What happens when we die?

This is the oldest question, the first question, the most important question.

And despite having been contemplated for thousands of years by millions of people, it still remains, in the minds of many, a question without an answer.

For 15 years, ever since the horrific suicide of my young wife and the intense thirst for understanding her tragedy instilled in me, I have meticulously examined mankind's reports and traditions about death and the afterlife. For the last 12 years, my research has focused on mankind's most ancient afterlife tradition - the Binary Soul Doctrine - as a possible answer to that question.

Once found in cultures all over the globe, the Binary Soul Doctrine held that human beings possess not one, but two souls (called variously "the soul and the spirit", "the yin and the yang", "the head and the heart", or, in Egypt, "the ba and the ka"), which both survive death, each going on to an entirely separate afterlife experience. Modern science seems to have resurrected this ancient doctrine in the form of science's two halves to the human psyche - the conscious and the unconscious. And, as it turns out, if the conscious and unconscious did survive death, but divided apart in the process, such a condition would seem to logically account for the vast majority of mankind's different reports and traditions about the afterlife (see http://www.divisiontheory.com for more on this).

But many Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) have trouble with this theory; even though an afterdeath division of their conscious and unconscious would provide a logical explanation for virtually all of the most common details of the classic NDE experience, the division of these two parts of the human psyche is not something most NDErs usually recall personally experiencing, leaving them saying "The Binary Soul Doctrine must be false - I certainly didn't split apart into two souls at death - no division occurred to me!"

But the objective researcher must ask himself how reliable such conclusions would be. Most people never even consciously "experience" the presence or existence of their own unconscious in the first place. While they may have learned of its existence in school or through other cultural sources, most are not really aware of having EVER personally experienced the existence of the unconscious within themselves.

Nonetheless, a huge chuck of the human mind is partitioned away within the unconscious, and that quite "other", quite "alien" part of the mind leads a largely independent existence, thinking its own thoughts, dreaming its own dreams, living inside its own rich and complex imaginary world, all while we go about our business in the "real" world. Each of us carries this whole other world inside ourselves, a shadowy and fantastic realm teeming with inner figures, melodramas, grievances, and fears that are perpetually (but ever so subtly) exerting their influence over our every word and deed. And while all this is secretly going on inside our own minds, most of us are stuck watching a far more drab version of reality unfold through our conscious minds, hardly ever getting to "see over the wall" to catch a glimpse of what is going on inside that fantastic unconscious world (it does "leak" material from time to time into the conscious mind, and that leaking is what "gave its existence away", and is what basically the entire discipline of psychology is based on).

Since most people tend to be so very unaware of the existence or ongoing functioning of their own unconscious, how then could anyone be sure that this already-existing yet quite invisible disassociation between the conscious and unconscious does not get appreciably larger after we die? Since most NDErs don't notice the unconscious much when they are alive, why should they be expected to notice any changes in it after they "die"?

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I am reminded of Galileo's struggle in the 17^th century to get people to accept the idea that the earth revolves around the sun. First proposed by a Greek astronomer named Aristarchus around 200 BC, it took 1800 more years before this idea finally became widely accepted. Like the Binary Soul Doctrine, this theory of a heliocentric solar system also had much going for it, explaining a whole assortment of otherwise inexplicable mysteries and peculiarities. Yet, despite the obvious logic of the argument, people steadfastly refused to accept this explanation for nearly 2,000 years. Why? Because it contradicted their first-hand experience. Folks could SEE the sun apparently revolving around the earth, but could not see the earth revolving around the sun, nor could they feel the earth moving in any way.

Even though the earth really did revolve around the sun, this reality could not be directly perceived or experienced first-hand, but could only be deduced through abstract analytical logic. Unfortunately, folks tend to trust their own direct perceptions more than abstract logic, and this "glitch" in human nature caused nearly 2,000 more years to pass by before earth's true place in the cosmos was widely appreciated. This episode in human history is priceless, teaching us that truth is not always obvious, and that we can't always trust our first impressions. We cannot afford to forget this, for the old saying is true - those who do not remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them. In fact, the more we learn about this reality in which we live, the more we discover that our first perceptions are all too often incorrect and misleading. This chair on which I sit seems to be solid, but science has discovered that it is actually mostly empty space inhabited by the occasional subatomic particle. Clearly, we cannot always trust our first perceptions, especially when we realize that they conflict with other data.

