Rhawn Gabriel Joseph, Ph.D.
BrainMind.com
Sun Gods, Son of God
The sun was born about 4.6 billion years ago. It has enough nuclear fuel to last for another 5 billion years. Then it will grow to become a type of star called a red giant. Later in the sun's life, it will cast off its outer layers. The remaining core will collapse to become an object called a white dwarf, and will slowly fade. The sun will enter its final phase as a faint, cool object sometimes called a black dwarf.
Ancient peoples and civilizations the world over, from Egypt to the Incas of Peru, erected massive stone temples and monuments which faced the rising sun on the morning of the equinox and rebirth, the first day of Spring. They held great religious ceremonies to celebrate the celestial cross: the Winter-Summer Solstice and the Spring-Autumn equinox; the four corner of Earth and the cosmos: which were believed to have cosmic significance.
The equinox means equality, for the day and the nights are of equal length on these ancient Holy days. Rising in a different constellation every 2160 years, it is the sun's changing position on the morning of the equinox, over thousands of years of time, which the ancients believed heralded a new age and the death and birth of the gods. Thus for the last 2160 years the sun had risen in the houses of Pieces and Virgo during the Spring and Fall Equinox, which is why the Christian god, Jesus, is linked to Virgo, the virgin, and Pieces the two fish. And before Jesus the Pieces there was the god of the Ram, and before the Ram, Taurus the Bull; a new god and a new age every 2160 years, marked by the rising sun in a different constellation on the day of the equinox. And each new god proclaims: thou shalt honor no gods before me.
It is during the equinox that the sun most brilliantly lights up the Earth with dazzling, incredibly bright, multi-colored sheets of light, known as the polar auroras. For millennia those living in the far northern or southern latitudes have been dazzled by these unearthly solar displays, called the "aurora borealis" in the north, in honor of Aurora, the Roman goddess of the Dawn, and Boreas the Greek god of the wind. In the southern latitudes these ghostly displays of brilliantly colored wavering lights are called the aurora "australis" which is Latin for "south."
The auroras become most beautiful and colorful during the Equinox. Ancient peoples believed these were dancing spirits or the shadows of the gods. In fact, these great shows of light are caused by solar winds as they slam into the Earth's protective magnetic field and the upper atmosphere. The magnetic field is produced by electrical currents generated by the Earth's spinning molten iron core, and extends thousands of miles into space, creating a magnetosphere. The solar wind, consisting of charged plasma particles emitted by the sun, collides with the charged particles of the Earth's magnetosphere, electrically exciting and interacting with oxygen and nitrogen gasses and ions, creating a rainbow of shimmering greens, reds, purples and blues. For reasons that are not well understood, the solar wind increases in strength and velocity during the equinox, causing massive geomagnetic storms and extraordinarily colorful auroras; though this is not always the case.
FATHER SUN GOD
For much of humanity's history, the sun has been worshipped as a life-giving god which rules the heavens and our solar system. Many a king and queen have claimed to be direct descendants of this all powerful solar deity, the bringer of life.
FIGURES: Mayan, Hindu, Egyptian Sun God.
From August 28 through September 2, 1859 the Earth was battered by a great magnetic storm triggered by powerful solar winds, solar flares and coronal eruptions from the sun. For five days the planet was enveloped in ghostly shimmering sheets of greens, reds, and blues which were so brilliantly bright that night became day and even the darkest shadows of evening were illuminated with dazzling lights. The ancients also witnessed such incredible sights, which they believed were directly related to the sun god and the spirits and souls of the dead; and those yet to be reborn.
THE DEATH OF FATHER SUN
The last breaths of a dying star are exhaled as titanic, planet shaking, solar winds that grow more powerful and destructive with each dying day. When our own sun begins to die perhaps 6 billion years from now, its solar winds will roll across the Earth like a cosmic tsunami and the night skies will be illuminated for a millennia with fires of light. However, our sun is too small to erupt in a giant supernova, but instead will shrink, then grow, then shrink smaller still until it collapses, implodes and becomes an extremely dense and coldly pale "white dwarf."
However, once our sun begins to die, and well before its final collapse, all intelligent Earthly life will suffocate and drop to the ground gasping for breath. Increasingly powerful solar winds will whip our planet with cosmic hurricane gale force and strip the planet of its atmosphere. The oceans and seas will boil away, and the Earth's atmosphere, heavy with dust and watery mist, will be ripped from its moorings and blown into the black void of deep space. The air literally sucked from their lungs, all animals will collapse, gasping for breath, and die.
DEATH AND REBIRTH OF THE SUN GODS
Life gives birth to life, and stars give birth to stars in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. It's a cosmic dance which may have been ongoing for all eternity. Birth and death are part of the cycle of life. Some stars give birth as they die; becoming red giants and exploding in a vast supernova, spawning hundreds of infant proto-stars.
The ancient sun god, and the stars in the heavens above, die, but give birth to hundreds of new stars, new suns; suns of the sun gods.
Ancient peoples throughout the world worshipped the sun for its life generating powers, believing it a god which governed the cosmic cycle of death and rebirth. In ancient Egypt the morning sun represented rebirth and the god Horus the divine son of Isis and Osiris. The afternoon sun was the God Re, the most powerful of the gods because of his great strength. The redness of the setting sun was the blood of the god as he died. It was the evening sun Atum, the creator god who transported the dead pharaohs to the heavens where they were resurrected and brought back to life to live among the stars which were gods.
The sun also died and was reborn, or so believed the ancients, with death and rebirth taking place during a 3 day period beginning on the Winter Solstice, December 22. "Solstice" means, "Sun standing still" and during the Winter Solstice the sun seems to stop its southerly journey toward the underworld, and then to reverse course, ascending northward into the heavens on December 25--the birthday of innumerable gods and sons of gods. Thus, many ancient cultures celebrated the birth and resurrection of the sun on December 25.
Every son has a father. The ancient Aryans believed the sun was the "son" of the Sky God, and was thus the "Son of the sky" and had been created and fathered by the Heavenly Father who in turn had been sired by Father Sun. The son of the Sun-God becomes God the Sun. Christians borrowing from the ancient pagans, believed Jesus to be the "son of god" and "god the son" the incarnation of the Heavenly father, and who dies and is resurrected, ascending to heaven, becoming one with god.
Thus ancient peoples throughout the world believed the "Son of the Sun-God" was sired by God the Sun, becoming the Sun God who sets and dies and ascends to heaven, is resurrected and reborn to become the Heavenly Father, the Sun, in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, thus guaranteeing eternal life to all god's children--so claim the ancients.
The ancient were also aware that at death, or after death, the spirit or soul of the dear departed may also rise toward the heavens. Sometimes those who died return to life to tell the tale. Some children and adults who have been declared "clinically" dead but who subsequently return to life, have reported that after "dying" they left their body and floated above the scene (Eadie 1992; Rawling 1978; Ring 1980). Typically they become increasingly euphoric as they float above their body, after which they may float away, become enveloped in a dark tunnel and then enter a soothing radiant light. And later, when they come back to life, they may even claim conscious knowledge of what occurred around their body while they were dead and floating nearby. Similar experiences are detailed in the Egyptian funeral texts and "book of the dead," written almost 6000 years ago (Budge 1994) as well as the Tibetan Book of the Dead (the Bardo Thodol) which was composed over 1,300 years ago. Approximately 37% of patients who are resuscitated report similar "out of body" experiences (Ring 1980). . Thus, it was known, even thousands of years ago, that those who die, may return to life; or they may be embraced by the light and join the heavenly father; and thus, live again, as a spirit basking in the light of the life giving god.
It is these beliefs, the experience of death, rebirth, be it the sun or those beloved on Earth, which contributed to the development of the first cosmologies as is evident among the ancient Egyptians, the Arians of ancient India, as well as Babylon and the ancient Mayans and Incas.
EGYPTIAN SOUL COSMOLOGY
In Egypt, the concept of the soul, as gleaned from a reading of the Book of the Dead, is divided into various forms which are necessarily entirely distinct. Nevertheless the ren is an individual's name, the sheut their shadow and the ib the heart. However, while ka is often translated as spirit, it is the ba which is normally considered to most closely resemble 'soul' (Frankfort 1978, p. 61). Whereas the ka, as a universal life-force, leaves the body at death, it is the ba which possesses some chance of transcendental immortality and which enables travel between the earth and the sky after death.
Ancient kings and queens, those or royal blood, claimed, as their ancestral heritage to be descended from the gods--and the ultimate god is the Sun. Thus, at death the ba of the kind and queen would ascend to heaven--but the common people believed they too had souls and upon death their immortal soul would journey to a celestial afterlife; either to join father sun, the sun god, or to take a place among the children and brothers and sisters of the god: the stars which became gods in their own right. Thus, upon death, the soul would travel to the stars; and thus, the ancient sought to study the heavens to understand the gods; and to ensure that they would journey to the heavens, and not to the other place, later known as hell.
The Pyramid Texts, which first occur in the fifth dynasty pyramids, indicate that the king mounted to heaven on the rays of the sun. For example, Pyramid Text Utterance 508 reads 'I have trodden those thy rays as a ramp under my feet whereon I mount up to that my mother, the living Uraeus on the brow of Re' and Utterance 523 tells us that 'May the sky make the sunlight strong for you, may you rise up to the sky as the Eye of Re' (Faulkner 1993).
The ascent to heaven was associated with the cosmology of Heliopolis; a counterpart to Osiris' dominion over the dead (Morenz 1992, pp. 205, 207, 211): the ba will 'view the sun and move freely among the 'lords of eternity' (Baines 1991, p. 190). The ba of the god Amon was in heaven, while his body in the realm of the dead and his image in the temple, and heaven was raised high for the ba of Osiris (Morenz 1992 pp. 151, 208). The pyramid texts talk of the double-doors of heaven opening, and Nut instructs the king to 'open up your place in the sky among the stars of the sky, for you are the Lone star' (Morenz, 1991, p. 205). The ba of the God and the ba of the king both belonged in the sky. But there was also a descent: the ba of the god may descend from heaven and enter its image (Morenz 1992, p. 115). The dead may live again.
"O Shining One (Ra)! O Shining One! O Khepera! O Khepera! You are for the King and the King is for you; you live for the King and the King lives for you." -Pyramid Texts 662
JUDGEMENT AFTER DEATH
It is commonly believed that some souls will go to heaven, and others would spend eternity in hell. The determination of which soul would go where, thus gave rise to the concept of being judged. The nature of one's afterlife depended on how one was judged and the nature of one's good and evil deeds. Death, therefore, also became a final judgment day where the wicked were punished, and the good rewarded with eternal heavenly bliss.The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, as well as the ancient peoples of the Indus valley, and ancient China clearly believed that a final judgment awaited man after death.
For example, in the Rig-Veda we are told that the good are invited to live in heaven, whereas the wicked are hurled by the deities Soma and Indra into an eternally dark prison from whence there is no return.
According to the ancient Egyptians, the woman and man who respected and maintained maat-- that is, truth, justice, and righteousness--would achieve a state of eternal beatitude, whereas those who did not could expect to suffer in a dreary Hellish underworld where they and the enemies of the sun god Ra would burn for all eternity--roasted by the burning rays of the sun. Most of these ideas were laid out in considerable detail in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts.
The Pyramid Texts were composed and compiled by the priests of Heliopolis, to help the dead pharaohs achieve eternal bliss in the afterlife. Only the morally just could expect to enter heaven and become a star. Nevertheless, the dead, both good and evil, would have to defend themselves against every accusation. Life in the afterworld could be easily imperiled by accusations of those who had been wronged.
Yet, in ancient Egypt, it was believed that the chief accuser would be memory, the dead's own memories, and the dead's own heart would recount and remember their good or evil deeds. Indeed, it would be hell to be plagued for all eternity by every bad memory and all associated feelings of guilt and psychic pain.
This same belief is recounted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead: "You are now before Yama, King of the Dead. The mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounces your own judgment, which in turn determines your rebirth."
However, whereas the Tibetan Buddhists believed that the souls of the dead passed judgment on themselves, the ancient Egyptians believed that the Great God Osiris would pass judgment. Osiris, would hold and weigh the scales of justice.
JUDGMENT
The Great God of the ancient Egyptians did not pass judgment alone, for in this he was assisted by a council of 12, a tribunal of the Great God. As detailed in the Book of the Dead, the jackal-headed god of death, Anubis, adjusts the scales of justice which will determine one's fate; to his right stands Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom--the divine scribe who records the final verdict. And behind Osiris crouches a horrible hybrid monster, the eater of the dead.
"The council which judges the deficient, thou knowest that they are not lenient on the day of judging the miserable, the hour of doing their duty. It is woe when the accuser is one of knowledge. Do not trust in length of years, for they regard a lifetime as but an hour. A man remains after death, and his deeds are placed beside him in heaps. However, existence yonder is for eternity, and he who complains of it is a fool. But as for him who reaches it without wrong-doing, he shall exist yonder like a god, stepping out freely like the lords of eternity." -Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Not only is it futile for the guilty to proclaim their innocence, but the consequences, the manner in which the balance sways depends on one's own heart and memories, which will testify against the dead. According to the ancient Egyptians, the heart will be laid upon the scales and weighed against the lightness of a feather and balanced against Maat; Maat being truth. Good outweighs the evil, salvation would be at hand, for it could be expected that "the offenses of which thou art accused will be eliminated, thy fault wiped out by the balancing of the balance, in the day of the evaluation of qualities; thou causes the weighing to be made as Thoth." -Egyptian Book of the Dead.
