The NDE with a thousand faces

Lately I've been reading about Joseph Campbell's theory of the "monomyth" -- the basic story that lies at the heart of most mythology and folklore, and which informs the structure of novels and screenplays even today. Campbell laid out the theory in his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces -- which I admit I haven't read, though I plan to get to it when I can. For the moment, I've been reading a simplified presentation of Campbell's ideas in Christopher Vogler's well-known how-to guide, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, which applies the monomyth to the field of screenwriting. Many websites lay out the theory in its essential terms; look here or here, for instance.

The gist of the monomyth is simple enough. It's the story of the Hero's Journey. The hero begins in the ordinary world, living his ordinary, commonplace, and not entirely fulfilling life. He then receives a Call to Adventure, often brought to him by a Herald. He may resist the invitation (Refusal of the Call), but eventually yields, often after receiving Supernatural Aid. He enters an unfamiliar and possibly dangerous new world (Crossing the Threshold), frequently encountering Threshold Guardians who block his entrance and must be defeated, outwitted, or turned into Allies. In the latter case, the initially threatening Threshold Guardians turn out, upon closer inspection, to be friendly forces.

Having entered into a new world, the hero embarks on a Road of Trials, encountering various challenges, obstacles, and opportunities for growth. He may meet symbolic figures that embody the key persons in his life: mother, father, lover. Campbell labeled these encounters the Meeting with the Goddess, the Atonement with the Father, and the Woman as Temptress. At the climax of his journey, the hero experiences an Apotheosis and receives his reward, the Ultimate Boon.

He has now accomplished his mission and has only to return to the ordinary world. Not infrequently, however, he resists the imperative to go back (Refusal of the Return). Either he changes his mind, or he is compelled to retreat back into the ordinary world, once again Crossing the Threshold and making his Return. Now back in his familiar environment, he finds himself both inwardly and outwardly changed. He is a Master of Two Worlds, with newfound powers and understanding -- a hybrid being, with one foot in the phenomenal world and the other foot in the noumenal world. Campbell points out that this can be the most challenging part of the experience: "For if he has won through, like the Buddha, to the profound repose of complete enlightenment, there is danger that the bliss of this experience may annihilate all recollection of, interest in, or hope for, the sorrows of the world; or else the problem with making known the way of illumination to people wrapped in economic problems may seem too great to solve." [The Hero with a Thousand Faces, page 29.]

Many stories can be understood in terms of this basic structure. But what struck me, in reading about it, is that much the same structure is found in the near-death experience.

In an NDE, the experiencer begins in the ordinary world, the world of the living. Then, because of illness or accident, he feels the approach of death. In most cases he resists death and struggles to go on living, but at some point he gives up the fight. Sometimes this is because a spiritual figure(s) appears to him, soothes his fears, and invites him on his journey (deathbed visions). It should be noted that dying people often conceive of their future in terms of taking a trip; this imagery has been reported by hospice workers, nurses, etc. *

With or without his spirit escort(s), the person finds himself hovering outside his physical body, then traveling through a tunnel or a dark void -- Crossing the Threshold. When he arrives at the far side, he finds himself reunited with departed loved ones, typicallyincluding his mother, father, and spouse (if his spouse has predeceased him). He relives the key events of his life from infancy onward, assessing the lessons he learned and the mistakes he made. Encountering and sometimes merging with a being of pure light, he achieves Apotheosis -- transcendence, a higher state of consciousness, a sense of unity with all things, and an understanding of the master plan that underlies the physical world. 

At this point of exaltation, the near-death experiencer is rudely informed that he must return to the physical world. Or he is given the option of returning, and must weigh the pros and cons. In most cases he resists the idea, and is either be talked into it or forcibly ejected from the heavenly realm. One way or another, he retraces the route he followed (Crossing the Threshold) and is once again embedded in his physical body (Return). But his transcendent experience has left him changed, with a new, more spiritual outlook, with an ecumenical worldview that embraces all faiths and all peoples, and possibly with amplified psychic powers. He may feel oddly cut off from society, alienated, unable to fully articulate the lessons he has learned, frustrated by his inability to communicate his insights to those around him.

Of course, the above description of an NDE is somewhat stylized. Very few NDEs follow this exact pattern, but all of them contain some of the above elements in more or less this chronological sequence. The parallels between this comprehensive NDE and Campbell's monomyth are pretty clear.

