5 Foolproof Ways to Expand Your Consciousness

I started running at 4:45 in the afternoon. It was about 120 degrees (49 C) outside. First came exhaustion from the heat. The dust from the desert floor covered me like a heat -amplifying insulator. About 40 minutes in I realized that storm front in the distance was rolling back on me and I wouldn’t be able to get back in time.

That was when the fear set in. When the storm hit me the lightning was so close I could feel the heat coming off the impacts on the ground. And I just knew that if I stopped I would die. By the time I finished I couldn’t remember my name.

Five methods are traditionally used to change a man’s perception of his environment: death, drugs, duress, dreams and meditation. The most important part is to make sure you have a well-thought-out question you need answered, and to hold on to it before you cross the threshold of any of these doorways.

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Humans Could Evolve to Live Forever

It is a biological inevitability that just about every living organism will die—it's the how and the when that are up for debate. Some species barely make it to adulthood, while others go on for centuries. Ninety-nine percent of all species have already gone extinct. In nature, death is everywhere.

One might ask why this is so. After all, the ability to survive seems on the surface to be a pretty desirable trait to evolve. If something is around longer, wouldn't that give it more chances to reproduce? Could a species evolve to live longer and longer—until, eventually, it can live forever? On an even more fundamental level, how well defined are our basic notions of life and death to begin with?

Jules Howard—a zoologist, writer, and broadcaster based in the UK—tackles some of these questions in his new book, Death on Earth: Adventures in Evolution and Mortality. I reached out to him and we talked about it via Skype.

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Psychedelic Drugs Help Patients Face Death

By Lauren Slater / Source: NY Times

Pam Sakuda was 55 when she found out she was dying. Shortly after having a tumor removed from her colon, she heard the doctor's dreaded words: Stage 4; metastatic.

Sakuda was given 6 to 14 months to live. Determined to slow her disease's insidious course, she ran several miles every day, even during her grueling treatment regimens.

By nature upbeat, articulate and dignified, Sakuda — who died in November 2006, outlasting everyone's expectations by living for four years — was alarmed when anxiety and depression came to claim her after she passed the 14-month mark, her days darkening as she grew closer to her biological demise.

Norbert Litzinger, Sakuda's husband, explained it this way: "When you pass your own death sentence by, you start to wonder: When? When? It got to the point where we couldn't make even the most mundane plans, because we didn't know if Pam would still be alive at that time — a concert, dinner with friends; would she still be here for that?" When came to claim the couple's life completely, their anxiety building as they waited for the final day.

As her fears intensified, Sakuda learned of a study being conducted by Charles Grob, a psychiatrist and researcher at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center who was administering psilocybin — an active component of magic mushrooms — to end-stage cancer patients to see if it could reduce their fear of death.

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Thinking About Death Can Improve Your Life

Thinking about death can actually be a good thing. An awareness of mortality can improve physical health and help us re-prioritize our goals and values, according to a new analysis of recent scientific studies.

Even non-conscious thinking about death -- say walking by a cemetery -- could prompt positive changes and promote helping others.

Past research suggests that thinking about death is destructive and dangerous, fueling everything from prejudice and greed to violence. Such studies related to terror management theory (TMT), which posits that we uphold certain cultural beliefs to manage our feelings of mortality, have rarely explored the potential benefits of death awareness.

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How to Turn a Negative Ending into a Positive Beginning

By Tony Mase / Source: The Personal Power Course

Whether you've just gotten divorced, just gotten laid off, just had to move out of your hometown for the first time, or suffered something equally as earth-shattering, you know endings are sad and scary. In fact, there are few things in life that actually cause more sadness than an ending.

Why?

Because you're losing a part of yourself. Even if your marriage wasn't a good one, it defined part of who you are. Or, the job you went to every day made you feel "whole". Or, simply growing up and living in your hometown helped to shape who you are. When things like that come to an end, you can feel empty and disconnected from the rest of the world. You may feel like you don't even know who you are anymore!

So, how do you get through it and start anew?

You need to focus on the positives - and, specifically, feel grateful for them.

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