The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

340 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
Bruce Greyson has also said he believes near-death experiences
occur for a reason: "Based on my watching near-death
experiences for a number of years, I think that we have these
experiences in order to learn how to help others."
Kenneth Ring sees yet another extraordinary possibility and
meaning to the near-death experiences. He asks why so many
people are now having such experiences and going through
spiritual transformation at this time. For many years one of the
bravest pioneers in the field of near-death research, he has
come to see the near-death experiencers as being "messengers
of hope," speaking of a higher and more noble spiritual reality,
and calling us to change urgently every facet of how we live
now; to end all war, all divisions between religions and peoples,
and to protect and save the environment:
/ believe ... that humanity as a whole is collectively struggling to
awaken to a newer and higher mode of consciousness,... and that
the near-death experience can be viewed as an evolutionary
device to bring about this transformation, over a period of years,
in millions of persons. 44
It may be that whether this is true or not depends on all of
us: on whether we really have the courage to face the implications
of the near-death experience and the bardo teachings,
and by transforming ourselves transform the world around us,
and so by stages the whole future of humanity.