It's also worth pointing out that some NDEs have "hellish" or nightmarish qualities. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the newly deceased person is said to confront beastly creatures that threaten him; but if he sees below their superficial appearance, he will find them transformed into friendly and helpful beings. This corresponds closely to the Threshold Guardians of the monomyth. 

What accounts for these similarities? I can think of three possible explanations.

The first explanation is that it's simply a coincidence. The Hero's Journey is so broadly defined that it can encompass almost any narrative. But I don't think this is quite convincing. The parallels are too specific to be brushed aside. 

The second explanation is that the monomyth is so deeply ingrained in the human psyche that there is a natural tendency to reorder any unusual experience in terms of the Hero's Journey. In other words, after the fact, the mind tends to organize the images and events of the NDE into a familiar pattern -- a pattern known to us from countless fairy tales, novels, movies, etc. This is possible, but it would leave open the question of why the monomyth is such a deep and universal part of our thinking, and how the monomyth arose in the first place.

The third possibility, and the one that I'm partial to, is that the monomyth itself arose out of NDEs, or NDE-like episodes, early in humanity's prehistory. Let's suppose that thousands of years ago some rare individuals reported near-death experiences. Perhaps they were given up for dead and miraculously revived, or perhaps they deliberately induced the experience through psychoactive drugs or shamanic rituals. (Cave paintings are theorized to have been rendered by shamans attempting to preserve the visual memory of their otherworldly experiences, which were probably brought on by hallucinogenic plants.) 

These NDEs, or hallucinatory pseudo-NDEs, would have become part of the culture and sacred tradition of the tribe, passed down from one generation to the next, embellished by storytellers, eventually serving as the root structure of multifarious folk stories. The common structure of this folklore would simply reflect its common origin in NDEs and related shamanic vision quests. 

If this is true, it could explain why accounts of near-death experiences can hold such dramatic power even today. The stories reverberate on a deep level because they are consonant with the deepest narrative structure of folklore and myth -- a structure that, in turn, is grounded in the primordial NDEs of our distant ancestors. Like the iconic snake swallowing its tail, the NDE is both the origin and the terminus of our deepest myths.

===

*See Final Gifts, by Maggie Callahan and Patricia Kelley, two nurses who specialize in caring for the dying. In Chapter 6, "Preparing for Travel or Change," they write: "Contrary to popular belief, ... dying people know they are dying, even if no one else knows or has told them. They attempt to share this information by using symbolic language to indicate preparation for a journey or change soon to happen. Travel is a clear metaphor often used to describe this need to go forth -- to die." Examples are provided, including one dying man who kept asking for his passport and his ticket, and another who asked when the tide would be going out so he would know when to sail. 

Comments

[Art]

I suspicion that most religions arose from or through the connection of near death experiences, death bed visions, mystical and transcendental and kundalini experiences, etc. I especially see a connection between Christianity and near death experiences. A guy dies on a cross, is stuck in his side, cut down from the cross, flops on the ground, and is hurriedly bound up and put in a tomb and on the third day he comes walking out of the tomb talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. When Steven was stoned he had a very typical death bed vision and Paul comes right out and says "I know a man in Christ who went to the third Heaven, whether in th body or out of the body I do not know" which most people assume Paul was talking about himself. There are other verses in the New Testament that have a very "holographic-near death experience" flavor to them such as doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, you reap what you sow, judging not because you are going to be judged, live by the sword you die by the sword, God is Light, God is Love, etc. all sound like someone who has had a near death experience to me. At its very heart I think Christianity is a near death experience religion if you subtract out all the added myths that were common to the region at that time such as the virgin birth, etc.

[Art]

I thought of another very NDE like verse in the New Testament. In the gospel of John where Jesus is in the garden praying to God and he says, "Lord I pray that they may be One as we are one, you in me and me in you." I have read so many NDEs where the person made some comment about the oneness they felt while on the other side. Jesus was wanting his followers to experience what he had experienced during his near death experience.

[Matt Rouge]

Ingenious post, Michael!

I have a another option which is sort of an alteration of your third possibility.

How about that the monomyth doesn't come from NDEs but that both the monomyth and the structure of NDEs are structured to accommodate the deepest meaning-needs (to coin a word) of the human psyche?

After all, the Afterlife itself (as we learn from NDEs, mediums, etc.) is not arbitrary in structure. We don't go there and find that we are suddenly squirrels collecting nuts or plants growing in a garden. That is we do not die only to become something unrelated to what we were before. Rather, the Afterlife is a further exploration and expansion of our human nature, it would seem.

Thus, it would make sense that the journey to the Afterlife also meets deep-seated needs, just as the monomyth reflects those needs.

