The Afterlife, Reincarnation & the Soul Trap | Brendan on The Life Stylist
2 hr 25 min
I’ve been getting some excellent feedback on this conversation, and for good reason. We cover some fascinating—and occasionally uncomfortable—territory. What actually happens after death? Are we dealing with a soul trap, a reincarnation mechanism, or something considerably more nuanced? And how much of what we experience beyond physical death is shaped by the psychological and emotional baggage we carry with us? In this conversation with Luke Storey on The Life Stylist, we explore the architecture of the afterlife, the evidence for reincarnation, the mechanics of consciousness and some of the more troubling misconceptions circulating in spiritual communities. One of the central themes is that the Tibetan traditions, Jungian psychology and near-death experience accounts all point towards something more interesting than a simplistic mechanism: our unmetabolised emotional charge may become part of the very environment we encounter beyond physical death. We also get into the empirical evidence, including Peak in Darien cases, Ian Stevenson’s birthmark research, and an extraordinary account of a woman who experienced seven years of subjective existence during a three-week induced coma. And why do so many spiritually inclined people become caught in paranoid narratives about loosh harvesting, prison planets and cosmic imprisonment? I offer a rather different interpretation—and one that has some important implications for how we understand the process of dying itself. A sampling of the topics we covered:[15:51] What makes the human psyche so susceptible to propaganda[23:19] Where the demand to be ruled actually comes from[44:59] Working through your attractions and aversions before you die[55:50] Whether past lives are sequential or stacked all at once[1:18:16] Differentiation as the only thing the infinite one can do[1:34:16] Peak in Darien cases and meeting relatives you never knew existed[1:58:50] What loosh harvesting actually is and where Monroe landed[2:05:03] When s...