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And that is precisely the dilemma before afterlife researchers today, because the NDE view of the afterlife is, in some respects, in direct conflict with the reports of Past-Life Regression (PLR) subjects. NDE reports typically describe the afterlife as heavenly (the "Realm of Light") or hellish (the "Realm of Bewildered Spirits"), a place filled with many others like oneself in which one retains full awareness of one's own identity and memories, and experiences intense and deeply moving feelings, emotions, and insights. This model of the afterlife emerges directly from NDE reports, and apparently represents the perspective, the subjective experience, of one part of the self that does seem to survive death.

The question before afterlife researchers today is - is the self that experiences this "NDE Afterlife" the ONLY part of the self that survives death, or is there also another part which, unbeknownst to the NDEr, is also having its own entirely independent experience at the same time?

The reports of Past-Life Regression subjects, which describe a very different afterlife in which subjects find themselves floating quietly alone, experiencing "nothing" in a peaceful emotionless black void, strongly suggest that a second "piece of the self" also finds itself out there somewhere in non-physical reality after death, independently experiencing its own afterlife existence, just as the Binary Soul Doctrine would suggest.

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In at least six different books on Past-Life Regression (PLR), "Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton, "Life Between Life" by Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher, "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Brian Weiss, "Other Lives, Other Selves" by Roger Woolger, "You Will Live Again" by Brad Steiger, and "You Have Been Here Before" by Edith Fiore, a distinctly non-NDE-like afterlife experience seems to be described again and again. Admittedly, this is not the only experience portrayed in these books; the traditional NDE-like "Realm of Light" experience is also sometimes described. But this other non-NDE-like model of the afterlife is very common to PLR reports, and it is so very dissimilar to the classic "Realm of Light" NDE experience that it seems to represent a totally separate category of afterlife experience.

In this non-NDE-like experience, subjects on "the other side" tend to describe themselves as floating in blackness, not knowing where they are, not seeing anything, not feeling anything or doing anything or experiencing anything, feeling totally unemotional and detached, and more often than not finding themselves totally alone. Unlike the vibrant and thrilling "Realm of Light" experience, this afterlife experience brings a lessening or muting of one's feelings and emotions, and sometimes even of one's memory and sense of identity. All these characteristics, of course, are quite the opposite of the thrilling and intensely stimulating experiences most NDErs describe having. Here are some examples from these books:

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In "LIFE BETWEEN LIFE", co-authors Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher seem to describe the afterlife not as a beautiful and emotion-rich "Realm of Light" like that described by so many NDErs, but rather as a "timeless, spaceless glide" through pure nothingness (p. 189) in which identity, memory, and emotion are often diminished, and one's entire sense of existence is dependent upon exercising one's rational conscious mind:

One PLR subject reported:

"I felt no emotions. ... I seemed to be alone" (p. 122) and another reported "All cares and fears were left behind. Time and space were no more than a memory" (p. 142). Other subjects report:

"I'm walking in endless nothingness - no floor, no ceiling; no ground, no sky." (p. 35) and "I'm not aware of being anywhere" ( p. 35) and "It's black" (p. 98).

