Sometimes I contemplate what it will be like to go through my Life Review.
I am referring to reports from Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): “life review” is a panoramic re-experiencing of one’s life accompanied by profound and moving insights into the effects of one’s actions on others. What can we learn now about what death is like in order to guide our lives?
The main repeating features across researched reports of life review are the following:
· The entire life review is usually experienced at once (outside of time) — instantaneous and panoramic – with many events perceived simultaneously.
· The focus of the review is moral and relational. People do not simply remember what they did. Instead, they experience how their words and actions affected the other people around them, reporting often feeling the effects as if they were the other people.
· The review contains extraordinary clarity – revealing motivations and consequences that were unconscious.
· There is no condemnation, only clarity.
In the best book of comprehensive scientific reports on NDEs, by psychiatrist and researcher Bruce Greyson MD, called After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond, the accounts of “life review” reveal that experiencers return to their lives with enduring changes: greater compassion, reduced fear of death, less concern with material pursuits, and a stronger commitment to living authentically and helping those around them.
These effects should raise questions about how we spend our time and what we prioritize.
There is a traditional folk tale called “The Three Questions” in which a king asks the following questions:
Who is the most important person?
What is the most important thing to do?
What is the most important time?
The story unfolds through an adventure in which the king discovers the answers: the most important person is who you are with right now. The most important thing is to care for that person: do what is required to express love, compassion, or concern needed now. And the most important time is “now” because it is all that we have.
The takeaway is that wisdom is not discovered through abstract spiritual or philosophical searching, but comes to us through our wholehearted presence with those we relate to, especially those we relate to regularly. The present moment requires us to engage with the person/people IN THE ROOM (not those on social media) who need our immediate mindful attention and emotional responses.
The story agrees remarkably with life review reports.
In these demanding and turbulent times, you may believe that you need to get “to the bottom” of what is happening. How much further can you get than the life review?
In Carl Jung’s NDE in 1944, he recalls the somewhat painful dropping away of his identity – his achievements and successes – as he was walking into the temple of his master. At that moment, after he had shed his identity, he was startled to experience all of the relationships and engagements of his life and to know objectively that “this is who I am. I am the collection of these relationships.” At which point, he became content and felt lighter. Then he was called back into his life on earth.
May we all learn from the following before we walk the path into our own death:
The most important people are the ones you are with, and the most important moment is now, and your most important task is to engage attentively with the people in your life, so that you can develop your own natural wisdom and flourish day by day.
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