Malaysia & Singapore
According to International Associations of Near Death Studies, surveys taken in the US, Australia and Germany suggest that between four and 15% of the population have had near death experiences. And according to official statistics from Phase Research Center, an independent organisation that carries out research on out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming and astral projections, one in every five people today have encountered the sensation of living out of the body.
Near death experiences, out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming and astral projections are phenomena that take place every day. The numbers of these occurrences is increasing and they all point to the possibility of our consciousness going to different dimensions.
In this episode, The Paranormal Zone explores the functions of the pineal gland and how it affects these phenomenal experiences. Li Kim investigates and even experiences lucid dreaming and astral projection as well as OBE with Youri Zaritski, a practitioner of 14 years in these fields.
According to International Associations of Near Death Studies, surveys taken in the US, Australia and Germany suggest that between four and 15% of the population have had near death experiences. And according to official statistics from Phase Research Center, an independent organisation that carries out research on out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming and astral projections, one in every five people today have encountered the sensation of living out of the body.
Near death experiences, out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming and astral projections are phenomena that take place every day. The numbers of these occurrences is increasing and they all point to the possibility of our consciousness going to different dimensions.
In this episode, The Paranormal Zone explores the functions of the pineal gland and how it affects these phenomenal experiences. Li Kim investigates and even experiences lucid dreaming and astral projection as well as OBE with Youri Zaritski, a practitioner of 14 years in these fields.
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TVTranscript
00:00 There's blood flowing from the bottom of the door.
00:02 I could hear friends and scream on the other side of the door
00:05 and I was just so scared I woke up.
00:07 All she did was stare at me and say,
00:10 give me reasons I should continue living.
00:12 And then the soul just walked out.
00:14 Knowing that they were dead and speaking to them
00:17 was a bit freaky for me.
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00:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42 [LAUGHTER]
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00:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:52 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:56 One day when I was 12, I came home from school feeling exhausted.
01:00 I took a nap and was late for my swimming class.
01:03 As I was in a rush, I did not warm up before I started to swim.
01:07 When I was swimming the fourth time, my whole body froze.
01:10 I started to drown.
01:12 I couldn't breathe.
01:13 I saw my instructor coming towards me.
01:15 Then I blacked out.
01:17 When I opened my eyes, I saw people trying
01:19 to revive me from atop you.
01:22 I felt funny as if something was waiting for me from above.
01:26 White light surrounded me, and I was oozing in the air.
01:30 I floated higher and higher.
01:32 Then something pulled me back to the ground.
01:35 Then I woke up, and I coughed, and I vomited water.
01:39 And then other journey, you go a little bit high.
01:44 Then you start [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:51 According to the International Associations of Near Death
01:55 Studies, surveys taken in the United States, Australia,
01:58 and Germany suggest that 4% to 15% of the population
02:02 have had near death experiences.
02:04 I believe that a human being is a combination
02:07 of the physical body and the soul.
02:09 As I seeked for a biological explanation
02:11 for near death experiences, I discovered
02:14 some interesting information about a certain gland
02:16 in our body called the pineal gland.
02:19 The pineal gland is a tiny pine cone-shaped endocrine gland
02:23 found in the brain.
02:24 And this is where many people believe
02:26 is the location of the third eye,
02:28 as well as the door for the soul to go in and out.
02:31 Jen Lim, a new age spiritual practitioner
02:34 who has a gift to see what others cannot see,
02:37 has personally seen with her third eye
02:39 how her mother had left her body and returned to it.
02:43 I have a very, very personal experience, which is my mom.
02:47 Actually, she was suffering from acute pancreatitis
02:51 just about nine months ago.
02:53 And everything went sepsis, toxic.
02:56 She was going into unconscious, and we rushed her down
03:01 to the HDU.
03:02 And all I did was I stand there, and my mom's soul
03:07 just came out of her body.
03:10 All she did was stare at me and say, give me reasons
03:14 I should continue living.
03:17 And then the soul just walked out.
03:18 I astral traveled.
03:19 I asked a friend's master to astral travel
03:23 to try to find her.
03:25 And at the end, we found her.
03:27 We talked to her.
03:28 We requested everything.
03:29 And her soul made a decision to come back.
03:32 And then I saw it was through the third eye that she returned.
03:36 And sure enough, the next day, she wakes up in the morning.
03:40 In a blog article by His Eminence Thamrin Poochay,
03:44 there is an article on pineal gland.
03:45 And it says that the pineal gland is
03:49 involved with the sixth chakra.
03:51 Can you elaborate a little bit more about that?
03:53 We have seven chakras in the body.
03:55 The pineal gland, like you say, is the sixth chakra.
03:58 It is then opposite in direction to the sacral chakra, which
04:03 is the second chakra.
04:04 So they actually match each other.
