The Universal Experience

My father, who for most of his life was afraid of death despite his really holy life, had a near-death-experience about 7 years before he actually died.  After that experience, he never again feared death; in fact, for a few months afterwards, he was actually a little depressed because he did not actually die.  He experienced heaven and even spoke about the experience -- but he came back because he did "not see the baby"  -- the infant who died shortly after birth.

I just finished reading Proof of Heaven, written by a neurosurgeon whose neocortex was completely destroyed by a bacterial infection.  Prior to his experience, he did not believe in the afterlife nor in near-death experiences (NDEs) related by some of his patients.  He firmly believed that the dying brain manufactures a kind of struggle for existence, creating what the patient afterwards describes as "dying and going to heaven."  Because Eban Alexander's neocortex was gone, however, and because there was no way he should have survived the coma, or ever lived a normal life afterwards, he could not chalk up his experience of heaven to brain function.  His case is one of a kind, with no precedents in medical history.  His book really had an impact on me, making me realize the depth of our connection to the Spiritual world.

Most of us will never have a near-death experience and live to tell about it.  But what is interesting to me is that across all ages, cultures, and religions, there is a universal experience of God, of Om, of Brahma, or of the Spirit of God, whatever called.  St. Paul said, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."  If we study the writings of men and women across all cultures and ages, we find a similarity of experience, despite a diversity of belief system and expressions of worship.

The central business of all forms of religion is the finding and feeling of Eternal Life.  My dad, who was an exemplary Catholic all his life, seemingly found and truly felt "eternal life" in his near-death experience.  The essence of spiritual life (not necessarily the same as 'religious' life) is this participation in eternity, manifested in the time-world.  This means that God can and must be found only within and through our human experiences.

The experience of our participation in the Spirit-life is genuine; it meets us at all times and in all places, at all levels of life.  No one is excluded because of creed or doctrine; the Spirit of God is universal and open to all men.  Unless people have had some form of experience with the Spirit of God, most do not take a real interest in explanations of the spiritual life. 

That is why I believe we will not achieve religious unity or accord across faiths based on ecumenical dialog, useful as that may be for other reasons.  Our real unity comes from the Spirit and from our human experiences of the Spirit of God -- not from agreement on doctrines or beliefs.  Plotinus (205-270) said this:  "The soul knows when in that state that it is in the presence of the dispenser of true life."

Catholic saints, Indian mystics, Puritan followers --- all who have ever sought God -- refer to man's communion with an independent Reality, an experience more real and concrete than any of the systems that try to explain it. 

The spiritual life is one life, based on the experience of one Reality, but manifested in the diversity of gifts and graces which men call true, holy, beautiful, and good.  It is in human experience rather than in speculation that we seek God.  And across all systems, those who have experienced God have described the same experience:

First, there is a profound sense of security: of being securely held in a cosmos of which peace is the very heart and center, and which is shaped for our best interests.  Again and again in spiritual literature, God is described as "The Ground of the soul, the Unmoved, Our very Rest."  Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless, O Lord, til they rest in Thee."  There is a sense of Eternal Life which is secure and does not change.  Man finds and feels a truth that cannot fail him, one that satisfies both heart and soul. People describe "space, stillness, and light" as the place where they enter the heart of God.

This is why those who have experienced near-death are no longer afraid to die.  The "place" that awaits them is "home," "peace" "light," "inexpressible beauty," and safety.
Even Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs tells us that our most elementary need is that of safety and security.  Without that, nothing else can take place.

There are two more universal elements in the experience of God which cut across all cultures, belief systems, and personalities.  Tomorrow, I will write about the second and third elements.  For those who are interested, I recommend Evelyn Underhill's book, The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today.  Underhill researched the universal experience of God in history and in culture, and she in my opinion is one of the best authorities on the spiritual life, discoverable in all great religions.  One of the things she says about history is that "...it will be valuable to us in so far as we keep a tight hold on its direct connection with the present, its immediate bearing on our own lives, and this we shall do only insofar as we realize the unity of all the higher experiences of the human race."