Woollacott & Peyton - Experience of Primacy of Consciousness

Near Death Experiences have commonalities with peak experiences in other aspects of life, but they have a key characteristic that is different from other peak experiences. They are transformational, that is, they create a dramatic change in the person’s life. What elements of the NDE are essential to this transformational process? In this presentation we will describe case studies of NDEs to find clues to the essential elements contributing to transformation; we will complement these studies with evidence from scientific studies on NDEs examining significant transformation changes across the NDE population. Studies suggest that it is the experience of discovering that, as one NDEr stated, “I am not this body; I realize that consciousness is primary and it is the substratum of all that exists” that is the key to transformation.

Marjorie Hines Woollacott, PhD, has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Her most recent book is Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind, which explores scientific studies supporting the premise that consciousness functions beyond the mind. She has also co-authored a popular textbook for health professionals and has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles, several of which were on meditation, the topic that motivated her to write her latest book.

Bettina Peyton, M.D.: When Dr. Bettina Peyton almost died, she had a powerful spiritual awakening. It was a pivotal experience that would prove to have a profound and enduring impact on her life. Dr. Peyton subsequently switched the focus of her medical career to caring exclusively for patients in the final phase of life. One of the first physicians in the country to be board-certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Dr. Peyton helped establish and direct New Hampshire’s first free-standing inpatient hospice. Now retired, she is writing a memoir.

Visit Marjorie's website