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IONS is expanding its research on "metanormal capacities" IONS director Marilyn schlitz: "we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea oi what is possible as humans"
IONS is expanding its research on "metanormal capacities" IONS director Marilyn schlitz: "we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea oi what is possible as humans"
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IONS is expanding its research on "metanormal capacities" IONS director Marilyn schlitz: "we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea oi what is possible as humans"
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Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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When David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, proposed investigating the "rainbow body," a phenomenon in which the corpses of highly developed spiritual individuals reputedly vanish within days of death, he received an enthusiastic response from Marilyn Schlitz, IONS' director of research. In a new joint initiatie with the Lsalen Institute, IONS is expanding its research on "metanormal capacities"behaiors, experiences, and bodily changes that challenge our understanding o ordinary human unctioningbecause they raise crucial questions about the deelopmental potential o human beings. "Brother Daid told us that he had taken this project to arious institutions and oundations looking or support," recalls Schlitz. "lis intention was to corroborate these claims, and accumulate data that would not only help us understand more about the rainbow body, but also look at its broader implications. le had been told that this type o research is unacceptable within mainstream science. But I said, '1his is exactly the kind o project we're interested in at IONS. As long as the research can be conceptualized within a rigorous critical rame, we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea o what is possible as humans'." Steindl-Rast's own curiosity about the rainbow body began when he heard arious stories o 1ibetan masters who had, through their practices, reached a high degree o wisdom and compassion. It was reported to him that when they died, rainbows suddenly appeared in the sky. "And I was told that ater seeral days their bodies disappeared. Sometimes ingernails and hair were let. Sometimes nothing was let." 1hese stories made him relect upon the resurrection o Jesus Christ, which is central to his own aith. "\e know that Jesus was a ery compassionate, selless person. \hen he died, according to the gospels, his body was no longer there." In today's world, Steindl-Rast points out, the resurrection o Jesus Christ is interpreted dierently, depending upon one's spiritual leanings. lor undamentalists, the resurrection the act o rising rom the deadhappened only to Jesus, and couldn't happen to any other human. 1he minimalists, on the other hand, says Steindl-Rast, ocus on Jesus' spirit liing on, and beliee that the resurrection o Jesus had nothing to do with his body. \et, a large number o people ,including himsel, are open to the concept that the body, too, is signiicant in the spiritual realm, and that certain spiritual experiences are uniersal. In 1999, he decided to explore the strange phenomenon o the rainbow body and a possible connection to the resurrection o Jesus. "I sent a ax to a riend in Switzerland, who is a Zen Buddhist teacher. I knew that many 1ibetans lie there, and so I asked him i he could inquire about the rainbow body. 1wo days later, I receied a ax back stating that a 1ibetan had unexpectedly approached him, and when the rainbow body was mentioned, the 1ibetan said, 'It happened to one o my teachers just recently, and a amous lama who witnessed the eents wrote an account about them'." At this point, Steindl-Rast contacted lather lrancis 1iso, an ordained Roman Catholic priest who has not only studied ten languages, including 1ibetan, but is also amiliar with 1ibetan culture. ,lrancis 1iso holds the oice o Canon in the Cathedral o St Peter, Isernia, Italy, and is assigned to the Archdiocese o San lrancisco, where he is parochial icar in Mill Valley., "I was aware," says Steindl-Rast, "that lather 1iso occasionally went to 1ibet, so I asked him i he was planning to trael there in the near uture. le told me he was leaing that ery day." Steindl-Rast asked i he would stop in Switzerland and interiew the 1ibetan. Despite the short notice, 1iso took a detour to Switzerland, and thus the research journey began. 