THE SECOND DEATH
In later Vedic literature, including the Brahmanas, we are told of a second death. All souls would suffer a penalty that would be paid in the form of dying again and again, possibly for all eternity. This is called samsara, the transmigration of the soul. Thus according to the ancient peoples of the Indus Valley, after one dies, they could suffer a second death, and then a third death, and so on, for all eternity, each subsequent life determined by one's character and behavior in previous lives.
Although the Greeks thought it possible to achieve a state of blessed eternal beatitude, they also believed that some souls fall from their primal state of beatitude and undergo a series of incarnations, beginning in insect or bestial form, and that they then have to live and die ten thousand deaths before regaining a human state. Only enlightened souls can escape this endless cycle of birth and death.
According to modern Christian faiths, the dead also suffer a second death, which may be more horrible than the first. That is, after the soul awakens from purgatory: "The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father." -R.S.V. 13:41-43.
"The cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." -Revelation of St. John, II:184, 4356-457.
THE PYRAMIDS: HEAVEN ON EARTH
The great pyramid was said by ancient Arabic historians to contain the world's knowledge, wisdom, and the secrets of the cosmos and creation. The base of the Great Pyramid covers 13 acres (5 hectares), and reaches a height of 480 feet (145 meters). The Great Pyramid consists of 2,300,000 stones, each weighing 21/2 tons, measuring 50 by 50 by 28 inches. It has five sides and five corners and a "pyramid inch" is one-fifth of one-fifth of a cubit--what Sir Isaac Newton called sacred and profane cubits. The north side is 755.4 feet long, the west 755.8, the east 755.9, and the south side was 756.1 feet long, indicating an incredible degree of engineering precision that was, in total no more than half a foot off from perfection. Indeed, as the Earth has shook and moved over the eons, the pyramid may well have shifted every so slightly, such that originally all sides were precisely the same. Moreover, not just the Great Pyramid, but the sides of all three of the Pyramids of Giza are perfectly aligned to the cardinal points of the compass.
The area of the Great Pyramid's base divided by twice its height gives the figure 3.14159+, (pi). Pi is the constant that is multiplied by the diameter of a circle to give its circumferences. Indeed, the Great Pyramids was built in accordance with geometrical and astronomical laws to record the dimensions of the earth and the duration of the solar year.
The builders of the pyramid were well versed in astronomy and knew the relationship of the radius to its circumference. They knew the circumference of the Earth, and the distance of the center of the Earth to the poles. The ratio of the Great Pyramid's altitude to its perimeter is the same as that of the polar radius of the Earth to its circumference: 2 pi. Hence, the Great Pyramid could be used to record the movements of the stars around the heavens in relation to the earth.
In fact, as determined by Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer-Royal of Scotland, the Great Pyramid incorporates and reveals the distance of the earth from the sun when its height is multiplied by the proportion of its height to its width, that is, ten to the ninth power.
The builders of the Great Pyramid "had determined the shape of the earth which they knew to be a true circle, its size, its precise circumference, the geographical distance from the equator to the poles, the fact that the earth is flattened at the poles, degrees of latitude and longitude to within a few hundred feet, the fact that they were shorter at the equator and longer at the poles, and the exact distance of the Earth from the sun. They had designed the pyramid's base to correspond to the distance the earth rotates in half a second" (Funrneaux, 1987, p 17).
Werner von Siemens, founder of Siemens' Electric, scaled the summit of the Great Pyramid in 1859, and stuck his finger up into the air. As he assumed a triumphant pose, a crack of electricity rang out.
The three great pyramids were a cosmological map of heaven on Earth.
The kings of ancient Egypt wished to avoid the second death and to ensure they would join their place among the stars which are gods. The three great pyramids of Egypt were created to serve as the pharaoh's gateway to the stars. ..The Egyptians developed the first cosmologies--and they were based on death and belief in the afterlife, and developed to ensure that
one would take their rightful place among the stars, and not go to hell. The three bright stars forming the belt of Orion ,the hunter, were the celestial embodiment of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead. Orion was of dual importance to Egyptians. The constellation was believed to be the final resting place of pharaohs, where they joined forever with the gods of the sky.
Orion also appeared in the night sky shortly before Sirius, which in turn heralded the arrival of the life-giving summer floods. Sirius represented Isis, Osiris' sister and consort, who trailed him across the sky.
Osiris symbolized the birth, growth, death, and rebirth of the natural world. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother, Seth, then briefly brought back to life by his sister and consort Isis to father the god Horus. Egyptians saw Osiris in the constellation Orion, whose appearance was connected with the annual flood. As god of the dead, Osiris welcomed the recently deceased to their new world. Whoever constructed the three great pyramids, ensured they would be oriented in size and magnitude to mirror the three belt stars of Orion And who ever built the great pyramid, had a shaft constructed in his burial chamber pointing directly to Orion, which was considered to be the final resting place of the pharaohs.
The Egyptian Star Religion and Rebirth
The Egyptians practiced a solar religion, centering on the worship of Ra and Heliopolis, the City of the Sun and Osiris, the King of the Dead. The stars were of the utmost importance as the destination of the King after dearth: The dead kings, and ordinary people later, joined with or even bacame one with the god Osiris after their death. This god had a stellar representation, the constellation of Orion.
There are four strange and small shafts (20 x 20 cm wide) in the Great Pyramid. Both upper chambers have two of them, one going south and one north. All four shafts rise at angles between 36 and 45 degrees. The shafts of the upper King's chamber were each open at both ends, the shafts of the lower Queen's chamber were each closed at both ends. Presumably, the soul could travel through the northern shaft to the imperishable stars in the North. The southern shaft of the King's chamber points to Orion. Presumably, at the time the pyramid was built, the shaft pointed exactly to the star the Great Pyramid represents in Orion's belt. Likewise, the southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber at one time pointed at the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, who is the representation of Isis, who was the sister and great love of Osiris.
The Pharaohs regarded themselves as the embodiment of Osiris on Earth and when they died they believed they would travel up to the Duat and be reborn in the afterlife.
The pyramids, therefore, were not just tombs for the pharaohs, but vehicles to facilitate the pharaoh's travel to the afterlife through the Duatt, and Osiris was represented in the Duat by Orion.
From the moment of the king's birth he was groomed and trained for his return to the First Time. All his life, every aspect of it, was associated with his journey. He was taught spells and incantations to secure a safe passage to the stars after death, which he recited from the Book of the Dead and the Pyramid Texts. His sole aim in life was his successful return to the First Time, and the pyramids, were the starting point of this greatest of journeys to the stars.
The chain of command in Egypt was unbroken -each King, though a living, breathing being, was a renewal of the covenant which the gods made with man. The dead King, though dead to this world, lived on in spirit as he made his way back to the beginning, to the First Time.
Thus, the sun god dies in the solstice, when then sun stands still, and returns to life on the spring equinox as the new sun, the son of the sun god, and after 2160 years, as a new god represented by a new age. And all who die, may also be embraced by the light, to live again, among the stars which are gods.
Cosmology, therefore, had as its birth, death: death of the sun, death of those on Earth, who woujld ascend to haven as spirits and souls; but some of whom, after judgment, would be cast out of heaven; becoming a fallen star to live again on Earth, or to live forever in the underworld of eternal darkness, known as hell.
DEATH, DYING AND REBIRTH
The Cro-Magnon of the Paleolithic, and peoples of the Neolithic practiced mortuary rituals because they could also see beyond death, beyond one's personal demise, which is why these earthen graves contained tools, food, and ornaments even 30,000 years ago. The souls of the dead would need these items in the next world.
The dead, therefore, were believed to survive the experience of dying. It was believed that they would retain a personal identity, in the form of a personal soul, which would ascend to the heavens and join the abode of the spirits and the gods.
The ancients were exceedingly concerned about what happened after death, and what trials and tribulations they may experience in the hereafter as they ascended to heaven. And they worried about evil spirits, and the behavior of those souls who when alive had committed evil on Earth.
To protect the living, the enemy dead were sometimes decapitated, their hands and legs removed, and their eyes sewn shut and faces smashed, so that their souls would be unable to rise from the dead and cause mischief in the afterlife--even 50,000 years ago. The ancients did not necessarily believe that every soul would immediately ascend to heaven, but may remain tethered to the earth below.
Those souls that remain earth bound were often believed to be evil spirits, undeserving of a place among the gods and the stars. As detailed in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, it was also believed that some souls could lose their way and remain earthbound.
Yet others, such as the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, believed that souls almost never immediately ascended to heaven. Instead, the souls of the dead were believed to spend at least part of eternity in a realm called purgatory.
PURGATORY
Some conceive "purgatory" as a spirit-like world that exists between this reality and the reality of God. During the middle ages many Catholic theologians came to believe that the length of time a soul might remain in purgatory would depend on the nature and extent of their sins. Purgatory was like a jail sentence, and once sufficient punishment had been doled out, the soul was free to ascend to heaven.
Likewise, some of those of the Buddhist faith believed "that at death, the self, the Atman, departs to another world, where it works out the consequences of its karma. Some of these worlds were pleasant, others were hells where retribution was suffered for evil deeds. When the consequences of its karma was worked out, the self was reincarnated" (Brandon, 1967, p.171).
Others of the Christian faith also came to believe that upon death the soul merely goes to sleep; that sleep is the fate of the soul following death until a second awakening at the time of the final judgment.
According to John Calvin "the souls of the faithful, after completing their term of combat and travail, are gathered into rest, where they await with joy the fruition of their promised glory; and thus all things remain in suspense until Jesus Christ appears as the Redeemer."
The Koran endorses certain aspects of this view, such that the dead will have no knowledge of the time that has elapsed since their death. And when the soul awakes to experience judgment day, they will think they have just awakened from sleep. Hence, the soul was believed to be unconscious while the body decayed, and is awakened by the trumpet heralding the last judgment.
The ancients, however, believed that the soul could depart the body during sleep, and that death was the final liberation of the soul. The soul did not sleep. Instead the soul could remain earth bound and observe all that took place below, or ascend to heaven where it would be embraced by the light.
However, as pointed out by the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, the soul might also be embraced by darkness, or they may lose their way and could be harried for all eternity by demons and devilish monstrosities in the darkness of the underworld.
SUBTERRANEAN HELL
As the dead were often buried in the earth, it was believed by some that the soul may descend into the earth womb, into the subterranean realms of the spirits and gods of the dead.
The ancient Greeks believed that at death and with the dissolution of the unity of the body, thymos--the conscious self and the life principle--was released into the air, and transformed into a wraith, a shadowy image of the living person, known as the eidolon. It was the life principle, psyche, which descended into Hades, which was a huge subterranean pit deep beneath the ground. There the life principle became a wraith, and existed with other eidolons, but devoid of self-consciousness in a state of perpetual and eternal gloom.
Greek thought was in some respects basically identical to that of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Israelites who believed that the spirits of all the dead dwelled for all eternity in a dreary, lightless, subterranean abode. According to the Sumerians and Akkadians death involved a horrible transformation where the dead became a diseased, decaying, grisly being which descended to the underworld, "the land of no return."
According to the Hebrews, this terrible realm of darkness was called She'ol. She'ol, was where kings and peasants, rich and poor, good and evil, existed in a state of equal and horrible wretchedness. Hades and the Hebrew She'ol are identical. The good and the wicked, rich and poor, kings and peasants, all descended into hell and assumed this wraith-like existence in the realm of the dead.
Yet others preached that only the evil go to this subterranean hell. The righteous, the just, and the good, ascend to heaven and live in bliss for all eternity. However, if one went to heaven or hell depended on how one had lived their life, and how they were judged by the gods.
THE EVOLUTION OF HELL
The belief in an underworld where sinners burn in hell, is also related to the worship of the sun as god. That is, during the day the sun god rules the Earth, but each evening it must pass through the underworld where it may be attacked by the demons of darkness. Every night, therefore, the sun god would have to fight these demons, and would do so with the rays of the sun. That is, the sun-god would burn the enemies of god with the fire of the sun's rays. Hence, Hell also became associated with fire, such that, as these beliefs evolved, sinners and enemies of god would be sent to hell where they would not only be attacked by devils and demons, but would burn in flames for all eternity.
The belief in Hell and in demons and devils is world wide and vivid descriptions of a hellish underworld and its demonic denizens are also described in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead. Indeed, these books were written so as to inform believers as to the mysteries of death and the trials and tribulations one might experience following death so that demons and other devilish monstrosities and misfortunes might be avoided.
For example, priests or relatives of the recently departed were expected to read various hymns, litanies, magical formula, spells, and incantations from the Egyptian Book of the Dead which would help protect the dead from the multitude of devils and fiends that would seek to devour and destroy the spirit-soul. "These powers of evil had hideous and terrifying shapes and forms, and their haunts infested the region through which the road of the dead lay when passing from this world to the Kingdom of Osiris" (Budge, 1994). According to the ancient Egyptians, the gods were basically powerless to protect the souls from these demons which could inflict horrible suffering upon the spirit souls for all eternity.
Unfortunately, or so say these texts, many are condemned to Hell for all eternity. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a hellish death is due to the "power of accumulated evil Karma." Likewise, according to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, spirit souls may be judged and condemned to hell for all eternity if they had behaved in an evil and unjust manner when living. Hence, both texts warn of a judgment day and a life review and warn that those who have committed evil acts will be judged, found guilty, and then condemned.
Hence, it can be deduced that by 6,000 years ago, that in addition to a heaven and hell, a moral-religious spiritual conscience and moral-consciousness has evolved. This is reflected by the religious conviction that the just and the unjust would be rewarded and punished in the next world after they had died; their good deeds often weighed against the bad.
As is now well established, a sense of morality and a personal conscience (as in: Let your conscience be your guide) is directly associated with the functional integrity of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobes are concerned with anticipating consequences and serve to inhibit or redirect unacceptable impulses in order to avoid punishment.
