Live Webinar / Sept. 26, 2021
Noon EST / 9am PST / 6pm CET

We explore models and schemas of the afterlife and reincarnation found in Vedanta and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, formalized in The Bardo Thodol or The Tibetan Book of the Dead. We consider ideas from Namkai Norbu and The Dalai Lama on “subtle” and “very subtle consciousness.” We look at recent cases of monks whose bodies did not decay after death, or whose bodies apparently shrank to a tiny size, signifying attainment of the Rainbow Body.

We compare Eastern and Western ideas on reincarnation. We explore the ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1865 - 1925), a visionary who founded Anthroposophy and Waldorf Schools. Steiner said that the mission of his life was to bring the knowledge of reincarnation back to the West and described the process in great detail in a series of books, Karmic Relationships. We also consider contemporary thinkers such as Patrick Harpur and Rupert Sheldrake, who integrate principles of Western esotericism into a contemporary scientific framework. 

We review what can be gleaned from hypnotic regression to the between-life state: Mediums claimed to contact the disincarnate spirits of figures like Bertrand Russell and Frederic Myers, who gave long discourses on the afterlife, even considering it from the scientific perspective. If there is an afterlife, where is it? Is it in a parallel dimension or universe? We explore the two forms of DMT and String Theory to help anchor a new paradigm and provide the basis for future investigation.