Continuing the discussion from the last piece on “assisted dying”, the assertion here is that genuine mystics lack all fear of death.

While others quake and quail at the mere mention of the “D” word, the mystic sails on towards its inevitable arrival with, as Hollywood might put it “a song in his heart”.

I must make the distinction though between death itself, which is easy, and the pain of dying, which might be considerable. We are none of us immune from that, although I believe mystics can rise above it in startling ways.

There are many explanations for pain in this context. The most persuasive is the Hindu idea of Karma, a pay-back for all our deliberate ghastliness in the present incarnation. I’m not sure I totally go along with that, preferring the Christian notion of redemption — although that might be self-deception. In the end only real experience will guide you to the truth.

The genuine mystic will receive at least two extraordinary experiences before being shunted off this mortal coil: the Divine Light experience (see my description here: The Comforter) which will change him (or her) forever and set him up for the next stage: Seeing into the nature of reality.

This is an out-of-body experience which walks him through the death process. Read an account of it here: The act of dying as a living experience

That then is the aim of the spiritual adept: to get both initiations before the end comes. Is there any more than that? It may be that he is charged with passing on this “good news” to those with ears to hear and eyes to see.

All this information is available in some splendid books out there, but I’m convinced they will only come into your consciousness if you are ready to understand them and, more to the point, ready to act upon them by receiving their message directly through spiritual experience.

If you turn away from this topic in fear (and many do) or with a snort of contempt, you are not ready yet.

Stick to Pythagoras’ Theorem.

John Evans

To be published: Mystology: A different way of looking at the world. Also a website, mystology.com

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It’s the topic of the moment thanks to a new Bill going through Parliament. I believe, however, there’s a lot of it going on now … silently.

The present block on this practice is that anyone doing the assisting is liable to be charged with murder.

The current legal and moral discussions refer to medical professionals administering the fatal dose. It’s not yet clear how this would (or will) be done and what administrative procedures would be written into the law.

When my mother was 80 and in hospital after suffering a number of devastating strokes, she could only speak in gobbledygook, but was otherwise aware. Knowing how much she was suffering, I told the excellent head nurse that we all wished it could be over, by whatever means it took. She just nodded.

After we returned from lunch, she led me aside and said that our mother had just peacefully passed away. I was never more grateful for anything in my life.

We don’t need a bureaucratic law, just simple compassion and understanding. I hope if ever I’m in the same situation, such a nurse or doctor will be on hand, whatever the law may say.

The professionals should not be hampered by ill-considered laws made by sometimes ignorant politicians or religious fanatics, often of the Christian kind.

There is also the opposite case. We in England had Harold Shipman, a British Doctor who killed more than two hundred of his patients for money.

There have been a handful of those, but I believe the evidence shows that people requesting this service, whether for themselves or others, are acting out of overwhelming compassion and need.

I know. I’ve been there.

John Evans

Coming soon to a bookseller near you: Practical Mysticism: A different way of looking at the world.

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We are back in business again and will be adding new material in a day or two.

I hope all our readers are having a stimulating summer.

John Evans

When I was six or seven I encountered death for the first time. I found my pet budgerigar stiff in the sawdust at the bottom of his cage.

I was both devastated and fascinated. I could see he was dead because something mysterious had left his body.

Later I called this, personage because it was what made him who he was. And now it had vanished. The aliveness was gone.

Much later I had the same experience when both my father and mother passed away.

My psychology professor refused to expand on the topic because, he said, it was a religious thing, not psychological.

I couldn’t see the difference. If personage doesn’t impinge on psychology what does? I think he was a little scared of death, as so many people are.

Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery I sought out the people who were equally fascinated by it. The first was a psychologist, the great Carl (C.G) Jung who led me into, first, mythology and then mysticism, all through his voluminous writings which have lasted well.

But I wanted more. I had read many mystical books in which some advanced souls had experienced “death in life”, that is to say mystical (spiritual) experiences, including out-of-body states.

Later I went through the gamut of such experiences myself, all within the context of a normal life. These were always given not self-induced, although years of reading and practice must have played a part. I think life will deliver what you ask for, if you make the right preparations.

All this has confirmed what has always been believed — better, known — by advanced souls and mystical adventurers: that death is not what it seems.

It is much more interesting than that.

John Evans

Coming soon to a bookseller near you: Practical Mysticism: A different way of looking at the world.

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Ed Miliband is in the thick of it again. His lacklustre showing in the local election campaign is raising more than eyebrows in Labour ranks.

We have been treated to pictures of him eating a bacon sarnie, which apparently was set up to show what a down-to-earth chap he is, not at all like those toffee-nosed Tories of Labour’s imagination. The shots portray him as a greedy guzzler who can’t even eat without putting his foot in it.

Whenever his name arises now, those images will be imprinted in voters’ minds.

Is there any hope for the lad?

John Evans

… who is the author of The Eternal Quest for Immortality: Is it staring you in the face? Available from Amazon and all good booksellers.

Coming soon: Practical Mysticism: A different way of looking at the world.

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