・Near-Death - Resurrection Experiences of my Own

Writing, polishing, editing and sharing one's thoughts is so important.

Long lost memories, musings and emotions that one could not have expressed begin to take shape...

Near-death experiences also fall into this box. Looking back, there have been so many of them...

1. Extreme physical and psychological trauma I have gone through from my 10 years of fighting professionally in Mixed Martial Arts. Each MMA bout is a ritual of a dual, blackout, and resurrection. My run coincidentally commenced and concluded both with knockout losses...

2. Two surgeries under general anaesthesia. As the dim light of consciousness receded into the darkness, I could not help but pray to come back into the light of this world...

3. Deadly solo stream climbing to the top of Mt. Ugo-Asahi.

A total novice with no knowledge, skills, GPS device, nor any proper kit for Sawanobori (mountain stream climbing) paid his price - two failed attempts and eventual success in stepping on the mountain top through the maze of hundreds of streams. Having no trail whatsoever leading up to the top, the only access was through its web of streams that emerge from it. Despite carrying a backpack weighing over 20kg, occasionally swimming up an icy gorge, avoiding death by falling off countless vertical cliffs and waterfalls by the skin of my teeth and being stunned by a humongous black bear that fell from a tree in front of my face, I managed to reach the peak. As night fell, I was able to find a space to pitch my tent, just beside a waterfall on one of the streams, which I hoped would lead back to where I had started. Desperately trying to distract myself from coldness and anxiety by drinking Sake and eating some grilled char I caught at the waterfall, I barely slept trembling in my sleeping bag. In this extremely isolated corner of the world, if I was lucky there might be a climber or two who dare walk past, once every year or two at most, to find the remains of my body...

Next morning, with near bare feet covered with bruises and blood clots as both soles on my boots had peeled off, I ran 9 hours non-stop down the stream taking no notice of liquid draining out of every orifice (tears, runny nose, drooling and having my pants wet...), with nothing else but the hope of returning home alive. I collapsed when I finally got into my car and slept overnight there. Due to shingles around the chest and fever from the prolonged extreme mental and physical trauma, I was forced to my sick bed for a couple of days.

4. Deadly solo stream climbing to the top of Mt. Eburisashi. The itinerary was three days/ two nights along the stream leading up to the summit. The route I took was through a valley dotted with tunnels of ice and snow, the roofs of which kept dripping down on me with icy drops of melted snow under the scorching mid-summer sun. The last day was when I found myself lost. In horror and cloudy state of consciousness due to dehydration in the extreme heat, I fell off the cliff I was climbing on... luckily I was caught in the branches of a tree. Extremely terrified and delirious, I was paralyzed for a while with my head facing down to the bottom of the valley. Having managed to pull myself together, I decided to leave my 20kg plus backpack behind and climbed up the cliff. On the ridge of the screen-like, verticle mountain, I could see the car park where I started across the river running alongside the other side of the mountain. Racking up my last strength, I climbed down to the river, swam across to get to my car. I was engulfed with deep joy and gratefulness for absolutely any and everything that kept me alive...

5. Seven days spent with the shaman in Peruvian Amazon.

Deep into the tropical jungle, I stayed at a shack with Shipibo shaman. The unforgettable "realm" I witnessed under the guidance of them...

6. Sendai Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima...

I was in my native Tohoku region in Japan on that day. For five years since then, I engaged in the re-construction of the region. Countless visits to the affected areas, including the immediate area around the three nuclear power plants. Ruins and monuments for the dead were my everyday reality...

Every single episode shared the same themes in the aftermath;

 Wholehearted joy and gratitude for everything that sustains my life.

  Absolute realization/confirmation of the existence of "the other side" that can only be experienced by the sense(s) beyond the five senses

 Alteration to the outlook on life... alleviation of material desires and increased need for the quest into consciousness and spiritual prosperity.

・Useful Fiction for Survival

Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University, who is the founder of the centre of psychedelics and neuroscience at the institution, was on Sam Harris's podcast. According to the guest, this reality as we perceived through the five senses and the concept of "time" are nothing but "useful fiction" in order for us to achieve the survival of the fittest. In the theory of evolution, the fittest are not necessarily the brightest or the ones who excel at perceiving the reality most clearly and holistically, but those who are rather blind to some aspects of it. These could be obstacles to or distractions from their survival. Good examples are earthworms, rats and cockroaches, their senses are extremely limited, nevertheless, they are the most prosperous species on the planet.