1he rainbow body is a complex phenomenon that will probably take years o study. "I we can establish as an anthropological act," says Steindl-Rast, "that what is described in the resurrection o Jesus has not only happened to others, but is happening today, it would put our iew o human potential in a completely dierent light." Recent Rainbow Body Lxperiences 1hrough his Swiss contact, 1iso receied the name o the monk whose body had anished ater his death: Khenpo A-chos, a Gelugpa monk o Khams, 1ibet, who died in 1998. 1iso was able to locate the illage, situated in a remote area where Khenpo A-chos had his hermitage. le then went to the illage and conducted taped interiews with eyewitnesses to Khenpo A-chos' death. le also spoke to many people who had known him. "1his was a ery interesting man, aside rom the way he died," obseres 1iso. "Leryone mentioned his aithulness to his ows, his purity o lie, and how he oten spoke o the importance o cultiating compassion. le had the ability to teach een the roughest and toughest o types how to be a little more gentle, a little more mindul. 1o be in the man's presence changed people." 1iso interiewed Lama Norta, a nephew o Khenpo A-chos, Lama Sonam Gyamtso, a young disciple, and Lama A-chos, a dharma riend o the late Khenpo A-chos. 1hey described the ollowing: A ew days beore Khenpo A-chos died, a rainbow appeared directly aboe his hut. Ater he died, there were dozens o rainbows in the sky. Khenpo A-chos died lying on his right side. le wasn't sick, there appeared to be nothing wrong with him, and he was reciting the mantra!"# #%&' (%)#* +,#! oer and oer. According to the eyewitnesses, ater his breath stopped his lesh became kind o pinkish. One person said it turned brilliant white. All said it started to shine. Lama A-chos suggested wrapping his riend's body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug monks wear. As the days passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his bones and his body were shrinking. 1hey also heard beautiul, mysterious music coming rom the sky, and they smelled perume. Ater seen days, they remoed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and a ew other indiiduals claimed that ater his death Khenpo A-chos appeared to them in isions and dreams. Other Rainbow Body Manifestations lrancis 1iso remarks that one o his most intriguing interiews was with Lama A-chos. le told 1iso that when he died he, too, would maniest the rainbow body. "le showed us two photographs taken o him in the dark, and in these photographs his body radiated rays o light." Because Lama A-chos emphasized that it was possible to maniest the rainbow body while still alie, not just in death, 1iso plans to return to 1ibet with proessional camera equipment to try to photograph this radiating light. Other incidents o metanormal occurrences upon death are also being studied. lor instance, two o 1iso's colleagues were present or the postmortem process o Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who died eight years ago. "1his man was a ery large-boned indiidual," says 1iso, "and it was reported that seen weeks ater his death the lesh was reduced. 1hat could hae been done by chemical substances. loweer, the bones also shrank." Shrinkage o the body occurred with another guru, Lama 1hubten. lis miniature-sized rame is now kept in a monastery in Manali, India. 1iso has ascertained that incidents o bodies shrinking or disappearing shortly ater death were documented centuries ago, such as in the classic story o Milarepa, a Buddhist saint rom 1ibet who lied in the eleenth century. Milarepa's biography was translated into lrench by Jacques Bacot in 1912, and into Lnglish by \alter Lans-\entz in the 1920s. "In the ninth chapter o this literary classic," explains 1iso, who wrote a dissertation about the Buddhist saint, "it states that his body completely disappeared shortly ater his death." Len the earliest biographies o Milarepa, says 1iso, attest to this phenomenon. In addition, accounts exist about the great eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhaa and how his body anished. 1he Significance of Practice and Culture \hen conducting this type o research, says 1iso, it is important not only to interiew as many people as possible, but also to study biographies and any written explanations o these eents. \hen he arried in 1ibet to inestigate the death o Khenpo A-chos, 1iso was ortunate enough to obtain the bulk o his biography by Sonam Phuntsok within an hour o his arrial. \hat is at stake, explains 1iso, is not simply eriication o a phenomenon, but understanding the alues, spiritual practices, and culture in which this phenomenon is embedded. "\e need to examine these institutions and practices in a new light in order to recoer or humanity some ery proound truths about the expansion o the human consciousness and our potential as human beings." 1his opportunity is present in the Nyarong region in 1ibet, where seeral incidences o the rainbow body are said to hae occurred. 1he research team is now studying their way o lie, especially their spiritual practices. 