The Transpersonal Experience in Religion and Culture as a Response to the Challenges of Death
Advances in bioinformatics and biomedical engineering book series October 4, 2024
The authors trace the history of ideas about death in Western philosophy, presenting death as an initiatory event whose meaning is shaped by historical era and individual consciousness. They argue that postmodern everyday consciousness is dominated by individualism, material values, ignorance of the transcendental, taboo around death, and loss of meaning. The proposed way out of this crisis is an individual attitude toward the sacred secret of being, which can fill existence with meaning and happiness. The highest manifestation of spirituality is transpersonal experience, which initiates approach to essence through symbolic death and rebirth. The absolute, revealed in experience, is comprehended intuitively and contemplatively through existential involvement.