It also appears that the frontal lobe had fully evolved and reached its peak levels of development and expansion during the Upper Paleolithic as described in earlier chapters. Although there is no physical evidence to indicate that Upper Paleolithic peoples had also evolved a moral conscience or a concern that the spirit soul would be punished for past misdeeds, Budge (1994) argues that the Book of the Dead and the beliefs that permeate the pyramid texts, were already quite ancient by the rise of the first Dynasty, and thus have pre-dynastic, and therefore, Upper Paleolithic origins.
It is noteworthy that although the Tibetan (and Egyptian) Book of the Dead warn of a judgment day, and describe all manner of Hellish devils and demons, this text repeatedly reminds the reader that these demonic entities are a product of one's own mind. They are illusions erupting from the depths of the primeval unconscious which is freed of the suppressive restraints of the every day reality and the illusions of this world
THE LIMBIC SYSTEM NEUROLOGY OF PERSONAL MEMORIES: HIPPOCAMPUS
When death comes, many are buried beneath the Earth, and if wealthy, in a tomb; an earth womb. Born of the womb, they return to the womb: from dust to dust, ashes to ashes. The ancients believed hell was benearh the Earth, or in a place of eternal darkness. Heaven was, in heaven. Thus the first cosmologies were developed based on beliefs about death, dying, and the ascension of souls.
Although these spheres-of-after death life could be explained as existing in alternate dimensions, in a multi-verse of parallel existence; the ability to experience death and dying and ascension as a spirit, must have some basis in the brain. In later chapters, it is explained how hyper-activation, or rather, acceleration of brain activity, could be likened to Einstein's theory of relativity and the contraction of time-space. However, the brain also functions in terms of inhibition. Much of what is sensed, is filtered out, thereby protecting consciousness from being overwhelmed. One particular brain structure capable of perceiving multiple sensory impressions simultaneously, much of which is filtered out, is the limbic system.
There are a variety of conditions which can hyperactive the limbic system, including death. The anticipation of death, the terror and dread of impending death, are also made possible by the limbic system. The limbic system can anticipate, and it can feel fear and anxiety in response to the unknown. As will be explained in later chapters, hyperactivation, or electrode stimulation of the limbic system can trigger the experience, or the hallucination, of leaving one's body, or seeing ghosts, demons, angels and even gods. Some of the primary structures of the limbic system include the amygdala and hippocampus. As is well known, the hippocampus is exceedingly important in memory, acting to place various short-term memories into long-term storage and retrieving short-term memories (Frisk & Milner, 1990; Milner, 1966; 1970; Nunn et al., 2009; Penfield & Milner, 1958; Scoville & Milner, 1957; Squire, 2011). Presumably the hippocampus encodes new information during the storage and consolidation (long-term storage) phase, and assists in the gating of afferent streams of information destined for the neocortex by filtering or suppressing irrelevant sense data which may interfere with memory consolidation. Moreover, it is believed that via the development of long-term potentiation the hippocampus is able to track information as it is stored in the neocortex, and to form conjunctions between synapses and different brain regions which process and store associated memories.
Hence, if the hippocampus has been damaged the ability to convert short term memories into long term memories becomes significantly impaired. Memory for words, passages, conversations, and written material is also significantly impacted, particularly with left hippocampal destruction
Bilateral destruction of the anterior hippocampus results in striking and profound disturbances involving memory and new learning (i.e. anterograde amnesia). For example, one such individual who underwent bilateral destruction of this nuclei (H.M.), was subsequently found to have almost completely lost the ability to recall anything experienced after surgery. If you introduced yourself to him, left the room, and then returned a few minutes later he would have no recall of having met or spoken to you. Dr. Brenda Milner has worked with H.M. for almost 20 years and yet she is an utter stranger to him.
H.M. is in fact so amnesic for everything that has occurred since his surgery (although memory for events prior to his surgery is comparatively exceedingly well preserved), that every time he rediscovers that his favorite uncle died (actually a few years before his surgery) he suffers the same grief as if he had just been informed for the first time.
H.M., although without memory for new (non-motor) information, has adequate intelligence, is painfully aware of his deficit and constantly apologizes for his problem. "Right now, I'm wondering" he once said, "Have I done or said anything amiss?" You see, at this moment everything looks clear to me, but what happened just before? That's what worries me. It's like waking from a dream. I just don't remember...Every day is alone in itself, whatever enjoyment I've had, and whatever sorrow I've had...I just don't remember" (Blakemore, 1977, p.96).
Presumably the hippocampus acts to protect memory and the encoding of new information during the storage and consolidation phase via the gating of afferent streams of information and the filtering/exclusion (or dampening) of irrelevant and interfering stimuli. When the hippocampus is damaged there results input overload, the neuroaxis is overwhelmed by neural noise, and the consolidation phase of memory is disrupted such that relevant information is not properly stored or even attended to. Consequently, the ability to form associations (e.g. between stimulus and response) or to alter preexisting schemas (such as occurs during learning) is attenuated.
AMYGDALA & HIPPOCAMPUS
There is considerable evidence which strongly suggests that the hippocampus plays an interdependent role with the amygdala in regard to memory; particularly in that they are richly interconnected, merge at the uncus, and exert mutual excitatory influences on one another. For example, it appears that the amygdala is responsible for storing the emotional aspects and personal reactions to events, whereas the hippocampus acts to store the cognitive, visual, and contextual variables.
Specifically, the amygdala plays a particularly important role in memory and learning when activities are related to reward and emotional arousal (LeDoux 2012, 1996; Kesner 2012; Rolls 2002; Sarter & Markowitsch, 1985). Thus, if some event is associated with positive or negative emotional states it is more likely to be learned and remembered.
Because of its involvement in all aspects of social-emotional and motivational functioning, activation of the amygdala therefore, can evoke highly personal and emotional memories as it is highly involved in remembering emotionally charged experiences (Halgren 1992; Rolls, 1992; Sarter & Markowtisch, 1985). In fact, the amygdala becomes particularly active when recalling personal and emotional memories (Halgren, 1992; Heath, 1964; Penfield & Perot, 1963), and in response to cognitive and context determined stimuli regardless of their specific emotional qualities. Moreover, depth electrode activation of the amygdala can even evoke memories of sexual intercourse, and traumatic memories that had long ago been forgotten.
Consider, for example, a case described by Gloor (1997) in which the right amygdala of a 21 year old patient "was briefly stimulated for 2.8 seconds at a low intensity. Immediately upon its onset" the patient reported "a feeling like falling into the water. When he was asked to elaborate, he replied that it was as if something had covered his eyes, nose and mouth." Again the stimulation was applied and the patient excitedly asked: "Could you do it again, Doctor? When asked why, he said he had the words on his lips to describe the feeling, but then could not." The stimulation was then applied without warning for 4.4 seconds. The patient "opened his mouth, with an astonished look on his face." A terrifying memory had suddenly come back to him. It was when he was eight years old and had been at a picnic when "A kid was coming up to me to push me into the water.... I was pushed by somebody stronger than me... a big fellow..." who pushed him under the water and had kept his head under the water so that he couldn't breath.
However, once these emotional memories are formed, it sometimes requires the specific emotional or associated visual context to trigger their recall. If those cues are not provided or ceased to be available, the original memory may not be triggered and may appear to be forgotten or repressed. However, even emotional context can trigger memory (Halgren, 1992) in the absence of specific cognitive cues.
Similarly, it is also possible for emotional and non-emotional memories to be activated in the absence of active search and retrieval, and thus without hippocampal or frontal lobe participation. Recognition memory may be triggered by contextual or emotional cues. Indeed, there are a small group of neurons in the amygdala, as well as a larger group in the inferior temporal lobe which are involved in recognition memory (Murray, 1992; Rolls, 1992). Because of amygdaloid sensitivity to visual and emotional cues, even long forgotten memories may be evoked via recognition, even when search and retrieval repeatedly fails to activate the relevant memory store.
According to Gloor (1992), "a perceptual experience similar to a previous one can through activation of the isocortical population involved in the original experience recreate the entire matrix which corresponds to it and call forth the memory of the original event and an appropriate affective response through the activation of amygdaloid neurons." This can occur "at a relatively non-cognitive (affective) level, and thus lead to full or partial recall of the original perceptual message associated with the appropriate affect."
Thus the amygdala is responsible for emotional memory formation and recall whereas the hippocampus is concerned with recalling and storing verbal-visual-spatial and contextual details in memory. Thus, damage to the hippocampus can impair retention of context, and contextual fear conditioning, but it has no effect on the retention of the fear itself or the fear reaction to the original cue (Phillips & LeDoux 1996; Rudy & Morledge 1994). In these instances, fear-memory is retained due to preservation of the amygdala. However, when both the amygdala and hippocampus are damaged, striking and profound disturbances in memory functioning result.
Therefore, the role of the amygdala in memory and learning seems to involve activities related to reward, orientation, and attention, as well as emotional arousal and social-emotional recognition (Rolls, 2012; Sarter & Markowitsch, 1985). If some event is associated with positive or negative emotional states it is more likely to be learned and remembered. That is, reward increases the probability of attention being paid to a particular stimulus or consequence as a function of its association with reinforcement.
Moreover, the amygdala appears to reinforce and maintain hippocampal activity via the identification of motivationally significant information and the generation of pleasurable rewards (through action on the lateral hypothalamus). However, the amygdala and hippocampus act differentially in regard to the effects of positive vs. negative reinforcement on learning and memory, particularly when highly stressed or repetitively aroused in a negative fashion. For example, whereas the hippocampus produces theta in response to noxious stimuli the amygdala increases its activity following the reception of a reward (Norton, 1970).
THE HIPPOCAMPUS & ASSOCIATED MEMORY STRUCTURES
Reverberating neurons are presumably located in various regions of the neocortex, and are apparently bound together via the simultaneous activity and steering influences involving the frontal lobes, dorsal medial thalamus, and in particular the amygdala and hippocampus. These structures are all interlinked and highly involved in attention, arousal, and memory functioning, and probably act together so as to establish and maintain specific neural circuits and networks associated with specific memories (e.g., Brewer et al., 1998; Squire, et al,. 1992; Tulving et al., 1994; Wagner et al., 1998). For example, these different networks and neurons may be linked via the steering influences exerted by the frontal lobes etc., which can selectively activate or inhibit these memories and associated tissues in a coordinated fashion, and which can tie together certain perceptual experiences so as to form a complex multi-modal memory.
The frontal lobes, however, not only assist in the recollection of memories (Brewer et al., 1998; Wagner et al., 1998), but in conjunction with the limbic system, can induce feelings of guilt about those memories. Presumably, at death, the amygdala and hippocampus act to trigger the recollection of long term and highly personal memories, whereas the frontal lobes may serve to pronounce judgment and impose guilt. Indeed, it has been well established that the frontal lobe not only acts to inhibit memories and various impulses, but serves as a moral conscience which passes judgment on.
AMYGDALA & HIPPOCAMPAL INTERACTIONS: HALLUCINATIONS
Direct electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes, hippocampus and particularly the amygdal not only results in the recollection of images, but in the creation of fully formed visual and auditory hallucinations (Halgren 1992; Horowitz et al., 1968; Malh et al., 1964). It has long been know that tumors invading specific regions of the brain can trigger the formation of hallucinations which range from the simple (flashing lights) to the complex. The most complex forms of hallucination, however, are associated with tumors within the most anterior portion of the temporal lob; i.e. the region containing the amygdala and anterior hippocampus.
Similarly, electrical stimulation of the anterior lateral temporal cortical surface results in visual hallucinations of people, objects, faces, and various sounds (Gloor 1997; Horowitz et al., 1968)--particularly the right temporal lobe (Halgren et al. 1978). Depth electrode stimulation and thus direct activation of the amygdala and/or hippocampus is especially effective. For example, stimulation of the right amygdala produces complex visual hallucinations, body sensations, deja vus, illusions, as well as gustatory and alimentary experiences (Weingarten et al. 1977), whereas Freeman and Williams (1963) have reported that the surgical removal of the right amygdala in one patient abolished hallucinations. Stimulation of the right hippocampus also produces memory and dream-like hallucinations (Halgren et al. 1978; Horowitz et al. 1968).
The amygdala also becomes activated in response to bizarre stimuli (Halgren, 1992). Conversely, if activated to an abnormal degree, it may produce bizarre memories and abnormal perceptual experiences. In fact, the amygdala contributes in large part to the production of very sexual as well as bizarre, unusual and fearful memories and mental phenomenon including dissociative states, feelings of depersonalization, and hallucinogenic and dream-like recollections.
Single amygdaloid neurons receive a considerable degree of topographic input, and are predominatly polymodal, responding to a variety of stimuli from different modalities simultaneously (Amaral et al. 1992; O'Keefe & Bouma, 1969; Ono & Nishijo, 1992; Rolls 1992; Sawa & Delgado, 1963; Ursin & Kaasa, 1960; Van Hoesen, 1981). However, much of this information is filtered out, as it is not necessary to taste what we see, or to feel what we hear, and so as to prevent the brain from being overwhelmed. In part, this massive sensory filtering is made possible via serotonic (5HT) which suppresses synaptic activity in the visual cortex, the lateral (visual) geniculate nucleus of the thalamus as well as the amygdala and throughout the neocortex (Curtis & Davis 1962; Marazzi & Hart 1955). For example, in response to arousing stimuli, 5-HT is released (Auerbach et al. 1985; Spoont, 1992) which acts to narrow and focus attentional and perceptual functioning so that stimuli which are the most salient are attended to. That is, 5HT appears to be involved in learning not to respond to stimuli that are irrelevant and not rewarding (See Beninger, 1989). These signals are filtered out and suppressed.
