Gregory Shushan, Ph.D. author of Near-Death Experience in Indigenous Religions and Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations.
On November 26, 2019, Fahrusha welcomed Dr. Gregory Shushan to “Shattered Reality Podcast”. He is an expert on the subject of NDEs (Near-Death Experiences) over time and cultures. He is the author of two books, Near-Death Experience in Indigenous Religions and Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations. You can find out more about Dr. Shushan’s work at: https://www.gregoryshushan.com/
Fahrusha has been dismayed over the narrow view of near-death experiences which are held by certain religious groups. In speaking with Dr. Shushan she hoped to uncover what features of NDEs are common over cultures and over time, thinking perhaps there could be some ecumenical agreement. Dr. Shushan rose to the occasion explaining how although there are cultural differences, often experiencers return to life having been healed, with new abilities, or bringing comfort to their communities.
At the end of the podcast, Fahrusha briefly shared an orb experience from listener Jaime and also one of her own orb experiences. Listeners are invited to share their experiences by sending a comment or emailing Fahrusha at fahrusha@fahrusha.com.
Fahrusha was happy to welcome Dr. James McClenon to Shattered Reality Podcast for the second time to discuss the different way that a sociologist researches paranormal and anomalous experiences. He was the guest on an earlier show in which he discusses his excellent book The Entity Letters, A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery.
We covered a variety of topics from healing to shamanism to UFOs to out of body experiences and extrasensory perception but with a focus on the near death experience (NDE), all from the perspective of sociology. McClenon worked by collecting the extraordinary experiences of individuals by distributing questionaires. He had his students distribute questionaires as well. At first most of the answers came from a rural area in North Carolina where he taught. Later he distributed questionaires from a teaching cruise ship that sailed around the world making stops at a variety of locations. The conclusions he came to were from a different point of view than those of parapsychologists, philosophers or physicists. It was very refreshing to look at these subjects from a differing perspective. Most surprising, perhaps, is his assertion that in other cultures individuals don’t necessarily remember their near death experiences as paradigm changing events that were hyper-real. As a person who has had transcendent experiences but not an NDE, I (Fahrusha) cannot judge this, but it seems counter to other research.
Much of the material we covered on this episode can be found in Dr. McClenon’s book Wondrous Healing.
Wondrous Healing by Dr. James McClenon
Several listeners have expressed interest in participating in our “Listeners’ Corner”. If you would like to relate your paranormal or anomalous experience on “Shattered Reality Podcast”, please email me at fahrusha@fahrusha.com. You can write down your experience and we can read it for you on the show, or you can come on the show and speak it yourself. We also encourage comments.
Fahrusha and Kate Valentine were happy to welcome Rich Martini, who both wrote the book FlipSide and made the film “FlipSide”, which examine the phenomena of life between lives, wherein people visit a spiritual realm between physical lives to evaluate the past life and plan the next life. The person whose work this film and book concentrates on is the late hypnotherapist Dr. Michael Newton, who passed away in September 2016.
The late Dr. Michael Newton, hypnotherapist and author of a number of books on the “life between lives” phenomena.
In the years since his making the film “FlipSide” Rich Martini has branched out into after-death communication. However for this podcast he demonstrated with Fahrusha how the life between lives process might work. This demonstration was a total departure from our usual programming. Rich is extremely enthusiastic and upbeat. Fahrusha verifies that she had seen what might amount to her “Council” in a stadium-like setting on several deep meditations at the Monroe Institute and elsewhere. We at SRP would like to know what our listeners think about the process that Rich Martini took Fahrusha through. She did exactly what he told her at the beginning and said the first thing that came into her mind. Does this constitute proof? Our jury is out. We would like to know your opinion on this.
Fahrusha found out about Life Between Lives therapy through a client who was quite taken with it. Several years ago she read one of his books and listened to an audio from the Michael Newton Institute and she thought the idea was fascinating but frightening. She didn’t want to die and have to go to school in the afterlife. She didn’t want to come back to play parts on Earth. Having studied the works of Robert Monroe rather thoroughly, she worried that if she might be caught in what Monroe called “the belief system territories”. That references the idea that one goes to the place that one believes in after death.
In addition to FlipSide, Rich Martini’s books include It’s A Wonderful Afterlife Volumes I and II, and Hacking the Afterlife.
We were thrilled that Rich Martini came on our podcast to explain the whole process to us and as Kate Valentine opines “We are all dying to find out.” 😉
Kate Valentine and Fahrusha welcome Dr. Penny Sartori, author of The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences. Dr. Sartori has been trained as a nurse and worked in the Intensive Therapy Unit at hospitals in Wales, UK for twenty years. During her time as a nurse she was fascinated by the death-bed experiences of patients and the near death experiences that some had. She was so intensely interested that she earned a Ph.D. in Near Death Studies. She teaches two original courses at Swansea University on the treatment of ITU patients and their spirituality.
In addition, Dr. Sartori has collected many accounts from people who have divulged their near death experiences to her. The experiences are varied but many have some attributes which are very similar. She is currently working on another book with a near death experiencer named Kelly Walsh about the transformative aspect of NDEs around the world. She has found that those patients who have had a positive near death experience are no longer afraid to die.
In this episode’s Listener Segment, Despina, added a miraculous experience she had on a Greek Island where she made a pilgrimage to the church of a local saint. She walked thirty miles in one day and had a mystical adventure.
P.M.H. Atwater near-death researcher and experiencer and prolific author.
Near-death researcher and experiencer P.M.H. Atwater explains the ins and outs of the near death experience to Kate and Fahrusha. What are the aftereffects of the experience? What different types of experiences are there? Some people go for prolonged periods without breathing but suffer no brain damage. Often experiencers report seeing religious figures from a religion other than their own. Unpleasant experiences (hellish) are reported but are not necessarily considered “bad” but rather instructive or helpful.
P.M.H. Atwater is the author of a number of excellent books. The book on which we focused in this episode was: Near-Death Experiences, The Rest of the Story, however she is a prolific author, with many other worthwhile titles to her credit.
We here at “Shattered Reality Podcast” welcome your feedback and suggestions asd well as your accounts of paranormal experience
On June 23, 2015, Alex Tsakiris, host of Skeptiko podcast, joined Kate Valentine and Fahrusha to discuss his views about a host of paranormal and related subjects, including conspiracies, remote viewing, scientism, UFOs, mainstream “news”, ethnopharmacology, and debunkers. We chose having Alex on the show because of the valuable work he has done by having debunkers on his show and taking them on with intelligence and grace, while demolishing their faulty positions forcefully and with aplomb. We may not agree with everything he proposes but we are eternally grateful for his doing some very heavy lifting for all legitimate anomalous researchers. His crusade against the antiquated and disproven paradigms of the mechanistic and materialistic worldview is truly a valuable contribution to the very paradigm shifting we espouse on “Shattered Reality Podcast”. It is a very lively discussion we think you will enjoy.
Shattered Reality! 