What do you think?

[no one]

I am a Joseph Campbell fan from way back. I've read all of his works and then re-read some of them. I highly recommend "The Mask of God"; although "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a good read as well. All most enlightening.

Matt, I think JC would like your term, "meaning-needs". As he explains - esp. in Mask - myths are not, as we commonly use the term, untrue stories. They are, instead, though perhaps factually/historically incorrect, metaphorically absolutely true. Myths are coded messages containing the instructions of societies and, at the deepest level, of all hunanity pertaining to how to live in this world, what options and consequences are available to us and, most importantly, how to assign meaning to the infinity.

MP, this is indeed a brilliant theory you have proposed. I certainly never thought of it despite my intimate familiarity with Campbell's work. However, now that you have put it out there, it makes sense to me. I think both explanations 2 and 3 have much merit and there is no reason they have to be mutually exclusive.

I think if you read Mask you would find even more relevance to your theory.

[Michael Prescott]

"What do you think?" - Matt Rouge

It's certainly possible. If there is some Intelligence that's coaxing us toward greater awareness, then conceivably it offers a variety of means to that end: NDEs, kundalini experiences, hallucinatory experiences, myths, etc. It may be that the veil between this reality and the next is delicate enough to be breached in many different ways, all of which give us essentially the same insights.

"MP, this is indeed a brilliant theory you have proposed." - no one

Thanks, but I doubt I'm the first one to propose it. It's quite possible I've come across it at some point in my reading, though offhand I don't recall any specific source. Both Michael Grosso and Raymond Moody talk about NDEs as "stories," and Grosso even says they are a modern myth of the afterlife (which doesn't mean they are fictional, only that they serve the purpose of myth), so maybe that's where I got it.

[tiny junco]

another possibility is that myths/mythical experiences as well as nde's take place with/in/through the astral body. another way to put it is that all of these are out of body experiences....and that these monomythical structures represent certain 'laws' or tendencies of humans in the astral plane.

a number of ufo/alien and fairy encounters contain similar structures - the call to adventure, threshold guardians, traveling thru an aline world, return of the hero who is changed spiritually.

thank you for this interesting article! steph

[Sandy]

A friend of mine who teaches a class in religious anthropology made very similar comments about my NDE and how I still find it very challenging to get on with my life "post-NDE". He likes to point out how all of my experiences have happened before and are things that are recorded again and again in various cultures. I've never been able to tell him about an anomalous experience that he couldn't point to his bookshelf, have me pull out a book and tell me which chapter to look in to find a similar account.

For some reason modern society has forgotten it's stories. As if we didn't need them anymore. But if I had known about the mythology maybe coming back would have been easier.

[Scared of death]

Great article. Thank you!

[Rick49]

I just wrote a long post here and was unable to post it. If this post appears, could it have been that there is a time frame in which the post must be written? Perhaps I took too long. I have posted here before but I keep getting a message that my valid email address is invalid. Help please. I spent a lot of time on my post.

[Rick49]

MP, Thanks for bringing Joseph Campbell to light again on this forum. Joseph was indeed influenced by Jung and his use of Archetypal templates inherently embedded within the human psyche. The Hero's Journey is a deeply structured,as Matt points out,is an archetypal monomyth that activates when the deeper undercurrents of our collective unconscious are tapped into in all of the variety of ways discussed here.
My sense is that it provides the individual psyche a transpersonal template for how to proceed through the psycho-spiritual developmental journey of life. It describes the process of what Jung termed Individuation. The Hero moves through the stages from infancy through late adulthood leading to death (one foot in each world). It's about the journey from the undifferentiated awareness of infancy and the trial and tribulations to be faced as the individual and collective human psyche which also experienced an undifferentiated awareness at it's infancy 200,000 years ago, move through the differentiating experience of increasing self awareness and quality of consciousness throughout the lifespan.
The monomyth embeds the individual journey into the collective journey of the ever evolving collective destiny of homo sapiens to homo spiritus and ultimately homo deus. That's not a given as the monomyth warns. Many will fall prey to the perils and tribulations. The journey of collective human consciousness is just an infinitesimal drop in the infinite ocean of consciousness that creates permutations and iterations of itself infinitely.
The wisdom of the evolution and play of infinite consciousness through homo sapiens provides the monomyth template as a guidepost for Becoming. This earth kindergarten of consciousness is just awakening from what Ken Wilber likes to say the "frisky dirt" of unaware matter, to awareness of the biosphere, to the self awareness of the noosphere,and the becoming awareness of pure consciousness looking back at itself and experiencing the Absolute Delight of recognizing that it was playing with Itself all along through the human experience of "forgetting"oneness, experiencing separation and then reawakening with Delight that it never really left The One. The monomyth is a rosetta stone for the individual and collective psyche in this journey.