By contrast, substances which block 5HT transmission -such as LSDresults in increased activity in the sensory pathways to the neocortex (Purpura 1956), such that information that is normally filtered out is perceive. LSD acts on serotonin (5HT) 5HT restricts perceptual and information processing and in fact increases the threshold for neural responses to occur at both the neocortical and limbic level.
As is well known, LSD can elicit profound hallucinations involving all spheres of experience. Following the administration of LSD high amplitude slow waves (theta) and bursts of paroxysmal spike discharges occurs in the hippocampus and amygdala (Chapman & Walter, 1965; Chapman et al. 1963), but with little cortical abnormal activity. In both humans and chimps, when the temporal lobes, amygdala and hippocampus are removed, LSD ceased to produce hallucinatory phenomena (Baldwin et al. 1959). Moreover, LSD induced hallucinations are significantly reduced when the right vs. left temporal lobe has been surgically ablated (Serafintides, 1965).
Intense activation of the temporal lobe and amygdala has also been reported to give rise to a host of sexual, religious and spiritual experiences; and chronic hyper-stimulation (i.e. seizure activity) can induce some individuals to become hyper-religious or visualize and experience ghosts, demons, angels, and even God, as well as claim demonic and angelic possession or the sensation of having left their body (MacLean 1990; Mesulam 1981; Penfield & Perot 1963; Schenk, & Bear 1981; Williams 1956). In consequence, under conditions such as death, these limbic system structures may become excessively aroused, freed of inhibitory restraint, and begin to recall and judge personal memories, as well as hallucinate all manner of forms and images, including those of gods, demons, angels and devils who pass judgment.
JUDGMENT DAY
It is commonly believed that some souls will go to heaven, and others would spend eternity in hell. The determination of which soul would go where, thus gave rise to the concept of being judged. The nature of one's afterlife depended on how one was judged and the nature of one's good and evil deeds. Death, therefore, also became a final judgment day where the wicked were punished, and the good rewarded with eternal heavenly bliss.
We do not know if the Cro-Magnon believed in hell or a final judgment. The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, as well as the ancient peoples of the Indus valley, and ancient China clearly believed that a final judgment awaited man after death.
For example, in the Rig-Veda we are told that the good are invited to live in heaven, whereas the wicked are hurled by the deities Soma and Indra into an eternally dark prison from whence there is no return.
According to the ancient Egyptians, the woman and man who respected and maintained maat-- that is, truth, justice, and righteousness--would achieve a state of eternal beatitude, whereas those who did not could expect to suffer in a dreary Hellish underworld where they and the enemies of the sun god Ra would burn for all eternity--roasted by the burning rays of the sun. Most of these ideas were laid out in considerable detail in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts.
The Pyramid Texts were composed and compiled by the priests of Heliopolis, to help the dead pharaohs achieve eternal bliss in the afterlife. Only the morally just could expect to enter heaven. Nevertheless, the dead, both good and evil, would have to defend themselves against every accusation. Life in the afterworld could be easily imperiled by accusations of those who had been wronged.
Yet, in ancient Egypt, it was believed that the chief accuser would be memory, the dead's own memories, and the dead's own heart would recount and remember their good or evil deeds. Indeed, it would be hell to be plagued for all eternity by every bad memory and feelings of guilt and psychic pain.
This same belief is recounted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead: "You are now before Yama, King of the Dead. The mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounces your own judgment, which in turn determines your rebirth."
However, whereas the Tibetan Buddhists believed that the souls of the dead passed judgment on themselves, the ancient Egyptians believed that the Great God Osiris would pass judgment. Osiris, would hold and weigh the scales of justice.
JUDGMENT
The Great God of the ancient Egyptians did not pass judgment alone, for in this he was assisted by a council of 12, a tribunal of the Great God. As detailed in the Book of the Dead, the jackal-headed god of death, Anubis, adjusts the scales of justice which will determine one's fate; to his right stands Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom--the divine scribe who records the final verdict. And behind Osiris crouches a horrible hybrid monster, the eater of the dead.
"The council which judges the deficient, thou knowest that they are not lenient on the day of judging the miserable, the hour of doing their duty. It is woe when the accuser is one of knowledge. Do not trust in length of years, for they regard a lifetime as but an hour. A man remains after death, and his deeds are placed beside him in heaps. However, existence yonder is for eternity, and he who complains of it is a fool. But as for him who reaches it without wrong-doing, he shall exist yonder like a god, stepping out freely like the lords of eternity." -Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Not only is it futile for the guilty to proclaim their innocence, but the consequences, the manner in which the balance sways depends on one's own heart and memories, which will testify against the dead. According to the ancient Egyptians, the heart will be laid upon the scales and weighed against the lightness of a feather and balanced against Maat; Maat being truth. good outweighs the evil, salvation would be at hand, for it could be expected that "the offenses of which thou art accused will be eliminated, thy fault wiped out by the balancing of the balance, in the day of the evaluation of qualities; thou causes the weighing to be made as Thoth." -Egyptian Book of the Dead.
As noted, according to the ancient Egyptians the final judgment is listed into a book. Jewish, Christian and Islamic faith also involves a book in which the final judgment is listed.
"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done." -R.S.V. 10:11-15.
According to the ancient Hebrews, a sinner might have his name erased from the book: "who ever sins against me, I will blot out of my book." --Exodus 33:33. And with this erasure, by having one's name blotted out, the soul of the dead would be condemned for all eternity, forgotten forever, never to be remembered even by the Lord God.
THE LIFE REVIEW: HEART OF A MEMORY
The notion of being judged and a weighing of one's sins is a common belief that recurs throughout history. The ancient Chinese, although practicing ancestor worship, also believed that sinners would roast in hell. The souls of the ancient Chinese were judged by officials of the underworld which was comprised of 10 tribunals. The soul would typically kneel before these judges next to whom would stand officers with books with the records against which the soul would be judged.
Similar beliefs were held by the ancient Greeks. For example, after Odysseus met with the ghost of Achilles in Hades he states that: "I saw Minos, the glorious son of Zeus, golden scepter in hand, giving judgment to the dead from his seat, while they sat and stood about the king through the wide-gated house of Hades."According to the ancient Egyptians, the chief prosecutor and the witness against the accused, would be the accused themselves. That is, the dead, their heart, would be forced to testify against themselves. Memories, both good and bad, would be recalled involuntarily. That is, the dead would undergo a life review.
In pictures of judgment day, we see that on the scales rest the hieroglyphic sign of the heart, the ib, and a feather. And before the balance stands the dead. If the soul has lived a righteous life, his heart will detail his good deeds which are weighed against truth. If he has done evil, he implores his heart not to witness against him. He struggles not to remember. But to no avail.
Death, to the ancients, therefore, involved a life review, where one's memories are recalled and one's life is judged on the scales of good and evil, on the balance of truth.
Although we now know that the amygdala, in conjunction with the hippocampus becomes particularly active when recalling personal and emotional memories (Halgren, 1992; Heath, 1964; Penfield & Perot, 1963), the ancients believed these memories were stored in the heart which served as one's conscience. Whereas we localized the transmitter of god to the limbic system, the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was "the god which is in man." On the other hand, the amygdala directly affects cardiovascular functioning and thus the beating of the heart.
The ancient Egyptians experienced a considerable degree of apprehension about judgment day and the fact that their hearts would witness against them. The Egyptians were painfully aware that they might be condemned to hell for all eternity by their own evil memories. These same concerns also appear in the Tibetan Book of the Dead:
THE SECOND DEATH
"So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host." -Ezekial.
"Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, ye that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here. And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgment and till the appointed time period till the judgment comes upon them."-Book of Enoch In later Vedic literature, including the Brahmanas, we are told of a second death. All souls would suffer a penalty that would be paid in the form of dying again and again, possibly for all eternity. This is called samsara, the transmigration of the soul. Thus according to the ancient peoples of the Indus Valley, after one dies, they could suffer a second death, and then a third death, and so on, for all eternity, each subsequent life determined by one's character and behavior in previous lives.
Although the Greeks thought it possible to achieve a state of blessed eternal beatitude, they also believed that some souls fall from their primal state of beatitude and undergo a series of incarnations, beginning in insect or bestial form, and that they then have to live and die ten thousand deaths before regaining a human state. Only enlightened souls can escape this endless cycle of birth and death.
According to modern Christian faiths, the dead also suffer a second death, which may be more horrible than the first. That is, after the soul awakens from purgatory: "The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father." -R.S.V. 13:41-43.
"The cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." -Revelation of St. John, II:184, 4356-457.
"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, no adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revivlers, nor robbers, will inherit the kingdom of God."-Paul, Galatians, V 22-23.
And yet, there is a second salvation.
"Idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revivlers, and robbers... And such were some of you! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our god." -Paul, Galatians, V 22-23.
HELL: JUDGMENT AND PUNISHMENT
Although the Sumerians and ancient Hebrews and Greeks initially believed that both good and evil, rich and poor, would descend to hell, some also believed that She'ol, Hades, and Hell, were places of judgment, where punishments were doled out to the wicked.
"Upon the termination of life they were brought to trial; and, according to their sentence, some go to prison-houses beneath the earth, to suffer for their sins, while others, by virtue of their trial, are borne lightly upwards to some celestial spot, where they pass their days in a manner worthy of the life they lived." -Plato, Phaedrus.
In ancient Chinese religion, the realm of the dead was believed to consist of seven Hells where the evil would roast for all eternity. Likewise, in ancient Egypt, Greece, the Middle East, and Catholic Rome, punishment for the wicked, for the enemies of god, became eternal hell fire and all manner of demonic horrors.
"For those who have disbelieved... shall roast in fire... and their bellies and skin shall be melted. To them it is said: Taste the punishment of the Burning." -Koran
AFTER-DEATH, OUT-OF-BODY, ASTRAL PROJECTION: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
"The Book of the Dead" is the title given to the collection of mortuary texts, also referred to as Pyramid texts, which the ancient Egyptian theologians composed for the benefit of the dead. However, they were first called the "book of the dead" or "a dead man's book" by tomb robbers, as these texts were commonly found in the dead man's coffin. During the sixth Dynasty, the common name for the Book of the Dead was "manifested in the light" or "embraced by the light."
According to E.A. Wallis Budge, Late Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities of the British Museum, these texts were already quite ancient by the rise of the first dynasty, over 6,000 years ago. The predynastic Egyptians "were quite certain that men did not perish when they died, but that some part of a man departed after death to some place where he would renew his life in some form, according to the dictates of some divine being" (Budge, 1994, p. 4).
According to the Book of the Dead, at death the spirit-soul of the deceased would arise from the body, and although translucent and transparent to the living, this spirit-soul would at first hover above and look upon the body and could see and hear what was taking place below (chapter CLXXVII). The spirit-soul may then depart, only to return to visit the body (e.g. chapter LXXXIX: The Soul Visiting the Body which Lies on a Bier), sometimes even reanimating the body (chapter XCII), such that the dead might live again in this world.
Like their Paleolithic predecessors, the walls of all Egyptian tombs and all but three of the hundreds of pyramids that dot the land, were graced with paintings of all manner of animal life and realistic scenes of the every day life to which they were accustomed. And within these tombs dwelled the ka, a spirit-like force which resided in a ka-statue of the dead person. These statues were exact replicas of the dead, that is, when they were alive.
It was the ba, the soul of the dead, which the Egyptians believed ascended to heaven. The ba would sometimes be depicted in flight, as a human-headed bird. Upon entering heaven the dead achieved the status of an akh--a "glorified being" that had reached completeness of attainment.
However, as detailed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, prior to entering heaven (Anu), the spirit-soul of the deceased might "fly through the air" (chapter XCII) "pass over the earth" (chapter IV), such that it could move freely from place to place, before entering a tunnel or realm of darkness, and then arising into the sky to the abode of the gods in heaven at which point they bask in "a shining, glorious light" (Budge, 1994).
Similarly, according to Book I, of the Bardo, Tibetan Book of the Dead, following death the deceased will be enveloped with a "Clear Light" of "Wisdom and the Knower will experience the shining, dazzling, glorious, Radiance of the Clear light of Pure Reality, the All Good. Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light--Buddha Amitabha."
Likewise, according to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the soul ascends into the sky to theabode of the gods in heaven at which point the dead bask in "a shining, glorious light" and are led into the presence of dead relatives and brethren, and finally to the divine being Osiris, who is said to have made "men and women to be born again" and where they then dwell in bliss for all eternity having achieved everlasting life: "My soul is God. My soul is eternity" (Budge, 1994).
It is noteworthy that the soul, at first, usually does not know it is dead, that the body has died. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead: "When the consciousness-principle gettest outside the body, it sayeth to itself, Am I dead, or am I not dead? It cannot determine. It can see that the body is being stripped of its garments. It seeth its relatives and heareth the weepings and wailings of friends and relatives, and although it seeth them and heareth them calling upon him, they seeth him not."
OUT-OF-BODY AND AFTER-DEATH EXPERIENCES
The notion of a soul leaving the body following death is a common belief among almost all religions. Again, some believe that the soul may fall asleep, whereas others believe it will either ascend to heaven or descend into hell. And, as noted, we are also told that the soul of the dead may linger upon the Earth, may remain tethered to the body, or may even return to visit the dead body, sometimes hovering above it, and in rare instances, somehow reanimating the body, such that the dead come back to life.
Likewise, among modern day people, some children and adults who have been declared "clinically" dead have returned to life. And many of those who subsequently return to life, have reported that after "dying" they left their body and floated above the scene (Eadie 1992; Rawling 1978; Ring 1980). And, at first, many do not realize they are dead.
