RITES OF PASSAGE (Pt.2)

A Collective Near-Death Experience

Until you know this deep secret – ‘Die and become’ – you will be a stranger on this dark Earth.

Goethe

To continue where the previous essay left off (Rites of Passage, Part 1), I wish to begin by exploring the content of some near-death experiences as they may relate to our human collective transition in these current times. On this note, in Chapter 3 of my book New Revolutions for a Small Planet (published 2012) I discussed how in the early to mid-1980s two hypnotherapists in the US – Chet Snow and Helen Wambach – performed a series of hypnotic future-life progressions with groups (in both the US and in Europe) consisting of varied age ranges. This experimental project initially began as a means to affect a patient’s cure, then expanded as it became clear that a series of unusual data was being gathered. It began to emerge that nearly all of the patients, when progressed to a future life, witnessed living in a post-disaster scenario. All groups of patients were then progressed to a time much further into the future; again, all accounts were of civilizations that had emerged after a global cataclysm of some unknown type. Snow and Wambach were able to classify 90 per cent of these future scenarios into what they termed as four future types:

Type 1 In-Space Habitats – off-Earth in space stations, colonies, or other planets.

Type 2 New ‘Age’ Communities on Earth – usually near mountains or the coasts, in natural surroundings.

Type 3 Hi-Tech Urban Centres – usually in domed cities, artificially enclosed centres, or underground.

Type 4 Rural Survivors – in more basic villages with little resources, living amongst the rubble of once-great cities.[1]

What these four types seem to suggest is that Type 1 is where the Tech-billionaires and the elites get themselves off the planet and into their pre-prepared ‘Earth colonists’ hideaways. Type 2 is where most aware and awakened people may find themselves, in smaller communities within natural surroundings and organizing local resources. Type 3 is where the ‘left behind’ rich people may live; not elite-enough to get a space-faring ticket yet the rich minions can still afford their well-stocked bunkers, protected enclaves, and high-tech gated urban pods. And Type 4, unfortunately, may be where most of the unprepared and unaware masses will find themselves, as abandoned amongst the ruins.

Of course, these are only speculations based upon hypnotherapy (which I personally know nothing about). Yet whilst these are speculations, it does demonstrate, as I said back then, ‘a potential collective unconscious psychosis that acts to warn us of potential impending worldwide crises.’ Chet Snow, one of the initiators of the future-life progressions, went on to say that in order to choose and develop positive alternatives for our future it is first necessary to face our ‘deeply programmed fears of disaster;’ in effect, stepping into the underworld journey, struggle through the initiatory event, and to return/emerge as a renewed ‘hero.’ Somewhat surprisingly, this mythological hero’s journey of darkness and return is also mirrored in the now extensively documented cases of individual near-death experiences (NDEs). I wrote back in 2010:

As in the case of future-life progressions, many people who experienced a close call, to the extent that they had an out-of-body experience as a result of nearly dying (or in some cases being clinically dead for a short period), reported unusual insights. Psychologist Kenneth Ring, who has studied the near-death experience for nearly 40 years, has found that people return from the experience with a changed worldview, often one that leans towards a (re)energized psyche and consciousness.

There was also widespread agreement across all of Ring’s groups that those who had the near-death experience felt that humanity was in the midst of an evolutionary shift toward greater spiritual awareness and higher consciousness:

… all groups tend to agree that these experiences reflect a purposive intelligence and that they are part of an accelerating evolutionary current that is propelling the human race toward higher consciousness and heightened spirituality.[2]

Similarly, another NDE researcher Margot Grey came to an almost identical conclusion in her book Return from Death:

It would appear that a new breed of mankind may be about to be born, and that in order for this to happen our consciousness and biological structure is undergoing a radical transformation. What we seem to be observing is a rebirth process which … will eventually culminate in bringing forth an enlightened human being who has knowledge of the life and order of the universe.[3]

These ‘otherworld’ or out-of-body experiences (OBEs), including the hypnotic future-life progressions, all share similar patterns in that the mind-at-large, or the collective consciousness of humanity, is working with images/signals that tell of both physical and psychical grand shifts. In other words, the Earth herself may be entering a period of instability and disruption whilst simultaneously catalysing a dramatic, and perhaps unsettling, transformation in human consciousness. The global initiation – our rites of passage – may thus entail a collective near-death experience that will not only affect us physically and psychically but also directly involve our planet Earth.

I remarked previously how the ‘old mind’ of humanity is ‘one of the greatest obstacles to successfully passing our global initiation.’ I then wrote that astrophysicist Martin Rees (President of the Royal Society 2005–10) has publicly stated that he considers the odds of our civilization on Earth surviving to the end of the 21^st century as being no more than 50/50. Rees believes that we are currently at risk from both ‘malignant intent’ and ‘misadventure,’ citing that the 21st century could be a foreclosure upon the human journey. In his 2003 book Our Final Century he writes that ‘A catastrophic collapse of civilization could destroy continuity, creating a gap as wide as the cultural chasm that we would now experience with a remote Amazonian tribe.’[4] Again, this reminds us of the scenario put forth in Walter Miller’s apocalyptic sci-fi novel A Canticle for Leibowitz whereby a global catastrophe sends civilization back to the dark ages, before it again ascends to technological heights.