[Rick49]

Obviously solved my problem. Copied and pasted the above.

[Bruce Siegel]

Michael, there clearly are some intriguing similarities between the NDE and the monomyth. But I have trouble taking the parallels too far.

Admittedly, I know very little about the monomyth, but its most important feature does seem to be a mission, a trial, an ordeal.

The way I've always seen the NDE, on the other hand, is as a RESPITE from the trials we face here on earth, even, you might say, as the ultimate vacation. As opposed to the monomyth, I see it as a break in the action and a peek behind the scenes, a chance to reflect on where we've been and where we're going.

While clearly there are hellish NDE's, and even in the most blissful ones, experiencers often have to face their own painful shortcomings in the life review, the focus of these experiences seems to me to be on comfort, ease, and release, rather than on the struggle to achieve.

John Star, for example, ends his NDE account like this: "I was laying in the sand on the shore of Lake Michigan, just a few inches from the water. I felt good, like I just had the best rest that I had ever had."

What do you think—am I biased, and simply reading NDE's in way that feels good to me?

[Matt Rouge]

Bruce,

Couldn't it be both journey and then rest? After all, once the hero completes his big quest, I think he gets to take a sip from a goblet of wine, etc.

Cheers,

Matt

[Michael Prescott]

"The way I've always seen the NDE, on the other hand, is as a RESPITE from the trials we face here on earth" - Bruce

It's hard to say. Shamanic vision quests, which have much in common with NDEs, usually involve ordeals. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which seems to have been inspired by NDEs, talks about scary encounters with nightmarish beings. The ancient Egyptians had similar ideas and were very worried about judgment in the afterlife. OBErs like Robert Monroe say they encounter trials and difficulties. Even in heavenly NDEs, the person faces the struggle of having to go back to the physical world, and often agonizes over the choice, or is even forced to return. And the life review is apparently quite sobering. Of course, hellish NDEs are even more arduous. So I'm not sure I would say the experience is invariably blissful, though in many cases it is.

[Bruce Siegel]

"It's hard to say. Shamanic vision quests . . ."

I'm basing my comments on events that we clearly define as NDE's, rather than other experiences that may be considered NDE-like.

"Couldn't it be both journey and then rest? After all, once the hero completes his big quest, I think he gets to take a sip from a goblet of wine, etc."

Well, the tunnel part does involve a journey of sorts, but it's effortless. And looking at some typical NDE's, where's the quest?

Now it's true that NDErs do frequently talk about their mission or purpose. But invariably, what they're talking about is their job once they return to the body. That's why I see the NDE as an interim experience, a chance to rest, reflect, and rejuvenate.

"So I'm not sure I would say the experience is invariably blissful, though in many cases it is."

As I said, there are certainly hellish NDE's, and the life review can be challenging. But think about it this way. Put this question to the thousands of NDErs whose accounts we read on NDERF, in Ring's and Moody's books, and elsewhere:

Which better describes your NDE:

• A trip to "an unfamiliar and possibly dangerous new world" where you encountered and overcame various obstacles and challenges.
• A comforting visit to your true and deeply-missed home—a chance to rest, refresh, and re-group before taking on, once again, the challenges of life on earth.

Which do you think most NDErs would select?

[Michael Prescott]

You're probably right, Bruce. But a blog is a ravenous beast. I have to fill the pages with something!

:-)

[Bruce Siegel]

"I have to fill the pages with something!"

I love it. What a great reply. You must be in a good, peaceful place today. :o)

That kind of openness, by the way, is one of the reasons I've kept coming back here over the years.

[Matt Rouge]

Well argued, IMO, Bruce. Reading Michael's post I did not get the impression that they are exactly the same (nor did I get the impression that Michael got that impression) but that they are perhaps "resonant" with each other: perhaps both fulfilling similar deep-seated needs of the human psyche, and thus sharing some significant features.

Let's look at it another way. The monomyth is unambiguously about a journey. NDEs, it would seem from accounts, are also journeys. Clearly, there has to be some type of transition from life to death, but there are many other ways that it could be done. For example, a person could just wake up in Heaven without a life review or even any explanation except that which would come from deceased relatives standing around. That would be distinctly un-journey-like, wouldn't it?