According to modern accounts, typically they become increasingly euphoric as they float above their body, after which they may float away, become enveloped in a dark tunnel and then enter a soothing radiant light. And later, when they come back to life, they may even claim conscious knowledge of what occurred around their body while they were dead and floating nearby.
"Lisa" for example, was a 22 year old college coed with no religious background or spiritual beliefs, who was badly injured in an auto accident when the windshield collapsed and all but completely severed her arm. According to Lisa, when she got out of the car her was blood spraying everywhere and she only walked a few feet before collapsing. Apparently an ambulance arrived in just a few minutes. However, the next thing she noticed was that part of the time she was looking up from the ground, and part of the time she was up in the air looking down. From above she could see the ambulance crew working, picking up her body, placing it on a gurney and into the ambulance.
According to Lisa, during the entire ride to the hospital it was like she was half in and half out of the ambulance, as if she were running along outside or just extending out of the vehicle watching the cars and trees go by. When they got to the hospital she was no longer attached to her body but was floating up and down the halls, watching the doctors and nurses and attendants. One doctor in particular drew her attention because he had a big belt buckle with his name written on it. She could even read it and it said "Mike."
According to Lisa, she was "tripping out, bobbing up and down the halls, just checking everything out" when she noticed a girl lying on a gurney with several doctors and nurses working frantically. When she floated over and peered over the shoulder of one of the doctors to take a look she suddenly realized the girl was her and that her hair and face were very bloody and needed to be washed. At that point she realized she was floating well above her body and the doctors, and that she looked to be "dead." Lisa said she did not feel afraid or upset, although the fact that her hair was bloody and dirty bothered her.
She soon floated up and outside the Emergency room and was enveloped in a total blackness, "like I was passing through a tunnel at the end of which was a light which became brighter and more brilliant, radiating outward." The light soon enveloped her body which made her feel exceedingly happy and very warm. A few moments later she heard the voice of her grandmother who had died when Lisa was a young girl. Although Lisa had no memory of this grandmother, she nevertheless recognized her and felt exceedingly happy. However, her grandmother very sorrowfully told her it was "too soon" she would have to "go back." Lisa didn't want to go back, but had no choice. She was drawn away from the light and felt herself falling only to land with a painful thump in her own body. At this point she moved her hand which alerted one of the emergency room staff that Lisa was no longer dead.
Lisa had no religious training and had never heard of "near death experiences" (she was injured in 1982). After returning to life she only reluctantly explained what had happened when she was questioned by one of her doctors.
Lisa also claimed that while she was dead and floating about the emergency room that she saw and heard what was going on around her after she died, and upon coming back to life she was able to accurately recall everything that occurred in the emergency room up to the point when she was enveloped in darkness. She was able to accurately describe "Mike" (who in fact wore a belt buckle engraved with "Mike"), most of the staff who attended her, as well as the conversations that occurred around her as well as some of the other patients.
Similar "after death" claims of leaving and floating above the body, and seeing everything occurring below, are common (Eadie 1992; Moody 1977; Rawling 1978; Ring 1980; Sabom 1982; Wilson 1987), and, as noted, are even reported in the 6,000 year old Egyptian Book of the Dead (Budge 1994), as well as the Tibetan Book of the Dead (the Bardo Thodol) which was composed over 1,300 years ago (Evans-Wentz 1960). Approximately 37% of patients who are resuscitated report "out of body" experiences (Ring 1980).
Consider for example, the case of Army Specialist J. C. Bayne of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. Bayne was "killed" in Chu Lai, Vietnam, in 1966. He was simultaneously machine gunned and struck by a mortar. According to Bayne, when he opened his eyes he was floating in the air, looking down on his crumpled, burnt, and bloody body, and he could see a number of Vietcong who were searching and stripping him:
"I could see me... it was like looking at a mannequin laying there... I was burnt up and there was blood all over the place... I could see the Vietcong. I could see the guy pull my boots off. I could see the rest of them picking up various things... I was like a spectator... It was about four or five in the afternoon when our own troops came. I could hear and see them approaching... I could see me... It was obvious I was burnt up. I looked dead... they put me in a bag... transferred me to a truck and then to the morgue. And from that point, it was the embalming process."
"I was on that table and a guy was telling a couple of jokes about those USO girls... all I had on was bloody undershorts... he placed my leg out and made a slight incision and stopped... he checked my pulse and heartbeat again and I could see that too...It was about that point I just lost track of what was taking place... [until much later] when the chaplain was in there saying everything was going to be all right... I was no longer outside. I was part of it at this point" (reported in Wilson, 1987, pp 113114; and Sabom, 1982, pp 81-82).
Some surgery patients, although ostensibly "unconscious" due to anesthesia, are also able to later describe conversations and related events that occurred during the operation (Furlong, 1990; Kilhstrom, et al. 1990; Polster, 1993). Hence, the notion that those who are "clinically dead" or near death may recall various events that occurred while they were ostensibly "dead" should not be dismissed out of hand. Moreover, some surgery patients also claim to "leave their bodies" while they were "unconscious" and claim to recall seeing not just the events occurring below, but in one case, dirt on top of a light fixture (Ring 1980). "It was filthy. I remember thinking, 'Got to tell the nurses about that."
Did the above surgical patient or Lisa or Army Specialist Bayne really float above and observe their bodies and the events taking place below? Or did they merely transpose what they heard (e.g. conversations, noises, etc.) and then visualize, imagine, or hallucinate an accompanying and plausible scenario? This seems possible, even in regard to the "filthy" light fixture. On the other hand, not all those who have an "out of body" hear conversations, voices, or even sounds. Rather, they may be enveloped in silence.
"I was struck from behind... That's the last thing I remember until I was above the whole scene viewing the accident. I was very detached. Everything was very quiet. This was the amazing thing about it to me... I could see my shoe which was crushed under the car and I thought: Oh no. My new dress is ruined... I don't remember hearing anything. I don't remember anybody saying anything. I was just viewing things... like I floated up there..." (Sabom, 1982; p. 90).
Moreover, even individuals born blind experience these "near death" hallucinations. And although blind, while dead they will see for the first time. However, whereas many who experience life after death find the experience exhilarating, others respond with feelings of extreme dread and terror. Death is not a pleasant experience.
FEAR AND OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES
The prospect of being terribly injured or killed in an auto accident or fire fight between opposing troops, or even dying during the course of surgery, are often accompanied by fear. It is also not uncommon for individuals who experience terror to report perceptual and hallucinogenic experiences, including dissociation, depersonalization and the splitting off of ego functions. They may feel as if they have separated from their bodies and floated away, or were on the ceiling looking down (Courtois 1995; Grinker and Spiegel 1945; James 1958; Black Elk 1932/1989; Noyes and Kletti 1977; Parson 1988; Southard 1919; Terr 1990). Consider the following accounts:
"The next thing I knew I wasn't in the truck anymore; I was looking down from 50 to 100 feel in the air." "I had a clear image of myself... as though watching it on a television screen." "I had a sensation of floating. It was almost like stepping out of reality. I seemed to step out of this world" (Noyes and Kletti 1977).
Or as a close friend described his experience: "I was shooting down the freeway doing about 100 in my Mustang when a Firebird up ahead suddenly cut me off. As I switched lanes to avoid him, he also switched lanes at which point I hit the breaks and began to lose control. The Mustang began to slide and spin... I felt real terror... I was probably going to be killed... I was trying to control the Mustang and avoid turning over, or hitting any of the surrounding cars or the guard rail... time seemed to slow down and then I suddenly realized that part of my mind was a few feet outside the car looking all around; zooming above it and then beside it and behind it and in front of it, looking at and analyzing the respective positions of my spinning Mustang and the cars surrounding me. Simultaneously I was inside trying to steer and control it in accordance with the multiple perspectives I was suddenly given by that part of my mind that was outside. It was like my mind split and one consciousness was inside the car, while the other was zooming all around outside and giving me visual feedback that enabled me to avoid hitting anyone or destroying my Mustang."
HIPPOCAMPAL PLACE NEURONS: ASTRAL PROJECTION
Feelings of fear and terror are mediated by the amygdala, whereas the capacity to cognitively map, or visualize one's position and the position of other objects and individuals in visual-space is dependent on the hippocampus.
The hippocampus contains "place" neurons which are able to encode one's position, place, and movement in space. Specifically, O'Keefe, Nadel, and colleagues, found that hippocampal pyramidal cells were able to become attuned to specific locations within the environment, as well as to particular objects and their location in that environment, thereby creating cognitive maps of visual space. Moreover, they discovered that as the subject moves about in that environment, entire populations of cells would fire but only when in a particular spot, whereas other cells would fire when in a different location.
Some cells respond not just when moving about, but in reaction to the speed of movement, or when turning in different directions. Moreover, some cells are responsive to the movements of other people in that environment and will fire as that person is observed to move around (Nadel, 2001; O'Keefe, 1976; Wilson and McNaughton, 1993).
The hippocampus, therefore, can create a cognitive map of an individual's environment and their movements and the movement of others within it. Presumably it is via the hippocampus that an individual can visualize themselves as if looking at their body from afar, and can remember and thus see themselves engaged in certain actions, as if one were an outside witness. Indeed, as is well known, the hippocampus play a major role in forming and retrieving memories.
Under conditions of hyper-activation (such as in response to extreme fear) it appears that the hippocampus may create a visual hallucination of that "cognitive map" such that the individual may "experience" themselves as outside their body, observing all that is occurring and/or hallucinate themselves as moving about in that environment such as flying above it.
In fact, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that hyper-activation or electrical stimulation of the amygdala-hippocampus-temporal lobe, can cause some individuals to report they have left their bodies and are hovering upon the ceiling staring down (Daly 1958; Jackson and Stewart 1899; Joseph, 1996, 2014; Penfield 1952; Penfield and Perot 1963; Williams 1956). That is, their ego and sense of personal identity appears to split off from their body, such that they may feel as if they are two different people, one watching from above, the other being observed down below.
As described by Penfield (1952), "it was as though the patient were attending a familiar play and was both the actor and audience."
Presumably abnormal activation due to extreme fear or direct electrical stimulation induces an individual to think they are seeing themselves from afar because the hippocampus is transposing and "hallucinating" one's image; similar to what occurs during normal remembering. Or, perhaps it is not a hallucination at all, but a capacity mediated by a hyper-activated hippocampus.
As noted, many patients who are diagnosed as "clinically dead" and then return to "life" report that after leaving their body they enter a dark tunnel and are then enveloped in a soothing radiant light. The same is reported in the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead.
Presumably, in that the hippocampus, amygdala, and inferior temporal lobe receive direct and indirect visual input and contain neurons sensitive to the fovea and upper visual fields, hyperactivation of this region also induces the sensation of seeing a radiant light. The massive release of opiates (due to physical trauma leading to "death") would account for the immediate loss of fear and the experience of tranquillity and joy. Continued activation of these brain regions would also account for the hallucinations of seeing dead relatives, that are commonly reported by those who have "died," as well as the life review, in which one's past life flashes before their eyes.
At death, the amygdala and hippocampus would begin to remember, and memories that were emotional and personal, and all accompanying emotions, such as guilt, would be experienced as part of death. That is, not just the memory, but the awful feeling of the memory would be reexperienced. These structures, therefore, account for the feeling of floating above the body, the life review, and the judgment imposed on the self by their guilty or guilt-free conscience.
The hyperactivation of these limbic structures, therefore, explains why those who have near death experiences report feelings of peace, rapture and joy as they were "bathed by the light" and stood in the all knowing presence of "God" or other divine beings including friends and relatives who had previously passed away. Indeed, these exact same feelings and experiences can be induced by electrically stimulating the inferior temporal lobe and amygdala-hippocampal complex.
EXPERIMENTAL & SEIZURE INDUCED OUT-OF-BODY, HEAVENLY AND OTHER WORLDLY EXPERIENCES
Some individuals suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy also report "out of body experiences." Penfield and Perot (1963) describe several patients who during a temporal lobe seizure claimed they could see themselves in different situations. One woman stated that "it was though I were two persons, one watching, and the other having this happen to me," and that it was she who was doing the watching as if she was completely separated from her body.
One patient had a sensation of being outside her body and watching and observing her body from the outside. Another neurosurgery patient alleged that while outside her body she was also overcome by feelings of euphoria and eternal harmony.
Other patients claim to have quite pleasant auras and describe feelings such as elation, security, eternal harmony, immense joy, paradisiacal happiness, euphoria, completeness. Between .5 and 20% of such patients report these feelings (Daly 1958; Williams 1956).
A patient of Williams (1956) claimed that his attacks began with a "sudden feeling of extreme well being involving all my senses. I see a curtain of beautiful colors before my eyes and experience a pleasant but indescribable taste in my mouth. Objects feel pleasurably warm, the room assumes vast proportions, and I feel as if in another world."
A patient examined by Daly (1958) claimed his temporal lobe seizure felt like "a sunny day when your friends are all around you." He felt dissociated from his body, as if he were looking down upon himself and watching his actions. Williams (1956) describes a patient who during a seizure-induced aura reported that she experienced a feeling of being lifted up out of her body, coupled with a very pleasant sensation of elation and the feeling that she was "just about to find out knowledge no one else shares, something to do with the link between life and death." Subirana and Oller-Daurelia (1953) examined two patients who experienced ecstatic feelings of "extraordinary beatitude" or of paradise as if they had gone to heaven. Their fantastic feelings also lasted for hours.
Other patients suffering from temporal lobe seizures have noted that feelings and things suddenly become "crystal clear" or that they had a feeling of clairvoyance, or of having the truth revealed to them, or of having achieved a sense of greater awareness such that sounds, smells and visual objects seemed to have a greater meaning and sensibility. Similar claims are made by those who have "died" and returned to tell the tale.
