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<\/a><\/p>\nEVER since I started reading Swedenborg twenty years ago, I have been interested in
\ncommunications purporting to come from those who have died. Swedenborg himself, an
\neighteenth century scientist and mystic of great distinction, claimed to be able to leave his body
\nat will and travel in the spiritual worlds, returning to record his impressions in such books as
\nHeaven and Hell. There is a widespread popular fallacy that all mediumistic utterances are
\ntrivial and inconsequential babble. Nothing could be further from the truth: such remarks merely
\nbetray a complete and perhaps wilful ignorance. There is much talk about the fear of death, but
\nless about the fear of life after death. Many psychologists argue that a belief in life after death
\nis a childish wish-fulfilment, but they would soon retract their remarks if they could gain some
\ninsight into the probable conditions in which they themselves might exist in a post-mortem
\nstate! If you knew that you would one day be making a journey, the most basic preparation
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\nwould be to consult whatever maps and guide books might be available. I regard the Nowotny
\nvolumes as one such guide book.
\nOne of the basic premises of modern science is that consciousness is a by-product of brain
\nprocesses. Hence the death of the brain means the extinction of consciousness. By this logic,
\nno communication with the post-mortem world is possible because such a world cannot exist
\nby definition. Any writings claiming to come from these sources must therefore be nothing
\nmore than the imaginative meanderings of the author’s unconscious mind. Dr Nowotny himself
\nadmits to having shared this kind of view during his lifetime, and was more than a litUe
\nsurprised to find himself consciously surviving the death of his body in 1965. All this is
\ndescribed in detail in volume one. But what if this assumption of modern science is not only
\nmisleading, but radically false? There is another way of conceiving of the relationship between
\nmind and brain: the brain does not so much produce consciousness as transmit or filter it. This
\nview was developed a hundred years ago by William James and others. It does not spell the
\nautomatic extinction of human consciousness at brain death, but rather suggests that death may
\nbe a transition from one kind of consciousness to another.
\nThe above two approaches can be applied to the near-death experience. The orthodox view
\nmust insist that the experience is produced entirely by the brain as a result of oxygen deprivation
\nor other biochemical and perhaps pharmacological factors. The transmissive theory admits that
\nthere must be correlations with brain processes, but argues that correlations do not amount to
\ncauses. One of the most puzzling phenomena for the materialist interpretation of the near-death
\nexperience is the veridical out-of-the-body experience, where the subject accurately reports
\nevents which are simply invisible from the position of the physical body, itself clinically dead
\nat the time. If there is any perception at all, it must be extra-sensory. The out-of the-body
\nexperience helps one appreciate the possibility of the mind surviving independently of the
\nphysical body: in this sense, death is a permanent out-of the-body experience.
\nIn my books Survival? (1984) and Whole in One (1990), I have compared elements of the
\nnear-death experience with reports of postmortem experience. It became clear to me that the
\nsecond is an extension of the first and that the phenomena can best be understood in relation to
\neach other. If we now return to Nowotny’s experience of death (volume one, p.61), he was
\nwalking with difficulty, having been in ill health for some time, when he suddenly felt himself
\nwalking freely and without pain. On turning round, he saw his own dead physical body on the
\nground, and ascertained that the heart had stopped beating \u2014 yet he was still alive! Moreover
\n(and I find this an amusing and significant aside) his dog was most confused, because he saw
\nhis master in two places at once, and did not know which way to turn! By all accounts, Nowotny
\ncame suddenly out of his body at death when he experienced a cardiac arrest. When he started
\ncommunicating, his medium was soon convinced of the genuineness of his identity, but it does
\npose a problem for the discarnate sceptic. There is good evidence that Bertrand Russell, a
\nmaterialist in his lifetime, communicated through the medium Rosemary Brown, and remarked
\nthat he would not have believed this to be possible had he still been alive in his physical body!