1iso has also obtained copies o spiritual retreat manuals, which hae been particularly helpul. Lama A-chos told 1iso that it takes sixty years o intensie practice to achiee the rainbow body. "\hether it always takes that long, I don't know," acknowledges 1iso, "but we would like to be able to incorporate, in a respectul way, some o these practices into our own \estern philosophical and religious traditions." At the same time, continues 1iso, the research team plans to expand the scope o this research beyond the conines o the 1ibetan culture, so they can compare the rainbow body phenomenon with the resurrection o Jesus Christ. 1o our knowledge, says 1iso, the bodies o most Christian saints did not disappear or shrink ater their deaths. "lighly realized saints in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity tend to moe in the direction o incorruption, so that the body does not decay ater death." loweer, he adds, bodily ascensions are mentioned in the bible and other traditional texts or Lnoch, Mary, Llijah, and possibly Moses. And there are numerous stories o saints materializing ater their death, similar to the widespread phenomenon known as the "light- body." "In my church o Saints Cosmas and Damian in Italy, we hae a large number o accounts, going back centuries, that indicate that these saints appeared in dreams and isions, rescued people rom harm, and cured them o diseases. Len today, people still tell me they hae these isions," says 1iso. In 1984, when 1iso was meditating with his eyes open in a chapel in Italy, he, too, had an extraordinary ision. Jesus Christ, he says, appeared beore him in the orm o a iolet light- body. At that time, 1iso was considering taking a teaching position in the United States, but in this ision Christ indicated he should stay in Italy. "It was important not to make a mistake at that point in my lie," relects 1iso. "I did stay in Italy, where I was eentually ordained, and I lied in a hermitage chapel or almost twele years." 1iso has also had seeral 1ibetan teachers appear to him in dreams. \hen he gies public lectures he speaks rankly about these experiences, because he eels it is important or people to understand that they are more common than we think. "I think that as people mature in their spiritual practice, they begin to hae isionary experiences." Research Implications Countries such as China, 1iso notes, and certain political moements in \estern Lurope, hae chosen to abandon and een physically destroy anything to do with the contemplatie lie. "\e're now being asked to examine those institutions and their practices in a new light in order to recoer or humanity some ery proound truths about who we are as human beings." 1his research is clearly controersial because it tackles the age-old questions o lie ater death, the immortal soul, and reincarnation. lurthermore, it suggests that the alleged resurrection o Jesus Christ was not an isolated case, but shines as an example o what may be possible or all human beings. Both 1iso and Steindl-Rast emphasize that these experiences are said to occur only in highly eoled indiiduals who are the embodiment o compassion and loe. 1hey speculate these qualitiesconscience and consciousnessare a driing orce o eolution. "It is my great hope that the rainbow body research will make us more aware o this possibility," says Steindl-Rast. 1iso holds the opinion that in today's world, where consumerism, exploitation, and economic injustice are still out o control, there is an urgent need to reinorce the more loing, altruistic, and spiritual dimensions o the human being. In the uture, he says, we should consider establishing new models o monasteries and retreat centers or indiiduals who wish, with idealistic motiations, to intensiy their spiritual practices. le also proposes initiating a "holy" laboratory to document the progress o indiiduals. As or the rainbow body, 1iso and his team hope to actually witness and scientiically document the entire experience while it is occurring. "\hat is important" says Schlitz, "is that we broaden our scope o what we beliee is possible. \e want to discoer i there are ways we can begin to deelop spiritual practices that, een though they might not lead us to personally experience the rainbow body, could lead us to some other maniestation o our highest potential." GAIL BLRNICL HOLLAND is an associate editor o -"./ 0*1'*23 and ormer editor o 45&&*67'5&8. She is the author o 9 4%:: ;5< 45&&*67'5&= /5:,7'5&8 ;5< 4<*%7'&> % \hole .*2 4,:7,<* ,New \orld Library, 1998,. The Rainbow Body by Gail lolland, appeared in the .5*7'6 /6'*&6*8 0*1'*2 ,No. 59, March May 2002, pp. 3235,, the quarterly publication o the Institute o Noetic Sciences ,IONS,, and is reprinted with permission o IONS ,www.noetic.org,, all rights resered. Copyright 2002.