A review of "Spiritual Awakenings" by The Exceptional Human Experience Network
"This book, in effect, is about exceptional human experiences, or what Whitfield calls "spiritual awakenings." In the foreword, Charles Whitfield, a physician and near-death researcher, defines a spiritual awakening as "an experiential opening to a power greater than ourselves." It enables us to "become more aware of and open to our self, others and the Universe" (p. xi). This echoes my definition of an EHE and its aftereffects, although I have used a more naturalistic terminology, because when one has awakened to the More, as William James termed it, all of life becomes sacred—spirituality is not simply a major component of life but it is life itself evolving and becoming more conscious. In a sense, the term spirituality preserved the bifurcation of human life into the sacred and the secular. EHEs today, as always, are resacralizing the world, it appears in greater numbers than have been recorded earlier.
That Barbara Whitfield, an NDEer, is dealing with EHEs is evident from the beginning chapter where she refers to experiences of awakening as "doorways to our soul," echoing what I have said about EHEs opening us to the EHE process and the Experiential Paradigm, a new worldview known only by the coming together of bodymindheartspirit. She devotes a paragraph or two to each type of awakening experience, all of which are types of spontaneous EHEs, including both spontaneousness and some of the experiences that trigger them, and induced experiences, such as new NDEs, childbirth, meditation, intense prayer, experiencing the death of a loved one, withdrawal from chemical dependence, bottoming out from an overwhelming loss, an alien encounter including angels or other beings, an intense transcendent sexual experience, spontaneously when in nature, while reading spiritual literature or hearing a spiritual talk (in my experience it can even happen when reading passages in books that are not usually considered "spiritual"), in a "big-dream" that is remembered for life, a kundalini experience, breath and body work; and gradually, and without first having a dramatic experience. Her aim is to help people enjoy the experiences of opening they are blessed with, overcome the obstacles they meet as they begin to live their own path, and commit to taking their unique path the remainder of their days. She begins with her own experiences (kundalini and NDEs). The rest of the book is a practical guide to dealing with the insights and energies that EHEs awaken, including kundalini, blocked energy, psychic ability, divine energy, spiritual sexuality, enhancing soul, and living in unconditional love. Appendix I presents in tabular form Charles Whitfield's model of how to heal the inner child and live from the true self. This is a practical guide to working with EHEs and their sometimes difficult but always wondrous aftereffects. " |
Review of Spiritual Awakenings:
Insights of the Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways to Our Soul
A Review by Bruce Greyson, M.D., Editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies
Originally published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, 13, 65-70, 1994
"Spiritual Awakenings breaks new ground both for Barbara Harris Whitfield and for the field of near-death studies. Writing from her heart, from her own experiences, and from her years of working with other NDErs, Whitfield challenges us to stretch beyond the limits of who we think we are and to bring what she calls our Higher Nature into our daily lives. She encourages us to think of ourselves not as human beings occasion-ally having spiritual experiences, but as spiritual beings currently having human experiences.
Whitfield's first book, Full Circle (Harris and Bascom, 1990), was written after she had escaped a static marriage that could not accommodate her near-death experience. Living essentially on her own at the time, she portrayed in Full Circle the full range of near-death after-effects, not only the joy but the trauma as well. Now, having estab-lished herself as an individual and formed a more resilient and recep-tive relationship, she is able to complete the story by addressing the recovery process.
This book may not convince skeptics that emotional problems after a mystical experience often have a spiritual component, but convincing skeptics is not Whitfield's goal. Spiritual Awakenings is written for those who have experienced these difficulties firsthand-or secondhand, through loved ones-and its purpose is to help the experiencer work through them. She describes the dilemma of "life as a practical mystic" as learning how to apply on the physical plane the Grace experienced in the NDE:
The challenge is to keep our feet planted firmly, to live in both worlds, and bring the attributes of spirit here-to be an instrument of God. And at the same time functioning here, taking care of ourselves and paying our bills. To achieve this balance we can live by our own inner laws rather than outer pressures-to operate in this world but not be of it. (p. 99)
When Whitfield was seeking a publisher for this book, one agent told her the book was not marketable because it was not logical. Whitfield responded by inserting the provocative announcement in boldface on page viii of her introduction: Warning: This Book is not Logical. This book was written as a guide for people who are experiencing for the first time the mystical side of their nature, and that, Whitfield writes, is not a logical subject.
The organization of this book into three roughly equal parts, how-ever, is quite logical. The opening section, "First Connection," describes the process of spiritual awakening. Whitfield writes that there are four ways to grow psychospiritually: through regular spiritual practice; through living unconditional love; through pain and suffering; and through spiritual awakenings, such as NDEs.