\nAs a neurologist, Nowotny is aware of these difficulties in relation to how his messages
\nmay be received by his former medical colleagues. The standard models in the neurosciences
\nand psychiatry are materialistic and reductionist so that any talk of possession or attached
\nentities would be regarded as a return to mediaeval superstition which has long since been
\ndiscredited by advances in anti-depressant drugs and sophisticated forms of psychotherapy. It
\nis ironic to note the remark of the Cypriot sage, Daskalos, that the success of some electro11
\nshock therapy is due to the fact that it expels entities from the patient! Nevertheless, some
\npsychologists are becoming open to the notion of past life therapy, where obsessions and
\nphobias are effectively treated apparently through reliving a trauma purporting to come from a
\nprevious incarnation. Dr Nowotny, in his writings, takes the notion of reincarnation for granted,
\nand even explains some of the mechanisms: he outlines, for instance, the idea that we each
\ncome to earth with a blueprint for our life’s work, and hence the importance for parents to
\nrecognise the blueprint and potential gifts of their children.
\nHe insists, rightly in my view, on the necessity of an adequate philosophy of life, which
\nincludes an understanding of the influence of subtle worlds on the physical and that the
\nunderlying purpose of earth life is spiritual growth. As he puts it: matter is subordinate to the
\nspiritual sphere. Our materialistic culture gives no inkling of this, encouraging young people to
\naspire to the TV lifestyles of dubious soap opera characters. This is a far cry from the patient
\ndevelopment of spiritual qualities and the embodying of love and wisdom. Nowotny defines
\nthe maturity of a spirit exactly in terms of knowledge combined with all-embracing love.
\nThroughout his work, he encourages the reader to cultivate discrimination, and not simply to
\naccept anything which claims to come from a discarnate source. One comes to realise the
\nimportance of thoughts and the need to control them if one is to make real progress.
\nIn my work with the Scientific and Medical Network, we are trying to expand the horizons
\nof science and medicine beyond its current materialistic and reductionist assumptions. In the
\nmedical field, this involves exploration of so-called subtle energy systems, as well as
\nrecognition of well-attested paranormal phenomena and appreciation of the universality and
\nvalue of mystical experience. Our attitude is to combine intellectual openness with scientific
\nrigour. The Nowotny volumes can help in this process, since I believe that he exhibits these
\nvery qualities in his writings. Readers have already expanded their horizons by accepting the
\npossibility of discarnate communication. This is taken one stage further by reflecting on the
\nrobust and compassionate advice which he gives.
\nI hope that it will not be too long before his messages are taken seriously by his medical
\ncolleagues to enable them to broaden their diagnostic scope beyond currently recognised
\nbiochemical and psychological factors.
\nDavid Lorimer
\nDavid Lorimer was born in Scotland, and educated at Eton College and the Universities of
\nSt Andrews and Cambridge. After a short spell in merchant banking, he switched to education,
\nteaching languages and philosophy at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and at Winchester College,
\nHants. In 1986, he became Director of the Scientific and Medical Network.
\nHe is author of “Survival? Body, Mind and Death in the Light of Psychic Experience” and
\n“Whole in One \u2014 The Near-Death Experience and the Ethic of Interconnectedness.” Mr
\nLorimer is also the editor of “Prophet for Our Times” and ‘The Circle of Sacred Dance \u2014 Peter
\nDeunov’s Paneurythmy.”
\nThe Scientific and Medical Network is an informal international group consisting mainly
\nof qualified scientists and doctors, together with psychologists, engineers, philosophers,
\ntherapists and many other professionals.
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\nThe aim of the Network is to deepen understanding in science, medicine and education by
\nfostering both rational and intuitive insights. Founded in 1973, it now has around 1,200
\nmembers in over 50 countries.
\nFull Membership is by invitation, usually only open to university- qualified scientists,
\ndoctors and other professionals. However, anyone sympathetic to the Network’s aims and
\nconcerns can become an Associate Member and receive its newsletter, “Network.”
\nFurther information from David Lorimer, Lesser Halings, Tilehouse Lane, Denham,
\nUxbridge, Middlesex UB9 5DG.<\/p>\n