We assume a book should be read from page 1 to the last, while in fact, page 123 already co-exists with the first in the first place. After all, "time" could be just as man-made a fiction as that...

The melting point of the border of each of the five senses and object/subject, and the distortion of time/space that is shared by those who have had psychedelic trips, alien abductions(so they claim) and extreme trauma such as a near-death experience - have some resonance with experiences under a deeply meditative state. And encounters with "entity" - usually an alien or insect-like thing - in my case, I was inside of and simultaneously a part of pulsating fibres of muscle - and I saw in front of me one of the throbbing pieces that changed its colour from reddish-brown to gold back and forth, which was ever-transforming hornet-like entity. The ultimate reality: I with all certainty "knew" the ever pulsating and metamorphosising I and it were one and the same, and I was the one who saw at the same time as being seen. There was "eternity" that could be perceived with highly sensitised senses. Ultimate concentration of time/space and consciousness that enabled me to experience a million years in a mere couple of earthly minutes. Absolute solitude and sense of unity as one without an inch of contradiction was filled in "there".

Considering all the above, what Dr Griffiths says rings true. Among eminent figures in the fields of neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology and philosophy - such as Dr Griffiths, Dr Strassman (his DMT research project was the first U.S. government-funded one, since the outlaw of psychedelic substances ), Terrance Mckenna, Sam Harris etc. - suggest the possibility of the existence of "(an)other" reality(-ies) - that is, those "visions" seen under psychedelic trips cannot just be concluded as a mere "illusion", there might be (an)other reality(-ties) exists, where human beings can only perceive on the frequencies which psychedelics can tune into.

Almost all those who experienced those trips have seen those "visions", which felt far more "real" than reality.

If interested, I would recommend watching Griffiths's talk on TED and episode 177 on Making Sense Podcast where he made his guest appearance.

I have not had a chance to read his latest book, which I look forward to doing.

For your referrence；

Sam Harris "Making Sense Podcast", "Waking Up App"

Dr Roland Griffiths

Dr Rick Strassman "DMT: the Spiritual Molecule", "DMT and the Soul of Prophecy"

Dr Terrance & Dennis Makkena

Dr Stanislav Grof

Climbing up the ladder of death... (Photo taken by the author at Mandano stream, Waga Mountains, Akita and Iwate, Japan)

On the ridge...heading towards the heart of the trailless mountains...(Waga Mountains)

The top of Mt. Ugo-Asahi

Solitary march towards the peak of Mt. Eburisashi, Niigata, Japan.

Drip, drip... Icy drips from the ceiling of snow under the burning, mid-summer sun. (A valley under the snow on Mt. Eburisashi, Niigata, Japan)

"I can see the light! I may manage to get myself out of the cave of snow!" (A valley under the snow on Mt. Eburisashi, Niigata, Japan)

Out to "the other side" (Nekko Settlement, Ani, Akita, Japan)

Ever pulsating, metamorphosising "entity". Who are you? (Giant Japanese Hornet. Sendai, Japan.)

The bank where lotus flowers flourish - is this "this side" or "the other side"? (Epping Forest, London/Essex)

・Prologue 

The title is a parody of a well-known autobiography of a Japanese author.

Although I am still far from being liberated from attachments to random thoughts, emotions or sentimental values, I have realised that my materialistic desires have lessened over the years. I have found myself becoming a minimalist.

Looking back to my younger self, I was all about obsessions - both to emotions and material possessions: patriotism, attachments to my hometown, family, egocentrism, and my love of collecting things etc...

・A Major Transformation

...in my lifestyle was brought about by the emergence of the internet. My first computer opened the door to a world, where I could not only store information but share almost an unlimited volume with others in the form of internal storage to cloud drive, blog and SNS. This freed up not only my bookshelves but spirit on a large scale.

In my life, I have changed dwelling more than 20 times - another city, another place, and another human soul. It was hard to keep the intensity level of obsession high for anything. Subconsciously, I developed characteristics such as:

1. keeping my belongings to a minimum

2. when purchasing household appliances, furniture and items of necessity, I have got to chose something as cheap and easy to dispose of as possible.

3. upon moving, get rid of as many possessions as I can.