Dr. Whitton maintains that during the between-life state, people often lose their sense of self-identity: "The percipient loses all sense of personal identity." (p. 8) and "[One] surrenders one's sense of identity." (p. 26). This identity-loss apparently even includes losing memory of one's own name. Dr Whitton asks a hypnotic subject in the between-life realm: "What is your name?" only to receive the answer "I ... have ... no ... name." (p. 21). "Who are you?", Dr. Whitton asked Linda, another subject regressed to a point in-between past lives. But "Linda wasn't sure". (p. 147). Yet another subject told Dr. Whitton "In experiencing a past life, one sees oneself as a distinct personality which engenders an emotional reaction. [But] in the interlife there's no part of me that I can see" (p. 28)

Whitton and Fisher sometimes seem to associate the afterlife described by PLR subjects more with the rational conscious mind than with the emotional unconscious. For instance, they write:

"On earth, we disable our thought processes in order to approach unity with the universe, hence meditation. But in the life between life we must START thinking to realize our individuality. Discarnate life proceeds unconsciously, and only the act of thought in the life between life allows us to see the edges of our separate clouds within the endless cloud of existence. Rene Descartes' famous dictum, 'I think, therefore I am', is never more pertinent than in the between-life state. There is no experience of existence without thought. Just how much self-consciousness is exhibited in the bardo appears to vary greatly from person to person. Those who are keen to proceed vigorously with their spiritual development tend to be most consciously active between incarnations. Those who show little interest in the evolutionary process are inclined to 'sleep' for the equivalent of huge tracts of earthbound time." - p. 34

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In "MANY LIVES, MANY MASTERS", Brian Weiss also portrays the afterlife described by his Past-Life Regression subjects as floating peacefully and emotionlessly in an empty black nothingness, just waiting patiently, resting there until the next incarnation. Weiss wrote "I wondered if Catherine could remember anything more after her death, but she could only say 'I'm floating'" (p. 40). Later in the book, Catherine reported "I feel free ... free. I'm just floating in darkness ... just floating ... I must wait ... there are many souls in this dimension. We must be patient" (p. 68). Later she is asked "What are you experiencing?" (about another afterlife experience) and she replies "Nothing ... just peacefulness ... waiting" (p. 83). During another in-between-lives period, she was asked "Where are you now?" and she replied "I don't know" (p. 99). When asked "Go to the time of your dying now. What do you see?" she replied "I do not see it. I don't see ME anymore. Then Weiss asked "Where are you? What do you see?" and she relied "Nothing ... just darkness" (p. 111). During yet another in-between-lives period, she said "I'm floating ... I am in spirit ... I'm waiting" (p. 121). During another period, she was asked "What do you see?" and replied "Nothing ... darkness." During another period, she was asked "Do you see anything now?" and answered "No". "Are you resting?" "Yes" (p. 158).

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Similarly, in "YOU HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE", Dr. Edith Fiore also repeatedly portrays the afterlife as one of no feeling, emotion, or sense of location. She asks a patient regressed to the afterlife "And now what are you feeling?" and receives the answer "Nothing". She asks "Are you aware of any sensations, any feelings, any emotions?" and is answered "No." She asks "Do you feel any concern, any worry, any pain?" and is answered "No" (pp. 32-33). She asks another afterlife patient "Where are you now?", and receives no answer. She then asks "What are you experiencing now?" and receives the answer "Nothing. I feel like I'm floating" (p. 119). She asks another "How do you feel?" and is answered "I feel...I don't feel anything" (p. 136). She asks another "Where are you?" and receives the answer "I'm floating ... I don't feel anything." She then asks that patient "What are your emotions right now?" and is answered "I ... I don't ... I'm ... I feel ... [long silence] I don't, I don't feel ... joy ... it's peace, I don't - I'm not afraid ... hmm ... I'm suspended" (pp. 137-138). She asks another "What are you experiencing?" and is answered "I feel like I am not in my body. I'm not ... where I should be. I feel in-between ... I'm no longer a part of that existence. I'm not a part of the other existence. I am ... I'm not either. I feel alone" (p. 144). She asks another "Where do you feel you are?" and is answered "I don't know where I am. I'm just ... I'm just floating around." She asks another "What are you experiencing?" and is answered "Nothing". She then asks "Does anything come to mind?" and is answered "No" (p. 236).

