-Japanese version has been posted separately- 
-日本語版は「余は如何にしてミニマリストになりし乎 弐:臨死体験」のタイトルで
別個に掲載中です-


・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



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


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

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The top of Mt. Ugo-Asahi


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


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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)


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"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)


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


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


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