Whitfield starts the journey by recounting her own spiritual awakening through an NDE. Though versions of this story have appeared in books before, first in Kenneth Ring's Heading Toward Omega (1984), then in Charles Flynn's After the Beyond (1986), and finally in Whitfield's earlier Full Circle (Harris and Bascom, 1990), its focus improves with each retelling. Though I have heard Whitfield share her NDE with more audiences over the years than I can count, the version in Spiritual Awakenings bears witness to her continued growth over the years.
In a brief but critical section on ego inflation, Whitfield describes the temptation to identify with the infinite power NDErs and others en-counter, and to feel superior to unenlightened friends and family. She correctly prescribes as the antidote to this ego inflation (and as the reward for having transcended it) humility, a cardinal sign of true spirituality in both Eastern and Western traditions. She uses the term "spiritual bypass" for the premature sense of enlightenment without going through the necessary inner work.
Whitfield describes in some detail the importance of working with the energy liberated by a spiritual awakening. While she uses the term "kundalini," she acknowledges the debate among scholars as to whether these energetic phenomena are truly manifestations of that hypothesized intelligent force, or simply a reflection of disturbances in the life energy, or "prana." Ultimately, as a body-based therapist, she declares that the name is unimportant; what matters is being able to use the energy to heal.
The middle third of Spiritual Awakenings, "Connecting Again," addresses directly the experiencer's struggle to readjust to mundane existence Whitfield characterizes the "old paradigm" of mental health, in which spiritual awakenings are regarded as psychotic breaks, as one in which details of the healing process are hidden from the patient by the therapist. The new paradigm, which she sees starting to take hold in medicine, demystifies healing and includes the spiritual realm as coequal to the physical and mental. I agree wholeheartedly with that, as do an increasing number of physicians and psychologists. This is not repudiating the old paradigm, but rather transcending it, acknowledging that its goals are limited. As Whitfield accurately puts it, the goal of the old paradigm is to help us become "normal," while the goal of the new paradigm is to help us move beyond "normality" and become "whole."
Much of this middle third of the book draws on the models and language of the "adult-child movement," or the "recovery movement," particularly as it has been developed by Charles (1987, 1991a, 1991b). While Whitfield's growth since her first book is evident from the first page of Spiritual Awakenings, it is most obvious in this section.
Much of the wisdom brought back from the NDE is experiential and cannot be put into words. Many NDErs try to verbalize their experi-ences nevertheless, warning as they do so that their verbal descrip-tions are not accurate--or they try to communicate their insights through music or art or service. Whitfield has found the language of the recovery movement to be right for her--and I suspect many readers will also; spiritual seekers are often drawn to the recovery movement because addiction is often rooted in spiritual longing.
Whitfield writes that she found her way "home" mapped out in the adult-child movement. She writes that her "soul" or "core" --the part Ring identified as participating in the "core NDE" --IS the "child within" of the adult-child movement. One reason Whitfield has embraced the inner-child metaphor is the connection, drawn by Ring (1984), between abuse and dissociation and then between dissociation and access to nonordinary realities. There is a fair amount of clinical evidence to support both hypotheses: that repeated trauma teaches a child how to dissociate, and that the ability to dissociate from ordinary reality fosters awareness of other dimensions.
Some readers may take issue with the notion that a history of trauma and dissociation is the only path to alternate realities--or even the most common. Lest we get hung up on models, however, Whitfield reminds us that the map is not the territory -- and she proceeds to demonstrate that inner-child metaphors can be used to convey consid-erable wisdom. As the fictional Swami Beyondananda wrote, "if you feel blocked, ask your inner child for help. Your inner child loves to play with blocks!" (Bhaerman, 1989, p. 68). Whether or not one is enthusiastic about the "map back home" that Whitfield found in the adult-child movement, the territory it charts is a critical and often ignored region, and it allows her to describe the difficulties faced by spiritual beings trying to survive in a material world, and to prescribe guidelines for survival.
A concrete example of the pitfalls awaiting the awakened individual is what Whitfield calls "romantic projection." During heart openings, we can find ourselves bonding spiritually to others whom we may label as "soul mates" or "soul twins." Since a heart opening enables us to experience bonding as never before, we may feel truly one with our "soul twins." Literally enchanted by this bond that includes spiritual, emotional, and mental components, we may be tempted to actualize the sense of unity physically in a romantic relationship.
This can often lead to disaster, not only for the enchanted individ-ual's significant others, but for the spiritual bond to the "soul twin" as well, as the romantic involvement reintroduces into the relationship the ego-based emotions--jealousy, guilt, fear, shame, hurt, etc.--that are part and parcel of physical romance. The answer to this dilemma, Whitfield writes, is recognition that the unconditional love of a heart opening, so unfamiliar to most of us, does not need (in fact, cannot be restricted to) a particular love object; we are essentially falling in love with the universe and with our own "core" (after a heart opening, it can be difficult to distinguish the two).