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In "YOU WILL LIVE AGAIN", Brad Steiger also portrays the afterlife realm as one of waiting in an empty, emotionless, locationless void. He quotes one PLR subject as reporting "The spirit world ... was one in which you couldn't talk to anyone very long ... they'd go away. One did not sleep, never ate, never became tired. ...the afterlife was painless, nothing to be afraid of. There was neither love nor hate. The spirit world was simply a place where the soul waited to pass on to 'another form of existence'" (p. 15). And Steiger wrote "When he asked the personality what he felt at that point, Jonathan answered that he could feel nothing" (p. 36). Another subject in the afterlife was asked "Now what do you see?" to which he replied "Nothing". "What are you doing?" Floating." "What do you see?" "Nothing". "Where are you?" "Floating" (pp. 50-51). When asked "Now what do you feel?" another subject answered "Nothing. I can't see anything. I can't feel anything." When then asked "Do you enjoy that?", he responded "Well, I don't know. I can't feel nothing, how can I enjoy it?" When then asked "Does it bother you?" he replied "No. Why would it bother me? I don't feel anything." (pp. 54-55). Another of Steiger's PLR subjects seemed to show more evidence of loss of memory and sense of self-identity while in this in-between-lives state. When asked "Are you still floating?" he replied "Yeah. I'm just floating." When then asked "What's your name?" he replied "I don't know. I don't have a name." When asked what do you see?" he responded "Black". When then asked, "What are you doing?", he replied "Nothing." When then asked "Where are you?" he replied "I don't know" (p. 59-60). When asked "How long have you been just floating?" one subject answered "Oh, I don't know. Been quite a while, I guess." Ten years after another subject's death, but before he had entered a new incarnation, one subject still seemed to be floating alone in this empty emotionless limbo : when asked "On the count of three, it will be ten years later. Now what are you doing?", the subject answered "I don't know. I'm floating." When asked "What do you see?" he answered "Nothing." When asked "Are you comfortable?" he replied "Yes." When asked "Do you like this?" he answered "Yes" (p. 104).

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In "OTHER LIVES, OTHER SELVES" Dr. Roger Woolger asked a regression subject after his death "So what happens next?" and the subject responds "It's blank ... dark ... nothing." Woolger comments "Many years of guiding regressions have taught me about the phenomenon of 'overshoot' when moving forward in time in a past life. Darkness or lack of images is nearly always a sign that death has occurred, so I said to her "Go back and see what happens before it goes dark". The patient responds "I'm crossing a street. ...Aahh I'm hit. My head is crushed ... It's all black. I'm above my body" (p. 38). He asks another afterlife subject, "Where are you?", and the subject replies "I don't know. It's black. I'm not there. I don't know where I am" (p. 173). Another subject in the afterlife reports "I don't understand where I am ... it seems to be a dark mist ... I am totally alone ...I remain here for a long long time. It seems like an eternity" (p. 298-299). Yet another reports "I find myself in a great aloneless, alone but not alone. Nothing there, not even a sense of time" (p. 302). Woolger reports "For the majority of the rememberers, the actual moment of death, regardless of their thoughts, is experienced as a great release, a peaceful separation. In about 95% of my selected sample the dying personality reports floating above the body and eventually on up to some barely definable realm of peace and rest. ...Out of the 95% ... the majority - very roughly 80% - quickly find themselves back in another past life or in this incarnation." (p. 294)

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In "JOURNEY OF SOULS" , Michael Newton also describes a far-more emotionally-void afterlife than that described by NDE subjects: "We are more detached because without human bodies we are unencumbered by the immediacy of human emotion" (p. 183). This is quite opposite to the intense and overwhelming emotion described by NDErs.

In further contrast to the NDE model of the afterlife, Newton writes: "There is no residence of terrible suffering for souls, except on earth. I am told all souls go to one spirit world after death" ( p. 49) . This statement, of course, directly contradicts the many reports from NDE researchers about the hellish "Realm of Bewildered Spirits".

Newton's description of the afterlife, interestingly enough, includes phenomena much like the division of the Binary Soul Doctrine, reporting that subjects's souls split into two parts in-between one life and the next. When they go off to incarnate again, Newton maintains, one part of their soul remains behind in the "other world":

"Dr. N: I just have a couple of questions on the mechanics of soul-splitting. How do you see the manner in which you divide your soul energy into various parts?"