One woman I evaluated claimed she would float on the ceiling, and could float outside and could see, on one occasion, a friend who was coming up the walkway. She also reported that by having a certain thought, she could propel herself to other locals including the homes of her neighbors.
EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT
BLACK ELK
Compare Eadie's description with that of Black Elk (Neihardt and Black Elk, 1932/1989), a Lakota Sioux Medicine Man and spiritual leader (born in 1863). During a visit to England (he was part of Buffalo Bills Wild West Show) he suddenly fell out of his chair as if dead, and then experienced himself being lifted up. In fact, his companions thought he had died.
According to Black Elk: "Far down below I could see houses and towns and green land and streams... I was very happy now. I kept on going very fast...Then I was right over Pine Ridge. I looked down (and) saw my father's and mother's teepee. They went outside, and she was cooking... My mother looked up, and I felt sure she saw me... then I started back, going very fast...Then I was lying on my back in bed and the girl and her father and a doctor were looking at me in a queer way...I had been dead three days (they told him)...and they were getting ready to buy my coffin".
This was not Black Elk's first out of body experience, however. Black Elk demonstrated numerous behaviors and symptoms suggestive of temporal lobe epilepsy. Beginning even in childhood Black Elk repeatedly experienced "queer feelings" and heard voices, had visions, and suffered numerous instances of sudden and terrible fear and depression accompanied by weeping, as well as trance states in which he would fall to the ground as if dead.
Black Elk also had other visions similar to those reporting "life-after-death" experiences, including the following incident that occurred during one of his trance and out-of-body states: "Twelve men were coming towards me, and they said, Our father, the two-legged chief, you shall see... There was a man standing. He was not Wasichu (white) and he was not an Indian. While I was staring at him his body began to change and became very beautiful with all colors of light, and around him there was light..."
Similar accounts, including descriptions of a tribunal of 12 are detailed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Ms. Eadie (like many others who have experienced "life after death") came upon a man standing in the light which "radiated all around him. As I got closer the light became brilliant...I saw that the light was golden, as if his whole body had a golden halo around it, and I could see that the golden halo burst out from around him and spread into a brilliant, magnificent whiteness that extended out for some distances."
ASTRAL ANTIQUITY
Muhammed reports that while sleeping and dreaming he was lifted into the air and transported by the angel Gabriel from Arabia to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There he was greeted by three men, who he believed to be Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, as well as a crowd of other prophets. He was then lifted up and entered a divine sphere and came upon the garden of promise and, according to the Koran, saw a "lote-tree veiled in a veil of nameless splendor."
In Hinduism, the lote tree symbolizes the limit of this reality and rational thought.
St. Augustine reports he was "lifted up by an ardent affection towards eternal being itself... we climbed beyond all corporate objects and the heaven itself, where sun, moon, and stars shed light on the earth."
Some individuals (and their followers) claim to be able to voluntarily leave their body, this includes any number of "mystics," and New Age spiritualists, as well as some priests, prophets and shamen. Indeed, Monroe (1994) founded an Institute to study this phenomenon, and claims that others can learn this technique. Monroe, however, notes that when he had his first out-of-body experience he had felt extremely frightened.
That so many people, regardless of culture or antiquity, have similar experiences (or hallucinations) while in trance states, or dreaming, or after "dying," of leaving their body, is presumably due to all possessing a limbic system and temporal lobe that is organized similarly.
The fact that although ostensibly similar, many of these experiences are also colored by one's cultural background, can in turn be explained by differences in experience and cultural expectations and thinking patterns. As explained in the Tibetan Book of the Dead: "It is quite sufficient for you (the deceased) to know that these apparitions are [the reflections of] your own thought forms."
DEATH AND THE LIMBIC SYSTEM
Presumably conditions such as dreaming, trance states, depth electrode activation, extreme fear, traumatic injury, or temporal lobe epilepsy, result in hyper-activation of the amygdala and hippocampus and overlying temporal lobe. These structures create an image of the individual floating or even soaring above familiar or bizarre surroundings, and will trigger memories, hallucinations, brilliant lights, as well as secrete opiate-like neurotransmitters which induce a state of euphoria and thus eternal peace and harmony.
Given that similar experiences are reported by those who have experienced depth electrode stimulation of these structures, and by those declared "clinically dead" also raises the possibility that the hippocampus and amygdala may be the first areas of the brain to be effected by approaching death, as well as one of the last regions of the brain to actually die.
That is, as one approaches death and even after medical death, the amygdala and hippocampus may continue to function briefly and not only become hyper-activated, but produce a feeling of eternal peace and tranquillity and a hallucination of floating outside the body and of meeting relatives and other religious figures; like a dream.
And yet, it is curious that so many individuals have basically a very similar "dream" and only under conditions of death. Moreover, it is exceedingly difficult to reconcile these experiences with the Darwinian notion of evolution.
What is the "evolutionary" adaptive significance of so many members of the human race having a dream of the "Hereafter" after they die.
As we have learned from physics, this reality is only one of many, and the perception of these alternate realities, and all associated manifestations of extraordinary psychic abilities, are normally inhibited, suppressed, and cannot be perceived or processed due to the limitations of our brain. Under conditions of hyperactivity, the limbic system may not only hallucinate, it may also begin to process this information, and gain access to and engage in alternate modes of thinking, perceiving, and communicating, such that what is normally concealed is revealed to the receptive mind.
DREAMS, SPIRITS AND THE SOUL
Dreams and hallucinations, have, as their neurological source, activity generated within the temporal lobe and limbic structures buried within--the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus is known to be a depository of new memories and to assist in the retrieval of new memories-memories that often reappear in the contexts of dreams. Yet, dreams and memories, especially emotional memories, also have as their neurological source, the amygdala and overlying temporal lobe and associated limbic structures.
The amygdala enables us to hear "sweet sounds," recall "bitter memories," or determine if something is spiritually significant, sexually enticing, or good to eat. The amygdala also makes it possible for us to store personal, sexual, spiritual, and emotional experiences in memory and to recall and re-experience these memories when awake or during the course of a dream in the form of visual, auditory, or religious or spiritual imagery (Bear 1979; Gloor 1997; Halgren, 1992).
The amygdala, in conjunction with the hippocampus, contributes in large part to the production of very sexual as well as bizarre, unusual and fearful mental phenomenon including out-of-body dissociative states, feelings of depersonalization, and hallucinogenic and dreamlike recollections involving threatening men, naked women, sexual intercourse, religion, the experience of god, as well as demons and ghosts and pigs walking upright dressed as people (Bear 1979; Daly 1958; Gloor 1992; Halgren 1992; MacLean 1990; Mesulam 1981; Penfield & Perot 1963).
The amygdala also makes it possible to experience not just spiritual and religious awe, but all the terror and dread of the unknown. Indeed, the amygdala can generate feelings of hellish, nightmarish fear.
And yet, it is also the amygdala which is responsible for the capacity to transcend the known, this reality. It is also the amygdala which assists in maintaining this reality through the inhibition and filtering of most of the sensory signals bombarding the brain and body. If not for this sensory filtering, a color might have taste and its own particular texture, whereas sounds might provoke smells, warmth, light, colors, tastes, and feelings of weight. Hyperactivation of the amygdala, and overlying temporal lobes can remove these sensory filters, and what is concealed is revealed, sometimes in overwhelming confusing majesty.
Neurosurgical patients have reported communing with spirits or receiving profound knowledge from the Hereafter, following depth electrode amygdala stimulation or activation (Penfield and Perot 1963; Subirana and Oller-Daurelia, 1953; Williams 1956). Some have reported hearing even the singing of angels and the voice of "God."
THE LIMBIC SYSTEM: SPIRITUALITY AND EMOTION
According to d'Aquili and Newberg (1993) mystical states may be voluntarily or involuntarily induced and are dependent upon the differential stimulation of limbic system nuclei, including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala, as well as the right frontal and right temporal lobe. However, it appears that these brain areas differentially contribute to religious and emotional experience.
For example, the hypothalamus is concerned with all rudimentary aspects of emotion, homeostasis such as food and water intake, and controls the hormonal and related aspects of violent behavior and sexual activity. The amygdala also plays a highly significant role in sexual and violent behavior, and, in conjunction with the temporal lobe and hippocampus, enables a human to have religious, spiritual and mystical experiences (Bear 1979; Daly 1958; d'Aquili and Newberg 1993; Mesulam 1981; Schenk, and Bear 1981; Slater & Beard 1963; Williams 1956). These religious experiences may involve violent behavior or sexual activity, due to limbic involvement.
As we shall see in later chapters, many religious customs and rituals involve violence and sexuality, which in turn is due to the activation of this limbic system transmitter to god.
The amygdala and hypothalamus subserve the capacity to experience feelings of intense sexual arousal, fear or, conversely, euphoria, including an orgasmic feeling of rapture, or the "nirvana" of a heroin "high." This is because the hypothalamus and amygdala are major pleasure centers, and contain opiate-producing neurons and opiate (enkephalin) receptive neurons, thus generating feelings of numbness and a narcotic high. Large concentrations of opiate receptors and enkephalin-producing neurons are located throughout the amygdala (Atweh & Kuhar 1977ab; Uhl et al., 1978).
In response to pain, stress, shock, fear, or terror, the amygdala and other limbic nuclei begin to secrete high levels of opiates which can eventually induce a state of calmness as well as analgesia and euphoria (Joseph, 1998a, 1999a). It is this heroin high that explains why an ox, deer, and other animals will simply give up and lie still while they are devoured and eaten alive. It is this amygdal-ainduced heroin high which also contributes to feelings of religious rapture and the ecstasy associated with life after death and the attainment of Nirvana.
THE AMYGDALA, HIPPOCAMPUS AND HALLUCINATIONS
Whereas the amygdala and hypothalamus interact in regard to pleasure, rage, and sexuality, the amygdala and hippocampus interact to subserve and mediate wholly different aspects of experience, including memory, dreaming, and hallucinations. The hippocampus in particular appears to be responsible for certain types of "hallucinations" such as the visualizations of astral projection or seeing oneself floating above the body. Some patients report not only floating, but of being embraced by a light and taken to a vast realm of fantastic proportions where they are given access to knowledge of the nature of life and death.
The amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobe are richly interconnected and appear to act in concert in regard to mystical experience, including the generation and experience of dream states and complex auditory and visual hallucinations, such as may be induced by LSD (Goldstein et al. 1972; Gloor 1992; Penfield and Perot 1963; Weingarten, et al. 1977; Williams 1956). If these neurons are hyperactivated, such as occurs during dream states, seizures, physical pain, terror, food deprivation, social and sensory isolation, and under LSD (which disinhibits the amygdala by blocking serotonin) an individual might infuse their perceptions with tremendous religious and emotional feeling. Hence, under these conditions the individual may hallucinate, and ordinary perceptions, objects or people may be perceived as spiritual in nature or endowed with special or religious significance.
Intense activation of the temporal lobe, hippocampus, and amygdala has been reported to give rise to a host of sexual, religious and spiritual experiences; and chronic hyper-stimulation can induce an individual to become hyper-religious or to visualize and experience ghosts, demons, angels, and even "God," as well as claim demonic and angelic possession or the sensation of having left their body (Bear 1979; Gloor 1992; MacLean 1990; Penfield & Perot 1963; Schenk & Bear 1981; Williams 1956).
In some instances the individual may come to believe he or she is hearing, seeing, and interacting with gods, angels and demons when in fact they are hallucinating. These false beliefs are accentuated further because they are excessively emotionally and religiously aroused and are experiencing an "enkephalin" high and feelings of rapture or "nirvana."
In many cases, however, the individual is not hallucinating. Rather, their eyes have been opened, and they suddenly see as gods... knowing good and evil.
LSD, LIMBIC SYSTEM FILTERING AND HALLUCINATIONS
The amygdala is capable of processing visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, and emotional stimuli simultaneously. Amygdaloid neurons are multi-modally responsive. Single amygdaloid neurons receive a considerable degree of topographic input, and are poly-modal, responding to a variety of stimuli from different modalities simultaneously.
Normally much of this data is suppressed and filtered so as to prevent the tasting of colors, the visualization of sound, and so on. This is made possible via the inhibitory influences of the frontal lobes and a variety of neurotransmitters including serotonin (5HT). 5HT suppresses synaptic activity in the amygdala and throughout the neocortex and thus reduces sensory input (Curtis & Davis 1962; Morrison & Pompeiana 1965). 5HT restricts perceptual and information processing and in fact increases the threshold for neural responses to occur at both the neocortical and limbic level. In this manner, selective attention (via sensory filtering) can be maintained while the organism is engaged in goal directed motor behavior, such as running away or taking evasive action if chased by a lion.
In consequence, substances which block 5HT reception at the level of the synapse -such as LSDresults in increased activity in the amygdala and in the sensory pathways to the neocortex (Purpura 1956), such that information that is normally filtered out is perceived. Following the administration of LSD high amplitude slow waves (theta) and bursts of paroxysmal spike discharges occurs in the hippocampus and amygdala, and the amygdala begins to process information that is normally suppressed.
Under conditions which induce limbic hyperactivity, 5HT may be depleted and limbic sensory acuity is increased. However, what is perceived is not necessarily a hallucination but instead represents the perception of overlapping sensory qualities that are normally filtered out. Colors may be felt and tasted, music may be observed as well as heard, the molecular composition of ceilings, floor and walls may be parted so that one can see through the spaces between where molecules join together. And the pulse of life may be experienced as it ebbs and flows in a leaf one holds between their finger tips.
Consider, for example, a description of someone's first LSD "trip:"
"It was 1966... Jimi Hendrix was singing about purple haze, and that is exactly what we scored up in Haight Ashbury--mixed by the master himself, Stanley Osley..."