I found Whitfield's section on boundaries to be one of the most helpful, as it quite clearly discusses an issue both critical and sensitive to many NDErs. P.M.H. Atwater (1984) has highlighted how difficult it may be for NDErs to respect boundaries after an experience with the infinite; now Whitfield has offered some suggestions as to how to cope with that difficulty. She points out that telepathic rapport, often described by NDErs, flourishes when we experience no boundaries. However, this sense of boundlessness leaves us vulnerable to abuse, no matter how "psychic" we may be. Abused children, she notes, never learn to form healthy boundaries, and without boundaries we tend to absorb others' pain. Drawing on her own experiences, Whitfield illustrates the impor-tance of developing healthy boundaries for healthy relationships; even after we realize that we are all connected, we still need to differentiate our conflicts from other people's.
The final third of the book, "Living the Connection," nicely brings together the spiritual and the mundane, and the problems inherent in trying to live in both worlds. Whitfield notes here that committing oneself to loving service can feel "selfish" to the NDEr--which is actually the recognition on a deep emotional level that we're all in this together. "We recognize in everything we do," she writes (p. 99), "that the physical and psychological are only half the picture"; and in this recognition is the proof (but, alas, only for the experiencer) of a spiritual realm.
Realization that the physical realm was not the whole story led a century ago to exploration of the psychological realm. While we couldn't "see" psychological processes through our physical senses, we could see the effects on the body of a subtler realm, and from those effects inferred the existence of the psyche. Now, as Whitfield tells us, we face a comparable situation: we know the physical and the psychological are not all there is, because some of us are made aware of the effects on the psyche of a still subtler plane--and from those effects we can infer the existence of spirit.
In this section Whitfield turns the concept of dissociation as pathological on its head and shows how "spiritual philanthropists" --experiencers seeking to share with others the heart connection they enjoyed with the Infinite--can use it not to escape from reality but to enhance it. The wounded child learns to focus outside of this reality and become absorbed in an alternate one. The experiencer transforms this dissociative trait into an ability to become absorbed in this reality while staying connected to the source of unconditional love. Practical mystics, she writes (p. 102), "don't just look up to God. We look within and around!"
In her discussion of spiritual sexuality, Whitfield notes that once she dared to bring up in public talks transcendent sexual experiences as a path to spiritual awakening, she found audiences freely shared their own accounts. The essential spiritual nature of these experiences makes irrelevant the inhibitions and embarrassment often associated with intimacy. In describing spirituality and sexuality as two sides of the same coin, she broaches a heretical idea: that we can directly experience spirit through our bodies.
Both Eastern philosophies and Western mystical disciplines have tended to view the physical world as either a distraction or a necessary intermediate step that must be transcended on the path to spirituality. Whitfield sees our physical incarnation not as a distraction or barrier, but as a legitimate vehicle for spiritual evolution. She is by no means condoning sexual addiction here; but rather advocating using the body (since we're there anyway) as an arena for our struggle with ego. Being genuinely present and intimate with another forces us to let go of self--centeredness. By trusting enough to lose ourselves to our partner, we transcend ego.
Whitfield wasn't being entirely truthful when she warned that this book is not logical. It does indeed have a logic, but just doesn't always feel constrained by it. It strives rather for wholeness; it has tables for the left brain and poetry for the right, and for those who want more, an appendix of helpful organizations and a bibliography.
Spiritual Awakenings is an easy book to read, and for that reason it is also an easy book to underestimate. But it would be a mistake to dismiss this book as lightweight simply because Whitfield writes in plain English and popular metaphors. Once again, the map is not the terri-tory. This is a much-needed book, one that finally offers some guide-lines for the painful side of NDEs. The near-death "movement" has tended to idealize NDErs, putting them on a pedestal at the risk of ego inflation. We tend to ignore their unique burdens and vulnerabilities. The recovery movement has a large library of books that focus on the dark side, on our wounds and how to overcome them. Now, in Spiritual Awakenings, the near-death movement has one, too."
References
Atwater, P.M.H. (1984). The seven most common aftereffects of survival: The inability to recognize and comprehend boundaries, rules, limits. Vital Signs, 3(4), 14.
Bhaerman, S. (1989). Driving Your Own Karma: Swami Beyondananda's Tour Guide to Enlightenment. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
Flynn, C.P. (1986). After the beyond: Human transformation and the near-death experi-ence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-HaIl.
Harris, B., and Bascom, L.C. (1990). Full circle: The near-death experience and beyond. New York, NY: Pocket Books.
Ring, K. (1984). Heading toward omega: In search of the meaning of the near-death experience. New York, NY: Morrow.
Whitfield, C. (1987). Healing the child within. Deerfleld Beach, FL: Health Communications.
Whitfield, C. (1991a). A gift to myself. Deerfleld Beach, FL: Health Communications.
Whitfield, C. (l991b). Co-dependence: Healing the human condition. Deerfleld Beach, FL: Health Communications. |