S: "We are ...as particles...of energized units. We originated out of one unit."

Dr. N: "Do all parts of our soul go out of the spirit world when we incarnate?"

S: "Part of us never leaves."

Dr. N: "What does the part that remains in the spirit world do while we are on earth?"

S: "It is...more dormant...waiting to be rejoined to the rest of our energy."

Newton then comments: "Many people feel that the idea of souls having the capacity to divide in the spirit world ...is against all their preconceptions of a singular, individualized spirit. ...if our souls are all part of one great oversoul energy force which divides, or extends itself to create our souls, then why shouldn't the offspring of this intelligent soul energy have the same capacity to detach and then recombine?" - pp. 154-155.

While the subject is incarnated on earth, the part of his soul that is still in the afterlife realm is in a state of dormancy, according to Newton: "...those souls who are currently engaged in one or more bodies at the moment may not be actively engaged with welcoming anybody back. Another subject explained 'It is as if they are sleeping on autopilot - we always know who is out and who is in'. Those souls who are not totally discarnated radiate a dim light with low pulsating energy patterns and don't seem to communicate much with anyone" (p. 85).

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This "PLR Void" model of the afterlife occurs again and again in Past-Life-Regression reports, and so seems to deserve to be credited with some amount of validity. But the PLR void stands in stark contrast to the "Realm of Light" vision of the afterlife emerging from NDE research.

The void described by PLR subjects is not, however, entirely alien to NDE reports. In fact, it has a great deal in common with reports of the first brief moments of the NDE, in which subjects find themselves floating through a dark tunnel. During this brief transition phase, NDErs commonly report the very conditions described by PLR subjects - they feel little or no emotion, are very peaceful and calm, caught up in a state of deep quietude and stillness in what seems to be an empty black void.

But unlike the reports of PLR subjects, who describe floating in this empty void for extremely long periods of time, NDErs describe this as the briefest of transitions, lasting but moments before they find themselves transported to the emotionally- and visually- rich "Realm of Light".

In sharp contrast to the experiences of NDErs, the reports emerging from PLR research indicates that many people wait quietly and patiently alone in that empty void for years, even decades, before returning to life again in a new body, never catching a glimpse of the NDErs' "Realm of Light" or "Realm of Bewildered Spirits" at any point during their between-lives experience.

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Our question - "Is the traditional NDE afterlife scenario at odds with any other data?" seems to be answered. PLR research represents a sizable body of evidence that the NDE afterlife is not the ONLY type of afterlife that is being experienced. But what are we to do with this data? We find two seemingly opposite descriptions of the afterlife emerging from modern afterlife research: one is light, the other is dark, one is emotion-rich, the other is emotion-empty, one is filled with figures, the other is empty. These two models of the afterlife obviously have some sort of relationship to one another, but just what is that relationship?

NDE reports almost never describe subjects as spending any significant amount of time in the first, void-like phase of NDEs, while PLR reports all too commonly describe subjects spending vast amounts of time waiting quietly alone in this empty realm. One could postulate that the time spent in this realm varies tremendously, but that would still not explain why one set of research - the NDE - is polarized far more towards the "Realm of Light" as the predominant afterlife experience, while another set of research - the PLR - is similarly polarized towards the "Dark Void" as the predominant afterlife experience.

Another, more telling question awaits. Why does the PLR's "Dark Void" experience seem to be exactly what a conscious half of the mind would experience if it was separated from the unconscious, and the NDE's "Realm of Light" (or the "Realm of Bewildered Spirits") experience seem to be exactly what an unconscious half of the mind would experience if it was separated from the conscious mind after death? Why, in other words, are these two versions of the afterlife so polarized towards one or the other of the two halves of the psyche?

Can anyone seriously suggest that this apparent relationship is mere coincidence?

The division of the two halves of the psyche, such as that postulated by the ancient Binary Soul Doctrine, would seem to explain these questions. To my knowledge, no other theory has ever even been presented, besides the Binary Soul Doctrine, that would account for these mysteries.