04:07 So there is a lot of practices in Indian practice,
04:11 yogis especially, where they activate the kundalini energy
04:15 from your sacral chakra.
04:17 And they have it spin upwards all the way to the pineal gland,
04:21 or your third eye chakra, to open it up.
04:23 And therefore, they can travel, or they
04:25 can see another dimension.
04:27 So there are some people who travel to hell,
04:30 travel to heaven, travels to Angelic Realm.
04:36 What are the practices or methods
04:38 that people will use to activate the pineal gland?
04:41 One of the practices that a lot of people now likes to do
04:44 is to actually engage in the sun gazing exercise,
04:47 or sun gazing meditation.
04:49 The natural sunlight would actually
04:51 activate your pineal gland.
04:53 Secondly, you can also engage in scent, smell.
04:58 That's why we do incense during meditation, essential oils.
05:03 The third one is sound, using sound and mantra
05:07 to activate the pineal gland.
05:09 So some people will chant om.
05:12 Well, the fourth practice, which is most common,
05:14 is what we call meditation or yoga,
05:17 something that slows down your body.
05:19 And that really helps open up the pineal gland
05:22 into another dimension.
05:24 So when the pineal gland is active,
05:27 one could engage effectively in other body experiences.
05:32 One could possibly be highly psychic.
05:37 That's the case in everybody, is having an out-of-body experience
05:41 all the time.
05:42 Actually, all of us will experience
05:45 an out-of-body experience.
05:47 That is during our sleep time.
05:49 The only thing I would like to add in this
05:51 is that for an out-of-body experience practitioner
05:54 or someone who wants to activate their pineal gland,
05:58 there is also something that you need to learn.
06:01 That is a grounding.
06:03 Means knowing how to come back to your body,
06:06 how to live on Earth and not always just in the air.
06:11 According to Jen, an out-of-body experience is a happy one
06:14 as you don't feel any physical pain at all.
06:17 However, leaving the body for too long
06:20 opens up the chances for the body to be possessed by other beings,
06:23 or that one may be unable to return into one's own body completely.
06:28 Is the activation of the pineal gland beneficial to us?
06:31 They have another eye on top of their head
06:38 that while this unique structure must be the seed of the soul.
06:42 Many years ago, I went to Canada.
06:56 While I was there, I had a heart attack.
06:59 I felt that my heart had stopped.
07:02 I experienced a pleasant sensation and light feeling
07:06 like I was floating above my body.
07:09 When I turned around and looked down,
07:12 I could see my own body lying on the bed in the hospital
07:16 and the nurse kept calling my name.
07:18 I remember at that moment, I thought of my mother
07:22 and suddenly, I felt myself come down to the body and I woke up.
07:27 Is near-death or other body experiences related to the pineal gland,
07:34 a pine cone-shaped organ in our brain?
07:36 If you study through history,
07:38 you can find how this pine cone-shaped gland is depicted by different cultures.
07:43 The Pignas sculpture sits in the Vatican courtyard
07:46 called the Court of the Pine Cone
07:48 and is considered the largest pine cone statue in the world today.
07:52 On the back of the US dollar,
07:53 there is a symbol that is called the All-Seeing Eye
07:56 and it is believed to be a representation of the pineal gland.
08:00 To understand this pine cone symbolism further,
08:03 I travelled to Singapore to meet Professor Hsieh,
08:06 a cognitive neuroscientist who may be able to offer
08:09 a scientific explanation on the pineal gland.
08:12 The pineal gland is a small structure sitting in the middle of the brain.
08:21 It's part of the endocrine gland system.
08:24 The first one is that it will release a hormone called melatonin
08:28 which regulates our biological clock
08:31 such as the seasonal rhythm or the circadian rhythm
08:34 like our sleep-wake cycle.
08:36 Another function of the pineal gland is that it communicates
08:39 with another brain region called the pituitary gland.
08:42 So, where does this theory that the pineal gland is the third eye come about?
08:48 In humans, actually, the pineal gland responds to light indirectly.
08:53 So, meaning that the light will come into our eye first
08:56 and then go to a brain region called the suprachiasmatic nuclei
09:00 and then send the information to the pineal gland.
09:03 But interestingly, in some of the lower vertebrae,
09:06 they have another eye on top of their head.
09:10 And this eye is directly linked to the pineal gland.
09:13 Some people call this the third eye.
09:15 And the function of this third eye is to let these animals
09:18 detect subtle changes in sunlight
09:21 so that they can better adjust their biological clock.
09:26 I think historically, the pineal gland is taken a bit spiritually and mystically.
09:32 And there are a few reasons.
09:34 The first is that, for example, the 17th century philosopher René Descartes,
09:39 he discovered that the only non-paired structure
09:42 in the middle of the brain is the pineal gland.
09:45 He therefore thought that this unique structure must be the seed of the soul.
