Kurt Leland, "The Unanswered Question"

[Korpo]

"Death, Near-Death and the Afterlife" is the topic, and I'm currently reading it. There is a pattern to this book - even and odd chapters carry different content. Odd chapters describe research, cross-cultural comparisons, are more theoretical in nature. Even chapters describe Kurt's "adventures in consciousness", his explorations of the Afterlife.

Kurt's own adventures are - as always - described clearly, lucidly, well-written. They always inspire me and are the main attraction in this book to me. For an example how Kurt writes you can look here on AD (http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?p=102589#p102589) or "Search Inside" the books on Amazon. I like authors in general that have explicit long adventures fully fleshed out in their books, and Kurt is in one line here with Robert Monroe or Bruce Moen.

The odd chapters started out boring, I must admit. I'm not very interested what skeptics think or what science has to say (or not to say) about projection or the NDE itself. Kurt sounds a bit apologetic here, even though his honesty is admirable. I think the current chapter will prove more interesting, as the cross-cultural comparisons start here with the Tibetan concept of Bardo - the "between" states and life as a series of interchanging states - including death, after-death, and so on. It immediately caught my attention.

The outline of the book says that different beliefs about the Afterlife will serve as triangulation aids to convey something about it. This includes the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Egyptian beliefs, and so on. And of course Kurt's own explorations. This is a nice continuity from "Otherwhere", where he compared his experiences with Dante's and Robert Monroe's writings. It is actually the successor of "Otherwhere" in terms of his adventures, IIRC.

So far, a good book. :)

Oliver

[Ouroboros]

I need to get some of this guy's books. Would you recommend "Otherwhere" as a good starting point?

[Korpo]

I need to get some of this guy's books. Would you recommend "Otherwhere" as a good starting point?

I found "Otherwhere" to be a really excellent book once Kurt started relating his own adventures - they include:

* His personal journey of learning how to become lucid in dreams and use this as a starting point to travel through the Afterlife (astral and mental planes).
* A tour through different states of consciousness in a simulation to learn what union is and what spiritual evolution is about.
* A tour through various parts of the Afterlife, including for example to a "dead realm" of ancient Egypt beliefs, or the meeting with various weird guiding entities (like the "bus driver") in different appearances along the way. Also a visit to the "City of Christendom", where people go who belonged to the Christian belief system (and also those who defined their beliefs primarily in terms of antagonism to Christianity, if I understood Kurt right ;) ).

I find some of the pictures Kurt's mind found to represent his experiences to himself wickedly funny - like the "bus driver". In general all his experiences are well written and easy to relate to. Highly recommended.

Oliver

[Korpo]

I finished reading this, it is excellent.

The material Kurt references is the Tibetan and the Egyptian Books of the Dead, NDE research and literature, the mystic Swedenborg and early Christian Gnosticism. While all of this is "nice to know", the book really gets interesting in those chapters Kurt's describes mostly his own experiences.

In fact, the story of his client Merle is woven into the book. Merle is always at odds with his life, trying to be a healer but afraid of people, running into bad people and seeking their acceptance, trying odd and dangerous routes for spiritual goals. He ends up overdosing on cocaine. Kurt knows him from years of having him as a client, and encounters and visits Merle several times in the afterlife, every time learning more about what Merle's soul is doing there.

In review of Merle's life of the other side it turns out that the overdose was an abort out of a lifetime that had veered off more and more from the life plan that was intended for him. How Merle deals with the painful aspects of his life, and tries to set himself up for another lifetime is a very interesting read. In fact, it would make an excellent book by itself, without the other material it is interwoven and compared with.

In the end "The Unanswered Question" is wonderful inspiration for what is possible through OBE/astral projection as a practice. These "adventures in consciousness" - as Kurt is calling them - are detailed and IMO inspire others to do the same, to find out for themselves.

Some of the material about what other cultures have left about their beliefs about the afterlife I found not so interesting, but I kept reading for all of Kurt's "goodies" interwoven with them. If you like books like those from Monroe and Moen, you will feel right at home with Kurt's explorations as well. If you liked "OtherWhere", you find enough of what made it great in here, too.