4. Avoiding getting attached to a land, accommodation and human relationships

・Atheism and Science - My Initiation to Western Philosophy

It was no mystery for a person like myself to tune into the frequency which Buddhism, Vipassana meditation or minimalism render.

As funny as it may sound, somewhat oxymoronic even,

in my case, Eastern philosophy and shamanism were introduced to me by Western people.

Above all, these five people have changed my worldview in a big way.

George Carlin(comedian)

Ricky Gervais (comedian)

Joe Rogan(comedian and podcast host)

Sam Harris(neuroscientist, philosopher and podcast host)

Richard Dawkins(evolutionary biologist and ethologist)

The level of my indulgence to them was, 

Like with these comedians, I have watched and listened to almost all episodes of their podcasts. At one point, almost able to recite most of the main lines on all of their comedy albums. I have listened to pretty much all episodes of their podcasts and almost every debate or lecture given by those academics, that had been uploaded on youtube.

・Buddhism

Seemingly paradoxically, it was atheism and a scientific worldview that had freed my mind and opened me up to Eastern philosophy and shamanism.

Personally, I could detect no contradiction in this transition - it is nothing but a scientific approach to observing everything without prejudice and superstitious beliefs - what you see in meditation sessions or psychedelic trips are not exceptions.

Theravada Buddhism is practised by the majority of people in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and the surrounding area. In Japan, and I presume East Asia it used to be patronizingly called "Small/Deficient Vehicle Buddhism", contrary to their "Great Vehicle Buddhism." It would not be an injustice if I said, this is the cream of the original teaching of Buddhism. It is the concept of Enlightenment(Satori in Japanese - To enter Nirvana - total liberation from every obsession) and the meditation techniques, by which one can learn and use to achieve Enlightenment. Theravada Buddhism is widely regarded as a religion. However, Alubomulle Sumanasara, one of the elders and leaders of the school, explicitly describes the practice as follows: "Buddhism is not a religion but science of consciousness, by way of clearly observing it. Therefore, anyone of any creed can practice it".

Religion exists only on the premise that its deity(ies) and mythology(ies) remain absolutely unquestioned. It would collapse if they were to allow an inch of doubt in their existence.

Buddhism, undoubtedly,  has its religious or superstitious aspects, which I have no belief in. Naturally, I am not interested in the deification of mortal Buddha - even whether he physically existed or not has never been a big issue to me. "The teachings of Buddha" could be created by himself, or it could be the crystallization of the collective wisdom of numerous meditaters. What matters is that human beings have been left with this great gift from our ancestors - profound insights into our consciousness and elaborate techniques to observe and study it. This is known as "Meditation" and "Buddhism".

Therefore, being an atheist, practising Buddhism has never bothered me as contradictory. To be more accurate, mine is on the side of agnosticism rather than atheism.

I  do not see any reasons to accept all those deities and mythologies around them at face value, neither Testament, Old or New; Quran nor Nihon Shoki (the Japanese founding mythology).

On the other side of the coin, certain phenomena that are perceived by many who are experiencing mysterious or religious episodes in psychedelic trips, deeply meditative state or under extreme stress, do exist. Isn’t it purely scientific attitude to observe those phenomena intently without prejudice…and try to find a truth out of them?

Going back to the topic of Buddhism, in East Asia, for example in my native Japan, the main concept of the original Buddhism: Moksha or liberation from all the worldly attachments and the practice of meditation, have been largely neglected.  Buddhism has become blended into indigenous religions, superstitions and ancestor worship. Yes, Japan has Zen and Mikyo. However,  I must say neither of them is sufficient as a philosophy nor method of meditation.  The former emphasizes the idea of becoming Mu or 'state of void or nothingness', to the point that itself turns into an obsession. It is their custom for patrolling monks to hit each meditator with a slapstick at a retreat, under the assumption that they are being entertained by 'undesirable thoughts' in their heads. Ironically, nothing could be further from Moksha than this obsession for nothingness. Mikyo has its own magical rites which on the surface look like meditation. Conversely, they are based on their own mythical worldview, which again contradicts the principle of meditation practice which is a pure observation.

Contrary to all the above, Vipassana meditation, in Theravada tradition, also known as mindfulness meditation in the West, focuses solely on observation of consciousness.

