A book about "spirit world"

Picture credit: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Movie-Poster-Ghostbusters(2).jpg

No, this is not going to be about Ghostbusters...

For quite some time a friend of mine has been encouraging me to read a book by Michael Newton called the Journey of Souls. My friend calls this reading a life-altering experience and was hoping it would have similar inspirational effect on me. Well, finally I got myself into it and with some effort, I finished the book.

The author is a certified master hypnotherapist, who is practicing a special brand of hypnosis where the client is somehow directed to recall, what is thought to be, past life experience. The practice is referred to as regression hypnosis. From his experience on hundreds of subjects Newton thinks he unveiled a whole new dimension of existence: a spirit world. This claim comes from conversations with his clients, who are in a superconscious state during the sessions. They report about their past lives and, more importantly, about the experience of their soul between death and rebirth. This latter is the real subject of the book. The 29 selected cases are meant to represent different aspects of “in-between life” from the reception of a newly arriving soul by certain committees to aberrant souls that do not want to leave their earthly capsule and to preparations for the next life experience.

I was trying really hard to read the book with an open mind, leaving behind any preconceived ideas I may have had about reincarnation. I was told by my friend that the book provides scientific evidence for the perpetuality of our soul that circles from earthly life to spirit life to reincarnated life in a never ending loop. Well, after the first 10 pages I had to conclude that there was no scientific evidence: one either believes in reincarnation and then the book makes sense or does not believe in rebirth and then… who knows what this book means to him/her.

Finally, I decided to finish the book as if I were reading the Bible. I do not believe that the spirit world exist but I found many passages that made me pause and think about general existential questions that was approached very differently in the book. Just like my reading of the Bible: nice fairy tale with good number of deep thoughts worth contemplating on.

Although the number of cases that Newton’s spirit world creation is based on is impressively high, the method he obtained his information is not scientifically verifiable. In fact the report of the clients about their in-between spirit life was eerily reminiscent of movies, sci-fi books, paintings, etc. that the clients were likely exposed to. It is plausible that subconsciously they may have incorporated this earthly experience into the description of their soul-journey.

Out of curiosity, I checked which medical schools incorporated regression hypnosis into their curriculum. It turns out that in the USA not a single university teaches this technique although other forms of hypnosis is among the accepted therapeutic modalities. My conclusion is that the neat spirit world that Newton created from the reports of his clients is simply question of faith and not a scientific truth.

It is not the least of my intention to turn God fearing believers into atheists since, strictly speaking, atheism is as much question of faith as any religion. There is no prove for or against religions since the very essence of all superior “Being” is that they are beyond our comprehension and our scrutiny. – I say this being aware that a few well-intending humans, e.g. Moses, and far more charlatans, Jim Jones for one, have claimed that they were in talking terms with God -.

Similar to the religious followers, I envy those who believe in reincarnation. I do not intent to falter their hope in a next life; a reassuring thought indeed. However, the book of Newton did not prove to me that reincarnation and the in-between soul-life are based on facts.

It is a pity, because my recent interest in Buddhism generated a great deal of excitement for me toward reincarnation and related subjects. During my recent trip to Bhutan I talked to people who claim to have reincarnated from certain, known historical characters. They provided information that apparently would not have been available to anyone, but the particular person they once were. In one instance, the reincarnated person described blue prints of a monastery that was not available to any contemporary individual but when they found the documents, they were accurately depicted by the reincarnated monk. In Buddhism the significant reincarnations, e.g. the Dalai Lama, are verified by certain procedures. These are fascinating facts! Would they stand scientific scrutiny??... I do not know.

I would not hesitate however to claim that Newton’s book has no scientific ground. For some, it could be a good, even a fascinating reading; for me, it felt programmatic, contrived, and mostly plain boring with a few sparks nonetheless.

Portrait from Bhutan

On an August day in 2005 I was on my way to my work in Delaware when a brief commentary came up on the NPR station in my car. In this commentary, I heard about a country, Bhutan, whose name I new but could not have placed it on the map. Bhutan just got a new Constitution that, following the best of Western principles, would provide the familial democratic rights to its citizens. It does not stop there however. Incorporating the best of the Buddhist philosophy, it makes the government responsible for increasing the so called Gross National Happiness, on equal footage with the expected increase in GNP. Furthermore, the new law would also require the citizens of Bhutan to be good Samaritans when need arises and follow pacifist principles. A country that elevates the inner goodness of humanity to the level of law immediately captured my imagination. Where is this country? How does this GNH work in practice? How peaceful could be the nation that just accepted this apparently unique, noble Constitution?

I went to the Internet and soon found out the country’s location between India and China, on the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. I also realized that this small Himalayan Kingdom might just be one of the most picturesque countries in the world. Until less then 10 years ago, it was practically sealed off the rest of the world but in the late 1990s they started to open up to what they call “low volume, high value” tourism. Some more search on the Net and I quickly realized that a particular photography tour promises a unique and very intimate view into the life of the Bhutanese people and the beauty of the country. My good fortune finally took me to Paro, the only airport of the country, in April of 2008. I joined a group of 16 photo enthusiasts for a 13 day cross-country tour of Bhutan. It turned out to be superb travel event for all of us seasoned travelers and literally a life altering experience for a few of us. The only thing that surpassed the breathtaking beauty of the alternating high mountain ridges and fertile valleys with their clean, rapid rivers carrying the melted snow of the high Himalaya, was the kindness and openness of its citizens. They proved to be the most photogenic people I have seen with admirable willingness and patience to stand model for our insatiably curious cameras. Being a pediatrician, I particularly enjoyed taking pictures of the endlessly entertaining children. I always thought that my photography was the weakest in portraits, but in Bhutan my best shots came from capturing fleeting, unrehearsed moments on people’s face.

While we were there, the country had its first election, following the King’s abdicating his throne and calling for a democratic government. I thought that the King was forced to do this but in fact he himself had to lobby the country to accept the democratically elected government. All Bhutanese I talked to agreed that their current King is great and highly respected. However, he argued that one day a less than noble King may turn his power to some less than noble cause. He wanted to avoid this danger by securing the people’s approval of governments with time limited mandate. The country is poor and has its share of problems. The Buddhist peace loving and unimaginable tolerance however kept this small nation on the right track for centuries and hopefully will do so now, that its political system is being revitalized by a potentially benevolent Western invention, called democracy. Perhaps this tiny nation will show the rest of the world, how to get the full benefit out of this millennia old Western heritage. Until then, Bhutan will remain a paradise for those few lucky photo enthusiasts who can visit it.

For a 10 min slide show of this trip click here