"About half an hour after I'd taken it, I was walking toward the park to meet and trip with my fellow tripsters when I began to notice the incredible clarity and vividness of my surroundings. Colors were brighter, plants seem to sparkle...and I stopped and touched a leaf...I could feel its energy, its life... I could taste it through my fingers...And when I got to the park I was so overwhelmed with the colors, the tastes, the smells, the incredible vividness and clarity that I felt almost overwhelmed and sat down to take it all in..."
"And then I heard a jet somewhere in the distance, and I looked into the sky but couldn't see it but my ears led my eyes to one of the mountains surrounding the valley, and oh my god, I could see right through the mountain. It was like the molecular composition of the mountain was parting into separate molecules. I could see the spaces between the molecules which were all in a frenzy of activity... it was as if I had achieved X-ray vision, and there were these crystal blue holes--like bubbles--and I could see right through the mountain and I could see the sky on the other side, including the jet. I could see the jet on the other side of the mountain by looking right through the mountain, by looking right through those gaps in the spaces between the molecules which were zipping along in their own unique pattern. And then the jet flew over the top of the mountain and instead of one jet I could see ten, then a hundred, and a kaleidoscope of jets in the sky."
"I raised my hand to point to this incredible sight, and instead of one hand, there were these trails of hands. And I did that again, waved my hand and there were these hand-arm trails of hands-hands-hands catching up and then merging... and it was then that I realized I could see through my hand. So I gazed at it for closer inspection. It was as if my eyes became a tunneling microscope--and this was 10 years before they invented tunneling microscopes."
"At first I could see the incredible cellular structure of the skin, and then the molecular structure...the pulsating molecules themselves... and then I could see between the spaces where the molecules joined together... my sight penetrated the skin and I could see the blood vessels, and then my eyes penetrated the blood vessels and I could see inside the blood vessel, I could see the blood platelets and the white corpuscles as they swirled through the vessel--and I kept thinking: How come I never noticed this before? I had forgotten that I had taken LSD."
Hallucinogens, of course, are an age-old means of obtaining access to alternate realities, including the realities of "god." Hallucinogens are said to enable an individual to peer between the space that separate this reality from all other realities, such that what is concealed is suddenly revealed. It is the amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobe which are responsible for these complex hallucinations, and it is the amygdala which normally filters much of this information so that it remains hidden. Hence, by hyper-activating these structures, in essence, one is also activating the transmitter to god.
SOULS, SPIRITS, DREAMS, AND POLTERGEISTS TO KNOW FEAR IS TO KNOW GOD
"Fear the Lord your God." -Deuteronomy 10:12.
Priests, prophets, shamans and many others who encounter "god" or His "angels" not uncommonly experience tremendous fear. Fear is the most common emotion associated with the amygdala, with some patients experiencing horrifying, hellish, and nightmarish fear, sometimes coupled with hellish hallucinations.
We are repeatedly told in the Bible, that to know fear is to know god. Indeed, even a committed atheist may feel compelled to cry out and pray to god if sufficiently terrified. Terror is also an emotion associated with the amygdala... as well as with the Lord God.
Yet others experience awe and rapture when confronted by the divine. As noted, amygdala hyper-activation is also associated with feelings of extreme joy and ecstasy.
According to d'Aquili and Newberg (1993; p. 194) "a combination of the experience of both fear and exhalation" is "usually termed religious awe." These feeling states are "almost always associated with religious symbols, sacred images, or archetypal symbols" which flow "from the inferior temporal lobe" and which "appear sometimes as monsters or gods". Indeed, angels, demons, and poltergeists may be experienced.
Most people find these experiences quite terrifying. They also frequently believe their perceptions are completely real and are not hallucinations.
SPIRITS AND POLTERGEISTS
"Cindy," a 22 year old college student, was plagued by demons and ghosts for months until her abnormal right inferior temporal lobe was surgically removed.
Prior to her brain injury, Cindy had never been very religious, and had certainly never seen a ghost; that is, until following her auto accident. She had been thrown over 50 feet through the windshield of her car and suffered a fracture of the right temporal region of the skull and developed a subdural hematoma, a blood clot, which was pressing on the temporal lobe inducing herniation. Burr holes were drilled into her skull and the clot was surgically evacuated. Although her brain and temporal lobe had been injured, over the following weeks she seemed to quickly recover.
It was several days after her release from the hospital when she was startled while watching television. The arms, legs, hands, feet, and heads of the various actors began protruding from the screen into the living room where she sat.
Cindy said that at first she thought the television was broken and turned it off. But, as she stared back at the blank screen she saw what looked like her dead father staring back at her (which was probably her own reflection). As she backed away, the figure emerged from the television. He beckoned to her, and then behind him ghostly spooks and wraiths began to stream from the picture tube.
Terrified and crying for her mother she raced for the bathroom and locked herself in. Yet, even as she hid within the inner sanctum of the washroom, spirits, sprites and poltergeists streamed from the bathroom mirror and swirled about her. Crying and stumbling, she raced into the living room and was horrified to see a spirit enter and take possession of her mother who was transformed before her eyes. Panicked and terrified, Cindy ran into the street crying for help. A police officer, after investigating the scene, brought her to the local hospital and psychiatry unit. She was medicated and kept there on a 72 hour hold.
Later she decided what she had experienced were ghosts and lost souls of people who had been buried in an old, almost completely forgotten cemetery on the other side of the hill from where she lived. She also thought they were the ghosts of Indians who had been entombed beneath her house as there are numerous Indian burial grounds in the county.
Once she was released from her 72 hour psychiatric hold, she stopped taking her medication, and over the course of the next several weeks, she claimed to see "animal spirits." She reported that the "secret souls" of her mother's house plants were watching and observing her and that she could sometimes see filmy, soul-like entities traveling to and fro across the room and between different plants.
After several more hospitalizations, and an EEG, it was determined that she was suffering from excessive activity, seizure activity in the damaged temporal lobe. The inferior temporal lobe and the underlying amygdala were surgically ablated and destroyed, and she ceased to "hallucinate."
DREAMS, ANIMAL SPIRITS AND LOST SOULS
Across time and culture, people have believed that not just humans and animals, but plants and trees were sensitive, sentient, intelligent, and the abode of spirits including the souls of dead ancestors (Jung 1964; Malinowski 1948). Before felling a tree, the spirit sometimes had to be conjured forth so as to not harm it (Campbell 1988; Frazier 1950). Be it animal or plant, souls were also believed capable of migrating to new abodes.
Among the ancients and many so called primitive cultures, it was believed that souls are reflected in shadows, in streams, and pools of water. Because ghosts or demons sometimes attempt to abduct souls, this required that one's shadow and reflection be protected. Even water spirits might try to capture a person's soul, so staring into reflecting ponds and lakes was to be avoided.
Moreover, the ancients believed that the shadows and reflections of others had to be avoided so that one did not come into contact with the soul of a witch, sorcerer, or a demon. It was believed that one's soul could be abducted by demons and witches as well as the recently departed. This is also why in some cultures people turn mirrors to the wall after a death and lay down pictures of the recently departed (Frazier 1950). This insures that living souls are not stolen by the souls of the dead who are leaving this world for the next one.
The belief in the persistence of the soul after death gave rise to ancestor worship in some ancient cultures, including China. Oracle Bones were believed to contain the souls of the dead and were employed for divinatory purposes in ancient China over 4,000 years ago. The earliest Oracle Bones so far discovered are covered with pictograms including a man with a large ghostly distorted head (Brandon, 1967). This pictogram also denotes the word kuei, which means, soul. Oracle bones also included characters signifying the words "she, shen, and tsu." "Tsu" means dead ancestor, "she" is a protective fertility deity of the soil, and "shen" are divine beings connotating phallic significance.
The ancient Chinese practiced a religious ritual which was intended to prevent the soul from departing the body at death. The orifices would be stopped up to keep the kuei safely inside the body. So long as the soul remained tethered to the body, the body would not undergo its final fatal disintegration. These beliefs gave rise to the ritual of "calling back of the soul," a ritual also performed for the living as the souls were believed able to wander forth from the body, such as during sleep, exposing the living body to death and extinction.
The ancient Chinese believed that the kuei represented by the yin-soul, was associated with the body since conception. By contrast, a yang-soul was associated with the individual personality and the person's unique mental qualities.
The alternating and competing principles of the yin-soul and the yang-soul are directly related to the concepts of ying and yang. They also gave rise to ancestor worship as the ancient Chinese believed that the life force, the energy associated with the soul, this substance familiale, lay buried beneath the ground as une masse indistincte. "This energy was represented above ground at any given moment, only by the living members of the family, which constituted the individualized portions of that substance familial. It followed, accordingly, that each birth within the family represented the reincarnation of a portion of that subterranean substance familial, while each death meant the return of a part of this individual family substance familial to the masse indistinte in the ground below" (Brandon, 1967, p. 180).
SOULFUL DREAMS
Souls were also believed by ancient humans to wonder about while people sleep and dream (Brandon 1967; Frazier 1950; Harris 1993; Jung 1945, 1964; Malinowkski 1990). That is, among many different cultures and religions the soul is believed to sometimes escape the body via the mouth or nostril during sleep. Moreover, during a dream the soul may wonder away from the body and may engage in certain acts or interact with other souls including those of the dear but long dead and departed.
Sometimes the soul is believed to take on another form, such as a bird, or deer, fox, rabbit, wolf, and so on. The spirit and the soul could also hover about in human-like, ghostly vestiges, at the fringes of reality, the hinterland where day turns into night. The souls of animal's such as a wolf or eagle, could also leave the body and take on various forms including that of a woman or Man. Not just men but animals too had souls that had to be respected.
Even after death souls continued to interact with the living, and every living being possessed a soul. Hence, the ancients believed that these souls could be influenced, their behavior controlled, and, in consequence, a good hunt insured or with the assistance of a soul, or by performing magical rituals aimed at the soul, enemies could be defeated and an evil man could be easily slain.
Because animals and plants had souls, and as some gods would also take up residence within an animal or plant as a temporary or permanent abode, this gave rise to animal worship and animal sacrifice, as well as the avoidance of certain animals or plants which were not to be killed or eaten, or killed or eaten only in a certain ritualized manner (Campbell 1988; Frazier 1950; Malinowkski 1948; Smart 1969).
Over the course of human cultural and cognitive evolution, these beliefs became increasingly complex and required specialists to interpret and minister the rituals and rites (Armstrong 1994; Brandon 1967; Campbell 1988; Frazier 1950). Soon priests, prophets, and even the Gods evolved.
DREAMING OF GOD
Priests and prophets as well as the common people, often experienced God as well as animal spirits and the souls of the dead, during the course of a dream. Dreams have their source in the amygdala and hippocampus and inferior temporal lobe. Although mediated by brainstem nuclei, activity within the amygdala may in fact trigger the first phase of dreaming (REM), which is signified by the buildup of PGO (pontine-geniculate-occipital) waves. REM (dream) sleep is heralded and then accompanied by what has been referred to as PGO waves. That is, the amygdala is active not only during REM, but amygdala activity triggers PGO waves which then leads to dream sleep. The amygdala produces the dream, and dreams the dream, and the dream may consist of fragmentary memories, hallucinatory imagery, and emotional extremes.
In addition to amygdala activity during REM, the hippocampus begins to produce slow wave, theta activity. Presumably, during REM, the hippocampus and amygdala act as a reservoir from which various memories, images, emotions, words, and ideas are drawn and incorporated into the matrix of dreamlike activity being woven by the right (and left) hemisphere. The hippocampus and amygdala also serve as a source from which material is drawn during the course of a daydream.
Yet, as also noted, these limbic structures also normally acts to inhibit the perception of most of the stimuli impinging on the body. This information is filtered so that one reality is maintained and to prevent the individual from being overwhelmed with competing streams of input. In other words, just as a channel selector on a television or radio permits the select reception of information from a single source (a single reality), these brain structures perform likewise. However, just as there are a multitude of channels, and just as one can change from channel to channel in order to receive a wealth of data, images, sounds, and information from a variety of sources (a variety of realities), likewise, the limbic system can also become tuned to other sources of information which are not normally perceived.
And, once the Doors of Perception are opened, all appears as it is...infinite.
DREAMING & WITCHCRAFT
"Witchcraft" and any and all "paranormal" capabilities, including "ESP" or divining by dreams, has been condemned as "unnatural" by many (but not all) religions throughout the ages including the ancient Jews and the Catholic Church.
"Witchcraft is a sin." I Samuel 15: 23
Of course, the "god" Yahweh would communicate with his prophets through visions and dreams. However, the unauthorized use of these same capacities was also condemned and outlawed, and those possessing these "unnatural" attributes killed: "I will gather you and blow upon you the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst therefore... for... They prophesy falsely and divine deceitfully. They have profaned what is sacred to me... I am profaned in their midst" (Ezekiel, 22:23).
The Lord God declared religious war against and condemned to death all witches and all those who could commune with the dead, speak with spirits, conjure ghosts, or communicate with devils (Exodus 22: 18, Samuel 15: 23; Ezekiel 22:23).
"You know... how he has cut off those familiar with ghosts and spirits and wizards. So wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to be killed." -I Samuel 28:8-10.
Likewise, the Medieval Catholic Church burnt witches, warlocks, and dreamers, and all those suspected of communing with devils. According to Church and religious authorities, these practices were the work of the Devil, Satan, the fallen angel, the fallen god, the serpent also known as the god of the snake.
These "supernatural abilities" were viewed as a threat for they could be employed to divine the future, to influence and cast spells on other humans, or to communicate with the dead or even with other gods including the devil. Hence, those who saw the future through trance states or via dreams, or who demonstrated what might be described as "ESP," although venerated by some, were condemned by others as "unnatural" and sinful.