Oliver

[Korpo]

Kurt has updated his site with more adventures in consciousness (about 40) that happened since he wrote and published "The Unanswered Question". Dig in! 8)

http://www.kurtleland.com/content/section/2/120/

Oliver

[Korpo]

In one of the adventures Kurt has an experience with esoteric Buddhist cosmology, where a Facilitator explains to him how the fully realised soul (buddhahood) relates to the soul in between lives (the growing soul that is the immortal, but evolving aspect of man (or vice versa ;) )) and our personality in our lives.

It's quite long and starts with mapping out the afterlife as it might be seen "in total":

http://www.kurtleland.com/content/view/122/126/


"Most people's spiritual development advances slowly. So much false, or surface, personality encases them by the time they die that the soul has had little room to grow or develop. By false, or surface, personality, I mean reactions to life that block the soul's growth, such as dealing with a disappointment simply by saying 'That's life,' instead of finding another way to satisfy the need that lay behind it.

"Over here, they're immersed in an environment that encourages growth. This helps them to break out of the casing of false personality. The more they forgot about who they truly are while alive, the greater their relief at remembering over here.

"Arriving at new insights about oneself while alive, however, advances the growth of the soul and prevents the casing of false personality from developing. This casing is primarily the result of unhappiness, disappointed expectations--and in some cases, serious compulsions, obsessions, or idées fixes. The presence of compulsions, obsessions, or idées fixes indicates that the casing of false personality is hardening inward toward the core of the self, leaving even less room for the soul to develop.

And I found this fascinating:


“All this is mapped out in the Buddhist notion of the six realms of rebirth: the gods, titans, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings. In this system, achieving buddhahood is the equivalent of achieving union with the fully realized soul. The level of consciousness of people who are self-aware in ways that maximize their growth within a lifetime is represented by the human realm. Those who are dealing with false personality are represented by the animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings. The animals are humans who act from compulsion, the hungry ghosts those who act from obsession, the hell-beings those who act from idée fixes.

“The gods and the titans represent two dead-end approaches to spiritual growth. The so-called gods are human beings who have mastered the knowledge of how to create their own reality. They're as able to create the realities that will satisfy their needs while incarnated on Earth, as they are here, in between lifetimes. In Buddhist tradition, the gods live enormously long lifetimes of sensual pleasure in some nonphysical paradise world--which is to say that they're advanced enough that they don't need to return to the physical plane on a regular basis, like most other souls.

“The chief characteristic of the titans is that they envy the gods. They're desperate to achieve that level of development themselves. Thus, the titans are human beings who pursue spiritual growth for the wrong reasons. Not only do they want to satisfy their needs as easily as the gods, they also want to be free of the world. They want to transcend the world at all costs, whether those costs accrue to themselves or to others.

"This approach to spiritual growth assumes that nonphysical reality is better than physical reality. It can often be quite self-destructive, both physically and psychologically. Spiritual practices designed to advance the soul at the expense of the body--self-flagellation, for example--are typical of the so-called titans.

"The approach to spiritual growth of the gods, on the other hand, is destructive neither to others, nor to themselves. Their problem, however, is that they're completely self-absorbed. As I've said, they're able to use their advanced spiritual knowledge to create pleasant realities for themselves, both in the physical world and in the Afterlife. But they have no interest in placing their superior spiritual knowledge in the service of others.

"The truly advanced souls are those who try to help you remember who you are and further your growth, both while you're on Earth, and in between lifetimes. These are the buddhas and bodhisattvas of Buddhism, who are roughly equivalent to the Overseers and Facilitators whom you've encountered on your journeys to Otherwhere. In some cases, your own higher levels of consciousness or development may reflect and express themselves through such guides.

That is the first time I ever read that someone compared these three ideas - being focused on transcending yourself, "escaping" physicality (titans) and learning to control and create physicality (to your own ends, though). Three approaches to suffering - escaping, eliminating the symptoms of suffering or going for the root problem (which in Buddhism would be attachment).

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

As you know I enjoy comparing mythology (why I studied anthropology in the first place) which sounds like what you didn't like about the book is what I'll enjoy the most.
Do you know if I order the book from his website he'll get something extra, or does it make any diff. at all?

[Korpo]

Kurt has updated his site with more adventures in consciousness (about 40) that happened since he wrote and published "The Unanswered Question". Dig in! 8)

http://www.kurtleland.com/content/section/2/120/

10 new adventures available - featuring spirits inhabiting objects, getting in touch with bliss, etc. :D

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

ps. I'm reading it and enjoying it very much.