09:51 Would you say that there is sufficient scientific research to actually say,
09:57 "Yep, the pineal gland is associated with the third eye
10:02 and the growth of the spiritual path"?
10:05 To my knowledge, currently there's not enough evidence supporting this idea,
10:10 supporting the idea that the pineal gland is the inner third eye in humans.
10:15 But as a professor and as an investigator yourself,
10:19 what's your personal take on it?
10:21 I think as a scientist, I would like to keep my mind open to all kinds of possibilities.
10:27 I think the theory may make sense, right, because there's some historical link,
10:32 but there's no evidence to prove or disapprove this idea,
10:35 so it's inconclusive at this stage.
10:38 Statistics have shown that many people actually have out-of-body experiences,
10:44 some even near-death experiences where they actually are able to be out of their body
10:49 and they see in, but they come back.
10:51 Is there any correlation with what you study, the consciousness and the cognition?
10:56 Today, we have more and more evidence showing that near-death experience
11:00 is associated with a few things like lack of oxygen in the brain
11:05 and elevated carbon dioxide, and also excessive hormone and neurotransmitter
11:12 like endorphin and serotonin in the brain.
11:15 And experimentally, it's been shown that if you change the chemical concentration
11:19 of these substances in the brain, you will be able to induce near-death experience.
11:23 And also, there are recent neurostimulation and neuroimaging experiments
11:29 showing that near-death experience is associated with abnormal activity
11:35 in temporal lobe and hippocampus and temporal parietal junction.
11:40 So these are the regions in the brain responsible for memory and multisensory integration.
11:47 So you can see that this can probably explain the memory flashback
11:53 and this hallucination experience observed in near-death experience.
11:58 Out-of-body experiences can be simulated through a neural experiment.
12:03 But what simulates it when there are no other people in the lab?
12:07 Our own fears? Our faith? Or is there a life message that we need to embrace?
12:13 The first experience I had, it was quite a horrible nightmare.
12:17 I was stuck in a room in an asylum. The walls were dirty and the door is metal and rusty.
12:22 There's blood flowing from the bottom of the door.
12:25 I could hear bangs and screams on the other side of the door.
12:28 And I was just so scared I woke up.
12:30 So eventually, I just practiced meditation, breathing, just to fall back asleep.
12:36 Once I got back into the sleep, I actually got back into the nightmare.
12:40 But because I had that moment where I woke up in between,
12:44 I just had this realization, "Oh, I'm in a nightmare. I'm not just living this. This is a dream."
12:50 So I have control. So I turned around.
12:53 And as I turned around, then a very beautiful wooden window appeared with nice curtains.
13:00 So I chose this other path, this path of just happiness and colors.
13:06 And the atmosphere completely changed.
13:08 As I started to collect the testimonials of near-death and other body experiences,
13:15 I found out that other body experience is a skill that you can learn and practice.
13:19 Yuri Zarytsky, a Ukrainian who has made Malaysia his home, has had more than 600 other body experiences.
13:26 The experiences amazed him so much that he has organized workshops and classes to share his experiences with others.
13:33 So it was about 15 years ago that you had your point of no return and had your first experience.
13:41 So how could you tell it was an other body experience and not just merely a dream?
13:46 Oh, my first one was in Bukit Bintang in Malaysia.
13:51 Once I was in front of this experience, even simple things seemed amazing.
13:57 It's not about what's going on around. It's about how I perceive things, you know.
14:04 And the way the person perceives things, especially at the beginning, for the first time, it's overwhelming.
14:11 Where were you physically?
14:12 My body was in my bed.
14:14 When you were looking at Bukit Bintang Road, were you floating, flying, walking?
14:21 Are you seeing yourself or are you in first person?
14:24 I was in the first person. I didn't fly. I just walked around.
14:28 Walking around in the dream state, being conscious, it's really something.
14:33 What is Obi? Is it real? Is it imagination?
14:41 What is Obi?
14:45 What is Obi?
14:49 Walking around in the dream state, being conscious, it's really something.
14:59 Yuri is a practitioner of lucid dreaming and other body experiences for the past 15 years.
15:06 According to him, in order to have an other body experience, lucid dreaming is usually the first step that one needs to master.
15:13 Because this is how one can learn to separate the consciousness from the physical body.
15:18 And I am most curious about this.
15:21 Awareness is how many things, how much information can you take in.
15:27 So maybe you are sitting and only aware of yourself and suddenly you hear a bird chirping.
15:33 So you could say I am aware of the bird chirping.
15:36 Lucid dreaming means that one is made to be aware that one is in fact dreaming.
15:41 Well, for me, dreaming could be our own personal imagination.
15:45 Imagination and reality. Where do we draw the line? Or are there no lines?
15:50 I would say there is no line. There is no one who could be capable to clearly explain that line.
