Experiencing the Next World Now

Original

Grosso, Michael 저자(글)

Gallery Books · 2010년 06월 11일

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In this text, Michael Grosso offers a compelling argument for the existence of an afterlife and shows how we can explore it ourselves while still alive. He proposes that the reason channelers are able to contact the dead is the 'next world' is inexorably intertwined with the physical world.
Michael Grosso studied classics and obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. He has taught philosophy and the humanities at Kennedy University, City University of New York, and New Jersey City University. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association, and is working with the Esalen Center of Theory and Research on a consciousness research project. His previous books include The Millennium Myth and Soulmaking.
Chapter One: Ecstatic Journeys The discovery of the worm in the apple of my existence led, as I said, to my waking up, a heightened savoring of life. And I felt driven to discover something More, something Greater. The discovery of my mortality jolted me to seek enlightenment, to explore the mysteries -- it also threw a long shadow on my world. A shadow of "black bile," of melancholy -- the old term for that ill-humored state that nowadays we call depression.It's hard to say just how many people suffer from depression. There are all kinds and grades of this affliction, running from occasional bouts of feeling "down in the dumps" to serious clinical depression and all the way to the kind of suicidal madness of depression described so graphically by William Styron in his memoir Darkness Visible. The causes of depression, no doubt many, are still hard to pinpoint in any one case, and Styron finds something disturbingly mysterious about it. Neurotransmitters play a role, as may genetics; and of course all sorts of life incidents, mainly centering on loss, could trigger the plunge."For the Neo-Platonist," according to classical scholar Charles Boer, "the soul does not want to be in the body, and melancholy is its cry for escape." The cause of melancholy may lie in our embodied human condition. We do not want to be in our bodies, according to the Neoplatonists, because our bodies are the cause of all suffering, pain, and fear, and the root of all our losses, including, it seems, the inevitable loss of our own existence. If so, the only cure for depression is ecstasy -- the experience of being out of the body.An experience I had in my metaphysically agitated twenties may explain what I mean. It was my first out-of-body flight. I woke up one morning and realized I was floating above my bed, hovering before the bedroom window. The sun was streaming through a transparent blue curtain. The "I" I allude to was the same inner self I knew as me, except shorn of its usual bodily baggage. There I was! Ecstatic -- "standing outside" myself, a disembodied center of awareness. Exhilarated, self-contained, serenely poised to take off to parts unknown, I knew that I had only to will it, to think the thought, and I'd be off through the window on a galloping trip to Oz. But hold on, I reflected. What if I can't find my way back? The moment I had this thought, I snapped back into my body, like a paddle ball on a rubber string, my heart pounding like a jackhammer.For a few memorable seconds I had tasted the elation of pure existence. My melancholy, born of being trapped in my body, had completely lifted. Still, something prevented me from going all the way. I held back. What I most needed, it now seems, was what I most feared. If being trapped in a mortal body is the cause of melancholy, leaving the body can cause terrible anxiety. It was an unfortunate paradox, a double bind not easy to escape. Luckily, there are exceptions, and some of us do escape.Ecstatic SeparationA man was traveling to Damascus to arrest disciples of a Jewish prophet whom the Romans had crucified. Fourteen years later he wrote down an experience he had on the way. He had a vision and heard the voice of the man whose followers he was planning to arrest; he saw a blinding light and a voice said: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He said of himself in a famous letter: "And I know how such a man -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows -- was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak" (2 Cor. 12:1-4). This is perhaps the most famous out-of-body experience, for it converted Paul of Tarsus to the new Christian faith. It was the turning point in the apostle's life, an experience of ecstasy, which by its aftereffects changed world history.Consider another, more recent but still well-known example. The Oglala Sioux warrior and
From the scientific underground of psychic research comes a stunning report on the evidence for life after death. But all the proof in the world is nothing when compared to actual experience with the place beyond. This book takes the reader to the next level -- and offers a more personal kind of journey. If there is a "next world," it must be nearby, and the path leads through the gateways of our own minds. Philosopher Michael Grosso shows us how to open these passages -- or at least peek through a keyhole -- and glimpse what may lie beyond. This is the guidebook for an adventure that nobody can refuse.
Larry Dossey, M.D.author of Healing Beyond the Body, Healing Words, and Reinventing MedicineA daring new vision of consciousness is currently taking shape, in which the mind transcends the physical brain and body. This new picture of the mind holds the promise of survival of bodily death -- immortality... Dr. Michael Grosso is one of the leading architects of this new paradigm, as this book shows.
Larry Dossey, M.D. author of Healing Beyond the Body, Healing Words, and Reinventing Medicine A daring new vision of consciousness is currently taking shape, in which the mind transcends the physical brain and body. This new picture of the mind holds the promise of survival of bodily death -- immortality... Dr. Michael Grosso is one of the leading architects of this new paradigm, as this book shows.
Larry Dossey, M.D.author of Healing Beyond the Body, Healing Words, and Reinventing MedicineA daring new vision of consciousness is currently taking shape, in which the mind transcends the physical brain and body. This new picture of the mind holds the promise of survival of bodily death -- immortality... Dr. Michael Grosso is one of the leading architects of this new paradigm, as this book shows.
Operating on the assumption that the Next World,is inexorably intertwined with the physical world,Grosso discusses compelling evidence for the,afterlife and shows how common features of,existence, such as creativity, are really bridges,to the plane inhabited by the dead. Leaving the,body, communicating with loved ones who have,passed on, and tasting the power of the light are,all time-tested experiments that are open to,anyone. Providing readers with the framework for,exploring what was once thought unexplorable, this,book is a gateway to the ultimate adventure.
Contents IntroductionPART ONE: ExperiencesChapter 1: Ecstatic JourneysChapter 2: Of Ghostes & SpiritesChapter 3: The Medium and the MessageChapter 4: One Self, Many BodiesPART TWO: ChallengesChapter 5: ExplanationsChapter 6: Imagining the Next WorldPART THREE: ConnectionsChapter 7: EvolutionChapter 8: Mental BridgesChapter 9: The Otherworld NearbyPART FOUR: PracticeChapter 10: Flatliner ModelsChapter 11: Changing Our Way of LifeEpilogueNotesAcknowledgmentsIndex
From the scientific underground of psychic research comes a stunning report on the evidence for life after death. But all the proof in the world is nothing when compared to actual experience with the place beyond. This book takes the reader to the next level -- and offers a more personal kind of journey. If there is a "next world," it must be nearby, and the path leads through the gateways of our own minds. Philosopher Michael Grosso shows us how to open these passages -- or at least peek through a keyhole -- and glimpse what may lie beyond. This is the guidebook for an adventure that nobody can refuse.

작가정보

저자(글) Grosso, Michael

Michael Grosso, PhD, studied philosophy from Columbia University. He has taught philosophy and the humanities at Kennedy University, City University of New York, and New Jersey City University. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association. He is the other of five books.

목차

• Introduction
  Experiences
  Ecstatic Journeys
  Of Ghostes & Spirites
  The Medium and the Message
  One Self, Many Bodies
  Challenges
  Explanations
  Imagining the Next World
  Connections
  Evolution
  Mental Bridges
  The Otherworld Nearby
  Practice
  Flatliner Models
  Changing Our Way of Life
  Epilogue
  Notes
  Acknowledgments
  Index
  Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

기본정보

ISBN	9780743471053 ( 0743471059 )
발행(출시)일자	2010년 06월 11일
쪽수	320쪽
크기	137 * 216 * 25 mm / 408 g
총권수	1권
언어	영어