600. Anita Moorjani

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Rick Archer

Anita Moorjani is the New York Times bestselling author of What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth and Dying To Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing. A beloved international speaker, she lives in the United States with her husband, Danny, and has dedicated her life to empowering the minds and hearts of people with her story of courage and transformation. Anita was born in Singapore to Indian parents and grew up in Hong Kong speaking English, Cantonese, and an Indian dialect simultaneously. Prior to her near-death experience, she worked in the corporate world.

Anita’s website
Anita’s latest book: Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World
Audio CD: Deep Meditation for Healing
Previous BatGap interview with Anita.

Some of the points discussed in this conversation:

A review of Anita’s near-death experience: “It felt like love was coming from the whole universe, I was bathed in it”.
How it changed her life, physically and spiritually, and continues to do so.
A brief discussion of her 2^nd book, “What if This is heaven?” – how to create heaven on earth.
Focusing on what you want, and not on fear.
Anita’s new book, “Sensitive is the New Strong”.
The spectrum from sociopathy to empathy.
Empaths can become doormats, feeling and absorbing others’ pain and not differentiating it from their own; always giving but struggling to receive.
The people society regards as powerful are often the most aggressive and insensitive. Sensitive people shy away from power, but if the world were run by empaths we would heal hunger in a minute. We can’t have empathic leaders without a grassroots shift in collective consciousness.
Learning to follow your inner guidance and not give away your power.
Sensitivity is seen as weakness and should be seen as strength.
Empathy and spiritual development should be major components of education.
How to balance strength with sensitivity.
How to give without being depleted.
The importance of taking time for practice, to recharge.
How to know if one is an empath.
Empaths struggle until they learn that their 6^th sense is a gift.
Can non-empaths become empaths?
Spiritual awakening does not make one an empath.
Are empaths more vulnerable to disease?
Empaths may be more amenable to alternative medicine than others.
Spiritual development is a marathon, not a sprint.
Empath’s inability to say ‘no’ creates problems for them.
Anita’s answer to a woman who lost her 14-year-old son to leukemia a year ago.
Integrating spiritually transcendent experiences into our earthly life once we “return.”
Dealing with skeptics and debunkers.
Your body is more powerful than you have been led to believe. Having a will to live. Create a life that you love.
Sensitive people often have repressed egos. If spiritual teachers tell them ego is bad, they may repress even more.
Ground yourself. Entrain with the earth’s cleansing energies.
Don’t worry about creating boundaries. Expand your energy and you won’t need them.
We are all interconnected. We are all one consciousness.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded June 3, 2021.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

595. Eben Alexander and Karen Newell

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Rick Archer

Academic neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander III, whose career includes decades as a physician and associate professor at Harvard Medical School and revered teaching hospitals, was once staunchly committed to the materialist world view — the belief that the physical world is all that exists. His scientific belief system was altered by a 2008 transcendental near-death experience (NDE) in which a bacterial infection severely damaged his brain as he fell into a week-long coma during which he experienced an odyssey into another realm. Despite a bleak medical prognosis, Dr. Alexander awoke to make an inexplicable return to full health. He has since become a pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife, and Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness.

Website: ebenalexander.com

More detailed bio.

Karen Newell is an author and specialist in personal development with a diverse body of work that rests upon the foundation of heart-centered consciousness. As an innovator in the emerging field of brainwave entrainment audio meditation, Karen empowers others in their journeys of self-discovery by demonstrating how to connect to inner guidance, achieve inspiration, improve wellness and develop intuition. She is co-founder of Sacred Acoustics, and co-author with Eben Alexander III, M.D. of Living in a Mindful Universe.

More detailed bio.

Website shared by Eben and Karen: innersanctumcenter.com

Twice-monthly webinars mentioned during the interview.

Some points discussed during this conversation:

Eben’s NDE and improbable recovery, including experience of a subterranean realm, the collapse of 4-dimensional reality, his guardian angel, and a “gateway valley” in which souls reside between lives.
The importance of music and sound. Binaural beats.
Experiencing a life review (how we impacted others) during NDEs has been reported for over 2,000 years.
Dealing with things now so they do not need to be handled during your life review.
The brain does not create consciousness. Our mental states create our physical reality.
Is the world about to undergo a “phase transition” to a “golden age”?
The alignment of science and spirituality – the afterlife and reincarnation studied seriously. Important because mainstream society trusts science. The work of Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker.
The brain as a filter.
The harmful ramifications of science not understanding consciousness as primary.
Materialists are entrenched because it’s hard to admit that one’s life’s work has been based upon a misunderstanding. They are going extinct.
Memory storage: in the brain or in the ‘cloud’?
Kindness, compassion, love, forgiveness – feminine qualities the world needs now.
The importance of discernment on the spiritual path.
How would a person choose their parents and other life events? Our perspective between lives is much broader and not ego-bound.
How do we know our life’s purpose and how to live it?
During sleep, we interact with subtle realms.
The veil shrouding humanity’s consciousness is thinning.
Do we reunite with pets on the other side?
Illness can be a learning experience for the soul.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded April 17, 2021.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

588. Bruce Greyson

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Rick Archer

Bruce Greyson, M.D., is the Chester F. Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences and Director Emeritus of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. He was one of the founders of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and for 27 years edited the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Dr. Greyson majored in psychology at Cornell University, received his medical degree from the SUNY Upstate Medical College, and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Virginia. He practiced and taught psychiatry at the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut, where he was Clinical Chief of Psychiatry, before returning to the University of Virginia 25 years ago. Dr. Greyson’s research for the past four decades has focused on the aftereffects and implications of near-death experiences. He is co-editor of The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives, co-author of Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century, and author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond.