1 . I have used material from 31 different interviews in this book: 8 from people who had temporary awakening experiences after turmoil and 23 from people who shifted into a permanent state of wakefulness. There were two other interviews with ‘shifters’ which I chose not to quote from in the end, as they were very similar to experiences I’d already used.
1 . It’s true that many of what Hardy classes as ‘religious experiences’ aren’t strictly ‘awakening experiences’ in the sense that I’m using the term. For example, he includes religious visions and supernatural experiences, such as a woman’s vision of her dead husband. But there are still a large number of fully fledged awakening experiences in his collection. For example, one person described the following experience to him:
I was going through a period of doubt and disillusion with life and torn by conflict… Quite suddenly I felt lifted beyond all the turmoil and conflict. There was no visual image and I knew I was sitting on a bench in the park, but I felt as if I was lifted above the world and looking down on it. The disillusion and cynicism were gone, and I felt compassion suffusing my whole being, compassion for all people on earth. I was possessed by a peace that I have never felt before or since [in Hardy, 1979, p.76 ].
Raynor C. Johnson’s study of spiritual experiences, Watcher on the Hills , also includes many such examples. For example, here a person describes how in a state of desperation he prayed to God for help and immediately had a powerful mystical experience:
At a flash, the scene changed. All became alive, the trees, the houses, the very stones became animated with life, and all became vibrant with the life within them. All breathed effulgent light, vivid sparkling light, radiating out and in every direction; and not only that but everything seemed to be connected with everything else. Although all separate forms, and all vibrating with their own intensity of life, yet they all seemed to be connected by their vibrations into one whole thing, as the different coloured parts of a picture are yet of the same picture [in Johnson (1959), pp.63–5].
1 . Paulson and Krippner (2007), p.13. Other research suggests that trauma can affect our physical health too, making us more prone to serious life-threatening illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and cancer. This may be because trauma weakens the immune system (Kendall-Tackett, 2009).
2 . Dorahy and Lewis, 1998
3 . In van der Kolk and van der Hart, 1989, p.1
4 . Paton et al ., 2009
5 . Han, 2006
6 . Tedeschi and Calhoun, 2004, p.1
7 . Neal et al ., 1999
8 . Nietzsche, 1895
9 . Gibran, 1923
10 . Tomich and Helgeson, 2004; Stanton et al ., 2006. Similarly, the psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes, ‘A diagnosis of cancer is often described, in retrospect, as a wake up call, a reality check, or a turning point… The reality people often wake up to is that life is a gift they have been taking for granted’ (Haidt, 2006, p.140).
11 . Kastner, 1998
12 . Armstrong, 2001, p.273
13 . Ibid.
14 . Ibid., p.294
15 . In Ehrenreich, 2010
16 . McNerney, 2004
1 . Grof, 2000, p.137
2 . Shuchter, 1986
3 . Klass, 1995
1 . Kasser, 2002
2 . Brickman et al ., 1978
3 . Schulz and Decker, 1985. However, it should be noted that a more recent study found a less significant result. Andrew Oswald and Nattavudh Powdthavee (2008) found that in cases of moderate disability the level of adaptation was roughly 50 per cent, while in cases of severe disability, it was 30 per cent. This still suggests a high level of adaptation, but one not as significant as Schulz and Decker’s study.
4 . Hicks, 2007, p.23
5 . Ibid., p.26
6 . Ibid., p.209
7 . Ibid., p.110
8 . Ibid., p.209
1 . Hinchcliffe, 2008
2 . Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book), pp.6–7
3 . Ibid., p.7
4 . Ibid., p.8
5 . In Walsh and Vaughan, 1993, p.146
1 . In Lutyens, 1983, p.6
2 . In Lutyens, 1975, pp.159–60
3 . Ibid., p.184
4 . In Lutyens, 1983, p.10
5 . Ibid.
6 . Krishnamurti, 1926
7 . Tolle, 2001, p.2
8 . In Massad, 2009
9 . Ibid.
10 . Ingram, 2003, p.5
11 . Ibid., p.100
1 . ‘Space: The Greening of the Astronauts’, 1972
2 . Ibid.
3 . In the Shadow of the Moon , 2008
4 . In ‘Space: The Greening of the Astronauts’, op. cit.
5 . Schweikhart, 2009
6 . In the Shadow of the Moon , op. cit.
7 . In Fenwick, 1995, p.201
8 . Ibid.
9 . In McDermott, 2006, pp.123–4
10 . Ibid., p.136
11 . Ibid., p.174
12 . Marriot, 2005
13 . In Jeffries, 2005
14 . Ibid.
15 . In Wilber, 1993, p.316
16 . Ibid., p.317
17 . Ibid., p.356
18 . In Happold, 1986, p.131
19 . Ibid., p.54
20 . Whitman, 1855
1 . Sacks, 1990, pp.241–2
2 . In ibid., p.242
3 . See my earlier essay, ‘Lawrence the Mystic’, Taylor, 2001.
4 . Huxley, 1962, p.1,256
5 . Ibid., p.1,249
6 . Lawrence, 1993, p.651
7 . Huxley, op. cit., p.1,265
8 . Lawrence, op. cit., p.705
9 . In Moore, 1974, p.178
10 . Ibid., p.508
11 . Huxley, op. cit., p.1,266
12 . Ibid., p.1,265
13 . Whitman, 1867
14 . Lawrence, op. cit., p.676
15 . Dürckheim and Prabhupada, 2009
16 . Goettmann, 2010, p.7
17 . Dürckheim and Prabhupada, op. cit.
18 . In Watts, 1973
19 . Dürckheim, 1992, p.16
1 . In Fenwick, 1995, p.201
2 . In Hardy, 1979, p.94
3 . In Philip, 2007
4 . In Friend, 2003
5 . In Rosen, 1975, p.291
6 . Ibid.
7 . Seligman, 2002
8 . In Rosen, op. cit., p.292
9 . Ibid.
10 . Ibid.
11 . Ibid.
12 . Grey, 1985, p.97
13 . Ibid.
1 . Hicks, 2007.
2 . Maslow, 1970, p.163
3 . James, 1902, p.189
4 . Miller and C’de Baca, 2001
5 . Wilber, 2000
1 . In Cohen, 2000, p.53
2 . Miller, 1965, p.103
3 . Ibid., p.104
4 . Ibid., p.9
5 . ‘Happiness is Smile Shaped’, 2009
6 . Oswald and Blanchflower, 2008
7 . In Walsh and Vaughan, 1993, pp.146–7
8 . Tolle, 2001, p.183
9 . Kübler-Ross, 2005
10 . Dürckheim, 1992, p.16
11 . Lancaster and Palframan, 2009
12 . Miller and C’de Baca, 2001
13 . In James, 1902, pp.240–41
14 . Wareing, 1999; Baron-Cohen, 2003
1 . Solomon et al ., 1991; Pyszczynski et al ., 2004. This theory implies that since the fear of death affects us so profoundly, becoming free of the fear of death would also have a dramatic effect on the way we live. In fact, this is another way of interpreting the shifters’ changed values and lifestyles. Their shift to a less materialistic and successdriven lifestyle, and their more empathic and holistic outlook, could be seen as the result of a reduced fear of death. In line with Terror Management Theory, becoming free of fear of death means that they don’t need to reinforce their identity and security to the same extent, if at all.
2 . Grof, 1993, p.77
3 . Ibid.
4 . Levine, 1997, p.169
5 . Sattipatthana Sutta, 2010
6 . Rinpoche, 1993, p.18