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"ANOTHER LOOK..." is an ongoing column I write for Vital Signs Newsletter, a quarterly publication of the International Association For Near-Death Studies. Each segment will appear here from now on, as well as in the Newsletter. This new feature gives me a format with which to explore varied issues about near-death states. Should you wish to make a comment or want to suggest future topics, please feel free to contact me. I may be able to use your suggestions directly. Thank you. P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)
P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.) P. O. Box 7691 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7691
© 1998 P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)
Just a brief reminder that low blood pressure is normal for near-death survivors. I had a checkup with my doctor recently, and mine registers 110/70. That's a bit high for me, but not too bad. My doctor couldn't believe how healthy I am and that my energy levels and attitude are as "rip-roaring" as ever. So much for the notion that low blood pressure means lethargy and depression. Be certain to educate your doctor about this. Medical people are a little slow to recognize that near-death states change a person's body as well as his or her mind.
The Manhattan and Yonkers IANDS groups, under the leadership of Julie Levine, are quite active. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the Conference in San Antonio. During a brief moment of quiet, she told me that most of their experiencer/members were reporting sleep disorders and asked if I had noticed such a thing as one of the aftereffects. I said no, but that I had noticed something akin to that with children. After their episode, kids usually "trade-in" nap time for increased flow states, and at night they are often very restless and have unusually vivid dreams. Then George T. Threshman, another member of the "New Yonkers," wrote me a letter pinpointing the time when experiencers dealing with this so-called "sleep disorder" always woke up - the same time for everyone - between 3 to 4 am.
Although I cannot say for certain what might be going on here, I do want to invite the experiencers in the New York area, and, for that matter, experiencers the world over, to consider another way of looking at the issue. Perhaps waking up between 3 to 4 am each morning is not so much a symptom of "disorder," as it is an alignment with "natural order." I suggest this because there is an extensive esoteric/mystical tradition that says between the hours of 3 to 4 am is the most ideal time to train yourself to awaken, as those specific hours are when creative and spiritual energies are at their highest vibration and are the easiest to access.
I cannot prove this, but I can give you something to think about. Between the hours of 3 to 4 am, irrespective of location, is when the earth's background base frequency or Schumann Resonance peaks. Measuring at about 7.8 cycles per second for most of this century, it has been thought that this resonance factor or earth pulsebeat was a constant. My doctor keeps track of this, and he has cautioned me that different areas of the globe vary slightly in what they register but that current readings have shown an overall rise worldwide. Measuring 9.6 in June of 1996 in eastern Oregon, it is thought that the earth's pulse could go as high as 13 cycles per second by the year 2000 - perhaps even higher, depending on where one lives.
Whatever the outcome of this "quickening," near-death survivors will probably be the first to know. That's because experiencers, whether adult or child, are quite sensitive to any changes in their environment (things such as pressure, humidity, pollution, wind, temperature, and so forth). And, they respond almost immediately to fluctuations in magnetic force-fields, electrical surges, and various types of vibrational activity.
We become living "weather vanes" in what we can pick up and respond to; hence, automatically waking up when the background frequency of our beloved "blue marble" is at its "loudest" would be rather natural, I think, and in no way a sign of disorder, unless mental aberrations were being experienced, too. If that's the case, one should check in with a doctor.
Near-death survivors don't just become "weather vanes" after their experience, however. They tend to "flow" more.
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, and author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper & Row, New York City, 1990), defines an internal flow state as the state of being so absorbed in what you're doing that time and space cease and a euphoric feeling of complete clarity and sense of purpose takes over. Being in this state of mind he refers to as "going with the flow." People lose a sense of self in this state. One becomes both actor and observer, irrelevant stimuli are shut out, time and space distort, and there comes a knowing.
Anyone can learn how to have flow states, and at any age, but it is near- death experiencers who assert that not only can one's mind flow, but that lives can flow. That is to say, unrelated events can come together by themselves in purposeful ways and with a peculiar sense of timing. Some people consider this to be a "coincidence," others call it "synchronicity" (so named by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung as a way to depict "meaningful coincidence"). An example of synchronicity is what happened to my husband Terry, when he was busy with studies on corporate mediation techniques so he could qualify for certification as a mediator. For no special reason, he suddenly reached over and flipped on the radio. Much to his surprise, an hour-long program on mediation techniques was just beginning - a program that covered exactly what he needed to know at the exact moment he needed to know it.
This sort of thing, synchronicity, becomes a daily occurrence for most near- death survivors, leaving them with a sense that almost nothing happens by accident and that there is a grander scheme of things we can align with if we chose.
The following chart illustrates what I found to be typical with internal and external flow states, and is based on my research:
ASPECTS OF FLOW
|
Internal to Self Subjective environment Without a focus Release of thoughts Stimuli fade away Blank out into nothing Consciousness expands The mind flows You know more Connect with a source of wisdom Gain Unify in consciousness A state of mind |
External to Self Objective environment More in focus Release of goals or vested interests Stimuli increase in clarity Perk up to new possibilities Experience expands The life flows You do more Connect with a source of Gain harmony and Unify with the world at large A state of living |
The only purpose of synchronicity is to catch our attention.
It signals that an external flow has been activated (for however long).
What I have consistently noticed is that synchronicity seems to function as a "signal," showing us we have connected to or perhaps aligned with a greater stream of intelligence, a wholeness beyond ourselves - perhaps even the true source of our being. When we are "on course," even for a moment, synchronicity tells us so. It gives us the feedback we need to recognize that an alignment has occurred.
Our societal notion of "coincidence," at least to my way of thinking, is actually a joke we play on ourselves. We use the term as a catchall so that we can avoid explaining what we do not know how to explain. I have discovered that there are no coincidences in life, just gaps in our ability to understand how unrelated parts can connect to form a unified and meaningful whole.
Oh, by the way, I never was able to train myself to awaken between 3 to 4 am. I sleep so soundly, nothing interferes, not even good intent. Maybe you can do better. Good luck!
For a lengthy discussion of the different types of flow, refer to Chapter 8 in "Future Memory" (Birch Lane Press, New York City, 1996). Atwater's next book, a major study of children's near-death experiences, is due out in 1998 through Three Rivers Press as "Children of the New Millennium."