15:57 We can find theories about it, but we will not have a physical proof of everything that people bring from there.
16:08 There are techniques and practices which are accessible to absolutely everyone.
16:13 And you don't need to do meditation, relaxation, yoga or any spiritual practice.
16:18 You are going to learn the technique today. It's called phantom movement.
16:23 You are going to take your maximum hours of sleep. Let's say you can sleep for 8 hours.
16:28 You are going to minus from these 8 hours 3 hours.
16:32 You can practice it with any part of your body. Let's say I am doing it with my hand.
16:37 You can move your hand in any direction. Up, down, left, right.
16:43 You will try to move your head without moving your physical muscles.
16:49 How to practice phantom movement?
16:54 Usually people think that out of body or lucid dreaming is reserved for some kind of special people,
17:01 with some special powers or mystics.
17:04 But in reality every single person goes to sleep at night and has some dreams.
17:09 So when I teach it to other people, I am not bringing them to a new location.
17:15 I am only telling them now the difference is your relationship with the dream experience.
17:22 In what way? Is it a way of getting to know yourself better, answer some questions, inner demons?
17:30 When the person is not being conscious, the behavior of the person I would say is more emotional, driven.
17:37 So the person is in a certain situation, the person will react, reaction.
17:43 When the person is conscious, it is not a reaction anymore.
17:47 Because the person knows I am in the dream and I do not need to react.
17:52 I can act. And that is very different.
17:55 Because the person starts to direct itself into whatever experience they wish to have.
18:02 So I can consciously direct myself into any kind of experiences.
18:07 We are going to run through the whole algorithm.
18:10 Separation, phantom movement, listening in, falling asleep. That is one cycle.
18:15 Every technique we are doing is only 5 seconds, each of them.
18:19 So let's put ourselves comfortable.
18:22 Ok, body ready. Just imagine you are lying down.
18:25 So imagine you already woke up after the alarm, you already went back to the bed, you fall asleep.
18:30 Now you have another natural awakening.
18:34 Separation technique. So I try to stand up without moving my body.
18:38 It does not work. Move to the phantom movement.
18:41 Now try to move your head up, up, up, come back to the middle.
18:44 Down, down, down.
18:46 Right after the class I tried it on the first night.
18:49 What happened was I remember talking to two people who had already died.
18:55 And one was my uncle and one was my grandmother.
18:59 I was able to control my speech, yes.
19:02 So I think in a way I was somewhat conscious.
19:06 After yesterday's training with Yuri on the techniques of out of body experiences,
19:16 I wanted to explore and feel it for myself.
19:19 Unfortunately I was not successful.
19:22 But that is not the point.
19:24 The point is, what is OBE?
19:26 Is it real? Is it imagination?
19:29 So what we have done at the Paranormal Zone is we have set up something
19:33 in order for us to continue to explore.
19:36 What we did was we placed a card in this room on the table, face down.
19:43 We locked the room and no one has been in since.
19:46 Something is written on this card.
19:49 And the participants, including myself, after the training with Yuri,
19:53 were told to come and see what is written on the card.
19:57 So I was unsuccessful in getting here with my OBE experience or attempt.
20:03 What happened for you?
20:05 I did manage to project and I got the Queen of Spades.
20:10 So during your out of body experience coming to see this card,
20:14 was this the same environment that you saw?
20:17 I used teleportation.
20:19 So it's a well-known technique in OBE.
20:21 You can use a door and behind the door you can find the location.
20:25 So when I opened my door, it was the door that we see here,
20:28 and I entered the meeting room.
20:30 So the door you saw is this one?
20:32 I guess it's the regular door.
20:35 The table was parallel to the wall's door.
20:40 You see there are some changes.
20:42 Did you...?
20:43 No, I didn't see anyone inside.
20:45 OK, so now let's go inside and see what's on the card.
20:48 Shall we?
20:52 OK, let's have a look at what the card is.
20:56 So it's not a card at all.
21:03 It's a sign.
21:05 I probably thought that it is a card to... like a playing card.
21:10 So I got influenced.
21:13 We could have influenced you to be rather biased
21:17 as opposed to having a free travel, free-minded experience.
21:22 It's not because I have 600 OBEs behind my back
21:26 that I become professional in finding this kind of information.
21:30 I actually never trained for that, so I accepted the challenge that that's OK.
21:34 Does this test or experiment tell us that OBE is rubbish, does not exist?
21:41 I don't think so.
21:43 But what it has done is made me think and ask more.
21:49 Is out-of-body experience more about imagination?
21:54 Or is it what they say a reality?
21:57 Or is the mind simply just playing tricks on us?
22:02 The Paranormal Zone continues to investigate
22:06 more out-of-body experiences in the next episode.
22:09 Follow us as we travel to Taiwan in search of the paranormal experiences.
22:14 Stay tuned.
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