The Labyrinth Begins Here

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

—Sir Rabindranath Tagore

Journey with me through the universe of the mind, into deeper realms of internaland external environments, where states of consciousness play out like overleafsupon the backdrop of personality and place—who we think we are and where wethink we live.

Few ever question these deeper realms, much less bother to investigate them. Wedo, and that's what this book is about.

The ancient Hindu parable of "The Five Blind Men and The Elephant" best definesthe territory we are about to tackle: the span that exists between perceptionand truth, between what seems real and what is real, between life's many puzzlesand how they interconnect and interweave.

We tackle this territory for one reason, to search for what neither perceptionnor truth can supply—perspective—the perspective to understand why existenceexists and why we are who we are. And we do this, attempt to describe what isthought to be indescribable, in a spirit of high adventure.

To begin our journey, we will explore shifts in the awareness of reality, amongthem future memory—a peculiar phenomenon that challenges our understanding ofsequence. Like the old riddle "Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?" wewill question the necessity of one event to always follow on the heels ofanother. In part two, we will grapple with the inner workings of consciousnessand especially how that relates to creation itself, the universe, planets,souls, and the concept of deity. This will enable us to see how time and spacecan be but mere illusions in a grander scheme of life after life. Finally, inthe last section, we will step beyond notions of real versus unreal to confrontthe truth that undergirds existence itself.

A common thread interweaves our journey—what the ability to remember the futurereveals about brain development.

A common admonition fuels our passage—know thyself, for knowledge without wisdomcan distort and deceive.

A common desire ever directs us toward our goal—the reawakening of wonderment.

As we embark upon this, the journey of a lifetime, consider first the followingobservations summarized from various studies conducted over the years on earlychildhood development.

Children prelive the future on a regular basis. By the age of four, the averageyoungster spends more time in the future than in the present. The temporal lobesof the brain develop during this period, enabling the child to project ahead andrehearse in advance whatever might someday be expected of him or her. Childrenplay with futuristic possibilities and potential outcomes as a way of "gettingready." A child's preoccupation with the future is healthy. It is a naturalcomponent of growth, a desirable state of affairs ensuring that both brainstructure and brain capacity meet the requirements of an emerging consciousness.

What if adults do the same thing as children once their brains shift after atransformational event such as a near-death episode, a shamanic vision quest, akundalini breakthrough into spiritual enlightenment, a religious conversion, orbecause of head trauma or being hit by lightning?

What if the adult ability to prelive the future is actually a reliable signalthat temporal lobes are expanding—so an increase in brain structure and braincapacity can be accommodated, preparatory to accessing enlargements ofconsciousness?

It is known that people who experience major spiritual transformations becomemore childlike afterward, in the sense that they often glow with a newfoundinnocence plus a desire to relearn and redefine life. Most of them possesslevels of curiosity and intelligence greater than before, and are seldomaffected by limitations from former attitudes and beliefs. Able to easily slipin and out of stages of behavior development once thought the exclusive domainof youngsters, such experiencers appear to "grow up" all over again.

During the twenty-plus years I spoke with or interviewed thousands of near-deathsurvivors and their families and friends, I noted that the ability to "remember"the future was quite typical of the aftereffects. Most experiencers displayedthe trait. Yet I also observed this same characteristic with people who hadnever undergone a transformational event of any kind. This so surprised me thatI sought out these "other" people.

What I found challenges how brain development is viewed and how "real versusunreal" is determined. Indicated as well is the distinct possibility that eachand every one of us may be able to transcend our daily fare and quite literallylive the future before it occurs. (Don't confuse what I am saying here with whatsome near-death researchers term "flash forwards." What I have observed andexperienced myself is far more complex and dynamic than that, physically real tothe individual involved and lived in minute and verifiable detail.)

It may strike you as odd the way I've decided to arrange this book and divulgemy findings, yet what follows is the only viable framework I could constructthat can encompass the enormity of the information we need to cover while at thesame time providing us both with a fun trip.

Yes, I turned this book into a labyrinth, one you can traverse via the writtenword. Throughout its pages, I intend to tease you with a labyrinth of subjectiveand objective stories and facts so that the awesome wonder of what lies beyondworlds internal and external to us can emerge.

What do I mean by a labyrinth?

According to the dictionary a labyrinth is a devious arrangement of passages andpathways that form the pattern of a maze. No ordinary maze, admittedly, but onewith a single way in and out, encircling as it enfolds back upon itself, againand again, in steady progression toward a central core.

According to tradition, however, walking, running, or dancing one's way througha labyrinth invokes a sense of healing and balance in the participant—order outof chaos, if you will. That's because a labyrinth is designed to stimulate theexpansion of a higher form of consciousness. A typical maze is meant to confuse;but a labyrinth, with spirals that mimic the convolutions of the brain, leadsone into...