I continued in my previous book to ‘take a brief foray into some of the sudden impacts that might be considered unpredictable and/or unknown, and which could provide a dramatic shock awakening and force a necessary rapid reorganization upon human civilization.’ These ‘sudden impacts’ I classified under the general headings of: bio-threats; technology shocks; natural hazards; and man-made hazards. Under bio-threats I listed various instances of previous bio-terrorist attacks; viral pandemics (and their social ‘disastrous consequences’); and the aftermath of global pandemics. In 2010-11 I wrote:

In January 2010 a member of the health committee at the Council of Europe, Wolfgang Wodarg, joined other critics to claim that major pharmaceutical firms had organized a ‘campaign of panic’ to pressurize the WHO into declaring a ‘false pandemic’ in order to make profit for selling vaccines. Whatever the specifics here, it does show that virus outbreaks such as H1N1 swine flu, a variation on bird flu (H5N1), SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), foot and mouth disease, etc., are all in danger of becoming global ... It is perhaps only a matter of time before the next mutated virus becomes a ‘near-death’ catalyst for a slumbering mass mind.

Unfortunately, my future scenario was to become all too real.

For the next item on my list – Technology Shock – I wrote that ‘The reality of the world is that we are moving from physical interventions-invasions into cyber-warfare and sabotage.’ I then went on to list various well-known cyberattacks including ‘Titan Rain,’ and ‘Stuxnet.’ I stated that:

Imagine a state suddenly having its energy and communication networks crash: electricity networks go offline; all Internet communication is stopped; transportation grounds to a halt as transport networks cease to function. The food would stop reaching the shops, people would be told to stay indoors and not to travel as traffic signals may not be working. Hospitals would revert to generators for power back-up whilst desperately needed medicines may not be distributed to those home-bound. It would create wide-scale panic leading to civil unrest and looting. If the infrastructures were not immediately restored, then eventually everyone would turn to fending for themselves. The country would be put under martial law and some areas would revert to tribal organization and brute force. In such complex ‘civilized’ societies it only takes a critical disturbance to create widespread breakdown.

I noted that ‘the rise of cyber-warfare is another aspect of the growing arsenal of “silent weapons” that are filling the technosphere. The technological arms race now includes an array of space-based weapons and electromagnetic pulse weapons that can be operated through an invisible landscape. In this regard we may not even see the near-death experience coming; it will be shrouded in a virtual ether.’

Item three on my list – Natural Hazards – involved exploring an array of possibilities including increased weather disruptions (fires, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions), and the like. I also considered the impact from near-Earth objects (NEOs) hitting us, such as asteroids from space that have left us a crater-pocked Earth. As case histories I also looked at the earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010; and the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull on 14^th April 2010. Finally, item number four – Man-Made Hazards – examined potential disasters from gas leaks, nuclear radiation, oil spills, and similar related hazards. The Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred on March 11^th, 2011, just 2 months after I had written this chapter.

In the final part of Chapter Three of New Revolutions for a Small Planet I noted how psychologist and near-death expert Kenneth Ring sees these chaotic times as heralding the shamanizing of modern humanity – that is, helping to develop ‘our latent capacities for imaginal perception’.[5] Philosopher Michael Grosso also noted how a new type of species mind arises out of critical times, amid the collective possibility of annihilation; in other words, the threat of species death catalyses the rise of a species ‘mind-at-large’.[6] The transition to a planetary mind, a more evolved state of human consciousness, will be crucial for the continuation of our species upon Earth. I ended this part of the book fifteen years ago with these words:

We have now entered the crisis window, the transition phase – that heroic journey into the underworld – where we will be forced to experience a shamanic initiatory experience, perhaps a near-death experience, before we can emerge as an adolescent species with a new, more mature mind. Until we reach that stage, however, we will have to struggle with the death throes of the old mind, as old systems cling to power and global infrastructures attempt to remain in control of a world in transition.

We have always inhabited a world in transition. Only now, the transition that is upon us, and the threshold that looms before us, is of a magnitude far greater than we have experienced in living memory. These truly are incredible times, and a great trial awaits humanity: and only a noble response will be sufficient. We have arrived at an end of an era.

In November 2023 I released, as Dr.Dennis & Dedfela, the EP ‘Initiation.’ The final track on that EP was titled ‘’End of an Era,’ and the final words on that track were as follows:

We either reach a critical mass
And fly - Or we do not.
For there is nothing in a caterpillar
That tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

Listen here to the track End of an Era by Dr.Dennis & Dedfela

NOTE: The next series of essays that I shall be posting will be a chapter-by-chapter serialisation of my 2013 book Breaking the Spell: An Exploration of Human Perception

All my posts on Substack are free - and will always remain free - for all & everyone to have equal access. If, however, any kind soul wishes to offer a gift/coffee/paid subscription, I honour your contribution.

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[1] Snow, C B, Mass Dreams of the Future, 1989, McGraw-Hill

[2] Ring, K, The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large, 1992, William Morrow, p190

[3] Grey, M, Return from Death: An Exploration of the Near-Death Experience, 1988, Arkana.

[4] Rees, M J, Our Final Century, 2003, Heinemann, pp23–4

[5] Ring, K, The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large, 1992, William Morrow

[6] Grosso, M, The Final Choice: Playing the Survival Game, 1985, Stillpoint Publishing