The object of this observation method can be anything from breath, any sensation that is registered by each of our five senses to thoughts and emotions that come and go in the field of consciousness; paying attention to every detail, without any judging suppression or exception from the moment it emerges until it fades away. This "ultra-sensitivity camera" only captures each moment live - there is no "rewind" nor "forward" on its remote control. It simply keeps observing "now" through the lens of consciousness.

From the viewpoint of ultimate liberation (Moksha -Satori liberation from all the worldly attachments, thoughts and emotions), the border between subjects - "who" sees - starts to melt away into " the act(or the state) of seeing" itself. Also, it starts to feel like the subject "who sees" and the object "which is being seen" are one and the same - a realm beyond words.

I myself have experienced the feeling that I was the beholder at the same time as the one being observed - to be more accurate, this strange, extremely vivid sight inseparable with the sense of touch, which was almost sensual. With extreme concentration and with otherworldly senses, it felt like I had seen a million years passing by within a matter of five earthly minutes.

This theme of melting points for each border between object - object, subject - subject and object-subject; between each worldly sense and another, seems to share features with those realms such as  'collective subconscious' coined by Carl Jung. Also, the 'visions' that people who are undergoing their near-death experience, psychedelic trips, and mystical experiences(for example, prophecy, spiritual encounters,  alien abductions etc. )

Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof of Czechoslovakia, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, highlighted the similarities between the experiences and aftereffects of an LSD trip and near-death experience. Likewise, Professor Rick Strassman of the University of New Mexico argues that there are shared features of a DMT trip, near-death experience and prophecy. His book 'DMT: Spiritual Molecule' is the cream of his works. Along with the studies by Grof, it is full of deep insight. I would recommend it to every humble student of consciousness.

・Counter Culture and Psychedelics, Buddhism and Shamanism

The counter culture of the 1960s, no doubt played the biggest role in the introduction and popularization of Buddhism into the West.  The distortion of western civilization ｰ which somewhat derives from imperialism, white supremacy and Abrahamic religions themselves ｰ had culminated in the Cold War and Vietnam War, through two world wars. Destruction of old values and the creation of new through a liberation of the soul were desperately called for by the youth in this era. Preceding this decade, psychedelics like MDMA and LSD had been discovered and successfully synthesized for mass production. It is no surprise that the new adventurous generation craved for a spiritual journey to a brand new world of consciousness: by way of meditation, Eastern philosophy, Buddhism and psychedelics, as the world desperately needed a drastic change of (spiritual) value.

The truth, which often goes untold, is one is more or less guaranteed to experience an "alternate state of consciousness" during a psychedelic trip, whereas, other methods in which these chemical compounds are not involved, will not assure one to get "there". Whether they admit it or not, many of those senior leaders of Buddism in the West who experienced "there" during their psychedelic trips in their youth have attempted to recreate the state through the practice of Buddhism and meditation.

On the other hand, psychedelics got out of hand - abuse of these substances by the ignorant masses lead to social unrest, which peaked in a series of psychotic violence and murder cases by the likes of the Manson Family and Hell's Angels. The response to the trend by (Western) society and its leaders was short-sighted and extreme - an outright ban on all psychedelics including their uses for any research purpose in any academic institution in the U.S.

Psychedelics had been successfully utilized in treatments. Experiments for the treatment of psychiatric trauma, alcoholism and drug addiction have proven effective.

In South American tradition,  Shaman facilitate tea ceremonies with Ayahuasca - a beverage brewed from the psychoactive substance DMT contained in the "sacred plant" called Chacruna. Those who, in their quest into deeper layers of the consciousness, often with some kind of psychological trauma, travel to "the other side" on the vehicle of the tea. Then they share their experiences with their shaman, who themselves drink the beverage so they can offer interpretations and advice of the visions participants have.

Similar practices exist in Central America with San. Pedro cactus or psilocybin-containing mushrooms. These traditions, dating back to the pre-historical era, have been cherished dearly to the present day. In recent decades, they have gained worldwide popularity with a mass increase of participants from the West.

Judging by all these above, I would say the tradition of the original Buddhism and Vipassana meditation have been passed on in a purer, more orthodox way on a larger scale in the West, rather than in the Far East, let alone Shamanism...

All things considered, my spiritual journey through time and space, crisscrossing the East and West, might have been an inevitable one from the beginning.

"Dreaming Nirvana" (Photo taken by the author at Mt. Imakuma, Yamagata, Japan)