matter, thereby integrating the spiritual reality of the psyche, while recognizing the authenticity of personal narratives or experiences. Because without any doubt, this integration is imperative in Western society, which tends to deny mortality; fearing the intimate human encounter with death. Near-death studies have given evidence that life doesn’t end with the death of the physical body, have taught us about life and death, as well as our mission in life from an individual and a collective point of view.

On the whole, despite most research being focused on the positive aftermath of the NDE, other studies show that there is a lot more to the positive aftereffects of the NDE. There is also a pattern of negative and maladaptive aftereffects during the process of transformation and the awakening of the mind or consciousness in which the NDEr undergoes a significant amount of psychic suffering due inner chaos and loss of control; and the psychological, spiritual, and physiological turmoil. The NDE can trigger, in some survivors, an existential crisis in which the experiencer is forced to deal with the dark forces of the life of the unconscious, his or her own agonies, anguish, unresolved traumas, anger, pains, sorrows and unresolved grief. Conversely, the NDE includes a very large dynamic transformation in the psyche of the NDEr and, therefore, a transfiguration of his or her entire personality.

This workshop will illustrate that the NDE involves a great deal of spiritual transformation and is a remarkable human experience that not only the NDEr can learn and grow from, as well as others who have not had a close brush with death or who have not experienced the core elements of the NDE.