Death, Rebirth, and Everything in Between with Carter Phipps; Senior Editor of What is Enlightenment Magazine!

Principle #7 of the SHOCKphilosophy™ says you must face a death and rebirth experience before moving to the next concentric level of consciousness; but Senior Editor for What Is Enlightenment? magazine (WIE) has extensive scientific research to prove the death & rebirth experience in the literal sense.

Reincarnation may be a premodern belief but for some it has become a postmodern obsession. And contemporary evidence being gathered in support of this ancient notion is making a powerful case that may forever change the way we think about what happens after our corporeal form passes away.

In his search for the truth about reincarnation, the soul and the afterlife, Carter Phipps, senior editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine (WIE) spent nearly a year of exhaustive research interviewing today's leading researchers and theorists in the fields of parapsychology, near-death experiences, and reincarnation, seeking answers to many of our perennial existential questions and some surprising new ones as well, such as:

• What happens to us at the moment of death?
  
• Where do we go after we die?
  
• Is there a life review process in the afterlife?
  
• What is the soul? Do souls emerge fully formed into existence or do they evolve?
  
• Is the whole process of reincarnation evolving moment-to-moment along with the material universe?
  

The result is his groundbreaking feature article titled Death, Rebirth, and Everything in Between: A scientific and philosophical journey, (WIE, March-May, 2006). In it Phipps not only investigates the existence of the soul, afterlife and rebirth but proposes that they are actually evolving right along with the material world. In fact, Phipps dares to place the whole inquiry of reincarnation, the afterlife and the bardo realms in an evolutionary context calling into question our role in their very creation.

Is Reincarnation Real?

Today, interest in the whole arena of reincarnation, and the afterlife is rapidly growing and reflected culturally in our mass media.

But what makes this resurgence of interest so noteworthy is that it's not just happening in pop culture or the outer fringes of the New Age but in private institutions, academic research centers, and professional conferences that span a number of different disciplines. And a large and growing body of evidence is emerging that can be objectively and empirically analyzed which is suggestive of the existence of an afterlife and rebirth process.

"But even as we consider the growing evidence for reincarnation and survival," says Phipps, "we also need to ask new questions about how to interpret the data such as: How does the way we think about death and rebirth need to be updated for a postmodern, post-traditional world?"

Because reincarnation is after all a premodern notion that came to prominence around the same time as many of the world's great wisdom traditions. Those traditions developed elaborate metaphysical systems of death and rebirth and detailed maps of the nonphysical realms. But they constructed their philosophies based on an understanding of the world that was significantly less developed than our own, Phipps contends. And as profound and important as these ancient systems are, Phipps believes they can often be problematic in a modern context.

So, what would a new philosophical framework for an evolving metaphysics look like? How would an updated philosophical context change the way we understand the soul, the afterlife and the whole process of life, death and rebirth?

With everyone and her mother claiming to have been Cleopatra in a past life, the New Age has given reincarnation a bad name. But what if there were scientific evidence for this ancient idea? Carter will extensively discusses the groundbreaking research that will forever change the way you look at life, death, and the mystery of what comes next.

Topics of discussion:

• Where do we go when we die
  
  • What are the differences between:
    
  • Near death experiences
    
  • Out of body experiences
    
  • Past life memories
    
  • Experiments with mediums
    
  • Visions of apparitions
• Why ESP is now called the science of survival
  
• What scientists have discovered about reincarnation
  
• Why reincarnation is no longer religious phenomenon
  
• How are we cosmically recycled
  
• How the body remembers after death
  
• The new scientific A-Field theory vs. the metaphysical Akashic Records
• What happens to us at the moment of death?
• Is there a life review process in the afterlife?
• Do heaven and hell really exist?
  
• Is the process of death evolving?
• What is the soul? ...and does it emerge fully formed into existence or does it evolve?
  

About Carter Phipps

Carter Phipps is a Senior Editor for What Is Enlightenment? magazine (WIE). In his seven years with WIE, he has penned some of its most in-depth investigative pieces. From metaphysics to politics to science and technology, Phipps brings to his journalistic inquiry the unique evolutionary and contemporary moral and ethical perspective for which WIE is renowned.

Over the years, Phipps has delved into the subject of metaphysics from many angles. His most recent feature article "Reincarnation: Death, Rebirth and Everything in Between" (WIE, Issue 32, 2006) is a thought-provoking investigation not merely into the existence of reincarnation and the afterlife, or interlife as some call it, but into the possibility that the human experience of the afterlife (heaven, hell, and the bardo realms) is actually evolving right along with our material world.

In addition to interviewing some of the world's leading spiritual and religious authorities, Phipps is also the magazine's leading political commentator in search of what he calls "Enlightened Politics." His feature article, "Is God a Pacifist?", (WIE, Issue 26, 2004) is a philosophical analysis of war, peace, and nonviolence in our post-9/11 world.

His own interest in science and technology led to a groundbreaking investigation into the moral and ethical implications of the rapidly accelerating rate of change in our material world, highlighting both the intriguing possibilities that the emerging technological innovations hold for us and the disconcerting implications that often accompany them (WIE, Issue 23, 2003).

Phipps has presented, both nationally and internationally, on various themes covered in What Is Enlightenment? In 2004, he represented WIE at the invitation-only assembly of religious leaders at Montserrat, Spain, convened by the Parliament of the World's Religions. He has also presented at the prestigious World's Future Society Conference in Washington, DC.

Carter Phipps received his BA in Business Economics from the University of Oklahoma and worked in the computer industry for a number of years before joining the staff of What Is Enlightenment? magazine. He has also studied and worked in the emerging field of collective intelligence for the past fifteen years, leading discussions in a unique group process called enlightened communication. He lives in Lenox, Massachusetts with his wife Ellen and their nameless cat.