DREAMS AND MULTIPLE REALITIES
It is via dreams that gods and spirits speak to women and men (Campbell, 1988; Jaynes, 1976; Jung, 1945, 1964). It was via dreams that hunter-gatherers and ancient humans were able to gain access to the domicile of the soul and the spirit world of the hereafter (Frazier 1950; James 1958; Neihardt and Black Elk1989). Indeed, it has been argued that dreams (and thus the limbic system) enable an individual to come into contact with a different reality; the same reality shared and experienced by our ancestors and the gods--the ultimate reality of the Great Spirit.
Our ancient human ancestors lived in two realities, that of the physical and of the spiritual, both of which were undeniable and experienced by enemies and friends alike (Frazier, 1950; Jung, 1945, 1964). One need only spend a night alone in the forest among the trees and the elements to become quickly convinced that one is not alone, but is being watched by various entities both alive and supernatural, animal and spirit, benevolent and unkind.
Like modern day humans, the ancients had dreams by which they were transported or exposed to a world of magic and untold wonders. It is as if one had been transported to a different world and a reality which obeyed its own laws of time, space, and motion.
It is through dreams that humans came to believe the spiritual world sits at the boundaries of the physical, where day turns to dusk, the hinterland of the mind where imagination and dreams flourish and grow; hence the tendency to bury the dead in a sleeping position even 100,000 years ago.
It is also via dreams that humans came to know that spirits and lost souls populated the night. The dream was real and so too were the Gods and demons who thundered and condemned and the ghosts and phantoms that hovered at the edge of night. Although but a dream, like modern humans, our ancient ancestors experienced this through the senses, much as the physical world is experienced. Both were real and were taken seriously.
Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious realms of the mind and to realities that lie just beyond conscious awareness. And it is through the amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobe, that dreams emerge and flow. The limbic neurons subserving spiritual experiences also give rise to dreams. Thus the link between the world of dreams and the spirit land of gods and demons is the limbic system; i.e. the "transmitter to god."
RIGHT TEMPORAL LOBE HYPERACTIVATION & DREAMING
The amygdala and the neocortex of the temporal lobe are interactionally involved in the production of religious and hallucinatory experiences including dream states ( Gloor, 1997; Goldstein et al., 1972; Humphrey & Zangwill 1961; Kerr & Foulkes 1978); the right temporal lobe and amygdala in particular. Similarly, d'Aquili and Newberg (1993) argue that the right hemisphere (and right amygdala) is more involved than the left in the reception and production of religious imagery. This is likely as the right hippocampus and amygdala, and the right hemisphere in general (Broughton, 1982; Goldstein et al., 1972; Hodoba, 1986; Humphrey & Zangwill 1961; Joseph, 1988, 2000a; Kerr and Foulkes 1978; Meyer, Ishikawa, Hata, and Karacan 1987) also appear to be involved in the production of hallucinations, dream imagery as well as REM during sleep. Indeed, like the limbic system, the right hemisphere is not only associated with dreams, but the unconscious mind . In addition to dream production, the right hemisphere also appears to be the dominant source for complex non-linguistic hallucinations. Specifically, tumors or electrical stimulation of the right hemisphere or temporal lobe are much more likely to result in complex visual as well as musical and singing hallucinations, whereas left cerebral tumors or activation gives rise to hallucinations of words or sentences (Halgren, et al. 1978; Hecaen & Albert, 1978; Jackson, 1880 Penfield & Perot, 1963).
Although up to five stages of sleep have been identified in humans, for our purposes we will be concerned only with two distinct sleep states. These are the REM (rapid eye movement) and nonREM (N-REM) periods. N-REM occurs during a stage referred to as "slow-wave" or synchronized sleep. In contrast, REM occurs during a sleep stage referred to as "paradoxical sleep." It is called paradoxical, for electrophysiologically the brain seems quite active and alert, similar to its condition during waking. However, the body musculature is paralyzed, and the ability to perceive outside sensory events is greatly attenuated and reduced.
Most individuals awakened during REM report dream activity approximately 80% of the time. When awakened during the N-REM period, dreams are reported approximately 20% of the time (Foulkes, 1962; Goodenough et al. 1959; Monroe et al. 1965). However, the type of dreaming that occurs during REM vs. N-REM is quite different. For example, N-REM dreams (when they occur) are often quite similar to thinking and speech (i.e. lingusitic thought), such that a kind-of rambling verbal monologue is experienced in the absence of imagery. It is also during N-REM in which an individual is most likely to talk in his or her sleep. In contrast, REM dreams involve a considerable degree of visual imagery, emotion, and tend to be distorted and implausible to various degrees.
REM is characterized by high levels of activity within the brainstem, occipital lobe, and other nuclei. It also has been reported that electrophysiologically the right hemisphere becomes highly active during REM, whereas, conversely, the left half of the brain becomes more active during N-REM (Goldstein et al. 1972; Hodoba, 1986). Similarly, measurements of cerebral blood flow have shown an increase in the right temporal and parietal regions during REM sleep and in subjects who upon wakening report visual, hypnagogic, hallucinatory and auditory dreaming (Meyer et al., 1987).
Electrophysiologically the right temporal lobe becomes highly active during REM, whereas, conversely, the left temporal region becomes more active during dreamless sleep, i.e., NREM (Goldstein et al. 1972; Hodoba 1986). Similarly, measurements of cerebral blood flow have shown an increase in the right temporal regions during REM sleep. Right temporal lobe blood flow also increases in subjects who upon wakening report visual, hypnogogic, hallucinatory and auditory dreaming (Meyer et al. 1987). Abnormal and enhanced activity in the right temporal and temporal-occipital area will also provoke dreaming and acts to increase the length and amount of dreaming and REM sleep for an atypically long time (Hodoba 1986).
Interestingly, abnormal and enhanced activity in the right temporal and temporal-occipital area acts to increase dreaming and REM sleep for an atypically long time period. Similarly, REM sleep increases activity in this same region much more than in the left hemisphere (Hodoba, 1986), which indicates that there is a specific complementary relationship between REM sleep and right temporal-occipital electrophysiological activity.
As noted, LSD induces its "hallucinatory" effects by disinhibiting the amygdala. That is, LSD blocks the sensory filtering and perceptual inhibitory activity of a neural transmitter, serotonin. In consequence multisensory qualities that are normally suppressed are suddenly perceived such that what was hidden is revealed; sounds have color and colors and sounds can be tast
ed, as the boundaries of this reality melt away thus revealing the supernatural reality of the other-side. Conversely, LSD induced hallucinations are significantly reduced when the right but not the left temporal lobe has been surgically ablated and destroyed (Serafintides1965). Similarly, it has been reported that dreaming is abolished with right but not left temporal lobe destruction (Bakan, 1978). Hence, it appears that there is a specific complementary relationship between REM sleep, hallucinations, LSD, mystical experiences, and right temporal (and thus right amygdala and hippocampus) electrophysiological activity. By contrast, the left half of the brain appears to be the domain of the more logical and nonintuitive aspects of conscious experience.
Whereas the right hemisphere is dominant for all aspects of emotion, and is the domain of the more visual and imaginal aspects of the mind, the left hemisphere is dominant for language, math, and the temporal sequential aspects of consciousness. It is the right hemisphere which dreams the dream, and it is the left hemisphere which not only passively observes but which forgets the dream upon waking (Joseph, 1988a). It is the more unconscious realms associated with the right hemisphere which are directly in tune with these alternate realities, such as conveyed through dreams, and it is the left hemisphere which dismisses and rationally explains away these experiences as nonsense.
DAY DREAMS AND FORESEEING THE FUTURE During dream states we see and experience events which are normally filtered from the conscious mind. We can also gain insight into problems which have plagued us, or gain access to knowledge of events which occurred in the past or which will occur in the future (Joseph, 2011; Jung 1945)--just as we can think about the future or the past and make certain deductions and predictions.
Consider the day dream. In addition to its images and memories, the fantasy produced also consists of anticipations regarding the future, and in this respect, the day dream could be considered an imaginal means of preparation for various possible realities. Interestingly, daydreams appear to follow the same 90-120 minute cycle that characterize the fluctuation between REM and NREM periods, as well as fluctuations in mental capabilities associated with the right and left hemisphere (Broughton 1982; Kripke and Sonneschein 1990). That is, the cerebral hemispheres tend to oscillate in activity every 90-120 minutes. This cycle corresponds to the REM-NREM cycle and the appearance of day and night dreams, and the right hemisphere also appears to be the source of day dreams.
According to the ancients, day and night dreams both contained important information, not just regarding the past or the world of souls and spirits, but the future. As possible harbingers of the future, the intentions of the gods, and the future of self, friends and family, it has long been believed that dreams should be observed most carefully and could be used to foretell the future (Campbell 1988; Frazier 1950; Freud 1900; Jung 1945). It was pharaoh's dream which foretold that seven years of famine would follow seven years of plenty.
In fact, among the ancients, the American Indians, and even the highly cultured Romans, every once in a while someone would have what is called "a big dream." The big dream was of great importance to the whole clan, tribe, city, or nation. Often, the man or woman having the dream would gather the others together and announce it. And more often than not, it would be a woman who would have the big dream, for women have always been said to be more in touch with the "irrational," and throughout history it is women who have predominantly served as oracles.
Because the limbic system and right temporal lobe are hyper-activated during dream states, not only does the brain become freed of inhibitory restraint, but one is presumably able to gain access to dreamlike alternate realities, including, perhaps, the spiritual reality of the Hereafter. Presumably the same occurs when fasting, isolated, in pain, under LSD, in trance, or in the throes of religious ecstasy, all of which activates the limbic system thus increasing channel capacity, so that what is concealed is revealed.
The Evolution of Dream Consciousness
That so many people, regardless of culture or antiquity, have similar dreams and hallucinations, is presumably due to all possessing a limbic system and temporal lobe that is organized similarly. Of course, many of these experiences are also colored by one's cultural background and differences in thinking patterns.
However, we should ask: is it really a hallucination if someone experiences a dissociation of consciousness and floats above their body and can later accurately described what was taking place and the appearance of those around them? Is it really a hallucination if an individual can see inside his hand and watch the blood cells swishing through his blood vessel? If one of the great presidents in the history of the United States dreams of his death 13 days before he is assassinated, was it just a dream?
There are numerous reports of individuals who claim to have dreamed about future events which then took place, including deaths, tragedies, mass murders, horrific accidents, and environmental catastrophes (Barker 1967; Jung 1945, 1964; Wiseman 2011). Yet, given that six billion people dream multiple dreams every night, it could be argued that we should not be surprised that a few of these dreams just happen to accurately coincide with what takes place. These are just chance coincidences, which, when considering the billions of dreams dreamed nightly, should be dismissed as meaningless and of no significance (Wiseman 2011). Since so few people have these dreams, it should not be concluded that these dreams represent an important cognitive capacity. However, if we apply the same criteria to Einstein's theory of relativity, or the music of Mozart or Beethoven, then the absurdity of this position becomes clear. Certain cognitive capacities are well developed in just a few people.
Another question should also be asked: Why would the brain evolve capabilities which are suppressed? Why did neural structures evolve which can process multiple sensations simultaneously, but then come to be inhibited by serotonin? Why would activation of specific brain areas result in the sensation of having left their body, or being privy to cosmic wisdom, or witnessing events and entities which appear to be from other dimensions or realities?
These experiences are made possible by the brain. They must serve an adaptive function. These capabilities must have evolved following natural selection. Why would we evolve the ability to hallucinate or dream about that which supposedly does not exist? Why should we have evolved the ability to hallucinate that we have left our bodies, or can see inside our hands, or dream that a friend will tragically die days before his accidental death?
One possibility is the human brain is de-evolving, and has lost or is losing capabilities which served a more adaptive purpose in ancient humans 30,000 to 10,000 years ago--ancient humans (the Cro-Magnon) whose brain was 1/3 larger in size than the modern brain! The Cro-Magnon men stool 6 ft tall on average, and the Cro-Magnon people created the magnificent underground cathedrals of art which first began to appear 30,000 years ago.
Comparison of modern human skull superimposed on Cro-Magnon skull (Left). Cro-Magnon skull (Right). The Cro-Magnon brain was 1/3 larger on average, than the modern human brain.
Conversely, it may be that these are capacities which are still evolving, but which at the present stage of human evolution, the human brain is unable to utilize adaptively. Consider, the evolution of language. Certainly, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Neanderthals did not engage in complex conversations (Joseph 1996, 2000, 2001). We can surmise based on indirect evidence, that the language capabilities of these ancient hominids and humans may have been limited to grunts, groans, screams, and a variety of emotional sounds (Joseph 2000). Whatever language abilities ancestral species evolved prior to 100,000 years ago were primitive manifestations of what was yet to evolve, i.e. grammatical speech, reading, writing, and associated modes of abstract thinking, such as math. Although the rudimentary foundations had been laid long ago, these were only primitive steps toward what was later to more fully evolve.
It can be surmised that if humans continue to evolve, that maybe 100,000 years from now they will possess a brain which is able to fully utilize capacities which the modern brain is, as yet, unable to master. Or, just as the brain has shrunk by 1/3 in size since the ending of the Paleolithic, that it may continue to lose capacities due to advances in technology which will increasingly render reading, writing, speaking, or creative endeavors obsolete.
Based on the evidence marshaled here and elsewhere, it can be inferred that not all dreams and hallucinations are dreams and hallucinations. They are mental capabilities which are de-evolving or still evolving, and which are or were destined to serve a specific purpose: Lifting the veil so we can gaze deeply into the past, the future, and the unknown.