September 2013
by Athanasios Komianos
When I was in Estonia, I received a letter from an American client in which she reported feeling wonderful after a session we conducted last year, and that her friend had asked her: “Jane, have you had a near-death experience?” She replied: “I have had a near-death experience!” Do you know why she thinks this way? Because she went through a painful death and then through an afterlife, and it seems that this is what matters.
On August 30, I will be giving a lecture at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in Arlington, Virginia. The presentation is titled: Assessing the Benefits of an NDE Without Having One.
You all know what happens to people when they experience an NDE. They are transformed. Their lives change radically because they realize that physical death is not the end. This particular experience acts as a catalyst for a shift in life perspective.
Furthermore, you are all familiar with the common features of NDEs: out-of-body experiences, tunnels, guides, life review, judges, a sense of universal love, a boundary that cannot be crossed, and so on. You also know that NDEs are unique—no two are alike—and not all of the aforementioned features appear in every NDE. You should also be aware that negative, terrifying NDEs exist, which also profoundly impact those who experience them. But the essence of it, I repeat, is that after such an experience, people gain a firm certainty that death is nothing more than a transition.
Does this remind you of anything? Haven’t all of you, as regression therapists, encountered similar scenes during your clients’ therapy sessions? What is the most striking part of a past-life regression? For me, it is the death scene. The death scene seen through the physical body of a past personality, the death scene viewed from above, the death scene seen through the grief of loved ones, and so on.
Thus, the death scene experienced during a session is the most momentous event that can occur for a person during a PLR session. Why is that? Because it shifts life perspective, making one realize that not everything must be resolved in this lifetime, that there will be another chance (and another, and another).
But what do the ancient mysteries have to do with our topic? They are deeply relevant. The ancient mysteries—especially those practiced in Ancient Greece, particularly in the city of Eleusis—are of utmost significance. Do you think the miracle of the Golden Age in Athens was merely a historical coincidence? Certainly not. On the contrary, it occurred precisely because all the leading figures of ancient public life underwent initiation in these Mysteries.
If anything from this millennia-old tradition needs to be preserved, it is not the Parthenon, not the grand temples, nor the comedies or tragedies. To truly understand the essence of the ancient Greek tradition, one should study the process of incubation and dream healing on one hand, and immerse oneself in the Eleusinian Mysteries on the other. For these ancient people, literacy regarding the afterlife was a necessary condition for the transition from this life to the next. The Mysteries were exactly this—they represented a profound, lengthy, and transformative “practical workshop” for studying the depths of the human mind and the nature of death.
As Plato said, the ultimate purpose of the Mysteries was to return us to the principles from which we originated, to the perfect enjoyment of spiritual good. “Thus, by participating in this rite, the Greeks essentially underwent an initiation process that was unique and life-transforming, and that allowed them to glimpse the divine. First, they had to confront their own fears and actions, then recognize the shadow aspects that had to be worked through before anyone could even think of looking toward the light.”
This is why I consider the whole trend of “angel therapy” so ineffective: it refuses to touch the dark side of things. As Hans TenDam wonderfully said, “One must first go down before going up.”
I believe that the experience closest to the ancient mysteries is an NDE or a past-life regression. Since NDEs cannot be obtained on demand—and I imagine that would be far too risky—I suggest that we all whisper to our friends, so that they whisper to their friends, that they know a very good regression therapist in their area who, for a minimal fee (which is truly minimal given how effective it is), can transform their lives through a session.
P.S. It is time you learned that my name means A-Thanatos, that is, Immortal. My name reminds me that we—like all of you reading this—are immortal.
“For among the many beautiful and truly divine institutions that your Athens created and introduced into human life, none, in my opinion, is better than these Mysteries. For through them we emerged from barbarous and savage ways of life, gained education, and were refined to the state of civilization; and as the rites are called “initiations,” so, in truth, we learned therein the beginning of life and acquired the ability not only to live happily but also to die with greater hope.”
—Cicero, Laws II, xiv, 36