You correctly point out that the journey is involuntary--even the going back is, too, as Michael points out. I think that would be the biggest difference. But heroes sometimes have their quests more or less forced on them, too, so it is not always different.

In any case, good discussion.

[Bruce Siegel]

Thanks, Matt. I like your earlier comment, too:

"both the monomyth and the structure of NDEs are structured to accommodate the deepest meaning-needs (to coin a word) of the human psyche"

What interests me about Michael's post, and this discussion, is that we're focused on STORIES of one kind or another. Sandy hinted at this, too, when she said:

"But if I had known about the mythology maybe coming back would have been easier."

What I'm getting at (and perhaps you, Michael, and Sandy, too, if I'm lucky) is that in this chaotic world we have a need to see ourselves as living a Larger Story that's worthwhile and inspiring. And both the monomyth and the NDE are designed to provide a better narrative, a way to bring meaning to our lives.

Which reminds me: I've read that over the millennia, every society has had its creation story. For the past couple of centuries, ours, in the West, has been pretty bleak. As someone said, we're the first civilization that thinks of ourselves as risen from dirt, rather than descended from the gods.

Which story makes YOU feel better about yourself? :o)

[L.G.]

Hi Michael. I will explore your blog more as time permits (looks very interesting!). For now, just wanted to pass on a link to an OBE blog I uploaded yesterday. Cheers.

http://lg-obe-journal.blogspot.com/

[Jeff]

That is a very interesting comparison Michael.

In my own experience of an NDE I was presented with a vast ocean of light which I knew was called the 'Void' and 'Perfection' It encompassed infinite endless bliss.

As I was drawn into it I suddenly realised that in such a state of perfection there could be no change, no development, no creativity, relationship. I knew this was not want I wanted and I drew back...The NDE went on in another direction.

So this was certainly blissful yet paradoxically it was this which made it undesirable.

Jeff :O)

[Michael Prescott]

It occurs to me that there's another way of looking at the Hero's Journey. Maybe life in the physical world is the journey, and discarnate existence is the "ordinary world" which we leave and later return to.

In that case, the Call to Adventure is the summons to incarnate. The Refusal is the soul's reluctance to descend to the world of physical matter. The Road of Trials is life on earth, and the Ultimate Boon is the particular lesson one is meant to learn. The Return is passing over into the afterlife, and the Refusal of the Return is our natural inclination to resist death.

Who knows ...?

[Bruce Siegel]

"In that case, the Call to Adventure is the summons to incarnate."

I think you're on to something here, Michael. Gotta think about it some more, but "Road of Trials" does describe our experience here on Earth. And this ties in nicely with the NDE as a sort of monomyth intermission, a temporary release from incarnation before hitting the Road again.

[Bruce Siegel]

It occurs to me, too, that explaining the "Call to Adventure as the summons to incarnate" would explain its universal appeal. You don't need to have had an NDE to put yourself in the Hero's shoes, you just need to have been born. :o)

One possible objection to your theory, though, is that the story begins with the Hero in the "ordinary" world. (I don't know if "ordinary" is your term or the standard one.)

But then again, if we truly are spiritual beings having a physical experience, then the spirit world IS our ordinary, or usual, place of residence.

[Simon Oakes]

Bruce/Michael: I think there is some truth in what you say. My problem is with the term 'hero'. For me it smacks too much of the heroic ego, while for me much of spiritual development is about letting go of that - I refer back to the 7th March post on this blog "Becoming the Witness" in this regard. Not intended as a knock down point, just an observation. Simon

[Bruce Siegel]

Interesting point, Simon. But maybe that particular problem arises only if I think I'm a hero and everyone else is a schlub. How about if we're ALL heroes?

[Bruce Siegel]

I just realized that my last comment is going to invite the old Hitler rebuttal. What have I let myself in for now? :o)

[Simon Oakes]

Bruce, I think your comment captures an essential point i.e. none of us are special in the eyes of God. Whatever our destiny - whether it be as a hero or the anonymous serving of a much larger purpose - it is to form part of a design much larger than us. We are all loved and valued equally by God. In that wider sense we can all be heroes, without inviting Hitler comparisons and so forth. The only 'schlubs' (I love that term!) are those who refuse to accept this. A group that presumably includes the Hitlers of this world and others we would regard as evil.

[Michael Prescott]

Campbell says, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, that the hero typically must shed his ego before Crossing the Threshold and starting his adventure. It may be the role of a Mentor or a Threshold Guardian to bring this about.