I mentioned that I’d read at least one of that author’s ‘Light’ books, and had received from its publisher an advance copy of a different book which seemed to be a remarkable chronicle of a Fundamentalist- inspired psychotic episode, passed off as an NDE but really furthering the penetration of this field by those with an extremely narrow ‘religious’ agenda, usually couched as an ultimately authoritative cosmic list of “do’s and don’ts”. Brother Vincentius, a 50-ish teacher of Eastern-tradition meditation forms, explained that he specifically avoided the “Eastern” accouterments normally associated with such forms of meditation, so as to prevent the cross-cultural distractions and confusions so often arising from them. “We find, in meditation, an awareness which transcends the anthropomorphic visualizations of God. We find”— paraphrasing the Dalai Lama, with whom he and Brother Adrian had held private audience—“that all paths lead to the same destination. We find a state of Being that is totally accepting, and objectively unconcerned with whether you have masturbated, lied, or harmed another— except that this state-of-Being provides you with an awareness of how your actions have affected others. It allows you to view yourself through the eyes of others.”

One member of our FOI responded, “In the spectrum of reading I have done, and in the reported experiences to which I have listened, I find that ‘my flags go up’ when I hear or read claims that some ‘spiritually advanced being’ presented a list of earthly chores yet undone; or that having failed to check off all the boxes, you must reincarnate to complete your ‘mission’ or your advancement. It’s as if some giant government form is hanging out there in the cosmos and we’ve got to check off all the boxes and acquire all the authoritative signatures. The Bardo Thodol”—misnamed ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’—“cautions us that, as we progress from one bardo to the next, we might fixate on our visualizations in a particular bardo and find ourselves reincarnating in order to undo that attachment. But how does that fit with the desire to be with pre-deceased loved ones or, for that matter, with a God which one has been taught to externalize? Aren’t these also attachments?”

Replied Brother Adrian, “Reincarnation, another idea without a home in Catholic tradition, is interesting. And there are certainly compelling literary accounts for it. However, and I’m no expert on