September 2015
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Since its inception, Esalen has sponsored research in fields that mainstream scientific and religious institutions typically neglect (or avoid entirely). This eZine describes one such inquiry, into the ever-increasing evidence for life after death. I am hugely proud of this work, both for the light it brings to the subject and for the way it does this.

Exploration of the evidence for post-mortem survival and its scientific and metaphysical implications requires methods and discoveries from many fields, among them physics, philosophy, neuroscience, depth psychology, cultural anthropology, the history of science, sociology of knowledge, comparative religious studies, and the systematic collection of shamanic and contemplative lore provided by scholarly research as well as by living spiritual teachers.

The fellowship described in Ed Kelly’s essay has embraced these various fields during its inquiries, examining an immense range of empirical disclosures from various points of view and theoretical perspectives. As much as anything our Institute has ever sponsored, their work, I believe, will contribute significantly to our understanding of human nature’s destiny and further reaches.