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David Maginley
Rev. David Maginley is an interfaith spiritual counselor at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and award-winning author of Beyond Surviving: Cancer and Your Spiritual Journey. He is featured in the documentaries Here Right Now, and When You Die. David has also survived cancer four times, which resulted in a profound near-death experience and explorations in the connection of body, mind and spirit. He knows cancer from both sides of the hospital bed, and this life from both sides of the veil.
Near Death Experiences (NDEs) can be a life changing event. David admits it took a decade for him to integrate the experience, and he is not unique in that.
Hear more as we discuss his experiences, insights and revelations regarding life, death and life afterwards.
David Maginley on Bump In The Road
The conversation with David ran about an hour and is divided into two podcasts.
The Science of NDEs
Science can validate an NDE (Near Death Experience) yet it remains a “not to be mentioned” experience, particularly in western culture. Why is that? Why do we turn away from what many see as a merging of our understanding of science, quantum physics and spirituality?
Would having a profound knowing of life after death change your life here and now? Would such knowledge be welcomed or more of a bump in the road? And would you tell people about it?
David’s story, and his book, is a personal and professional journey that merges physics, philosophy and consciousness research. The book is a profound act of love that will have you laughing, crying and wondering. Is there life after death? And if so, what does that mean?
David Maginley Talks About Life, Death and Life Afterwards
David offers so many interesting insights on cancer, on life after death and on the process of passing. Here are a few excerpts from his book, Beyond Surviving.
On Life After Death:
“Wrapped up in that ephemeral awareness is the hard work of harnessing the wisdom of grief, love, and mortality to amplify life and the connection to our immortal nature. There is robust (though often dismissed) evidence showing how that immortal nature is indeed very real.”
“It is just as important to see death not as a failure, but a transformation…how wonderful to find it does not destroy us!”
On Cancer:
“Cancer. The word amplifies our frailty, awakens our mortality, and activates the existential crisis that can either stir us with vitality or plunge us into despair.”
“Solitude and a sense of abandonment are fertile, frightening fields to cross, especially when we carry so much with us into the wilderness. Cancer throws everyone into that landscape, ripping the carpet of security out from underneath. Suddenly everything is different, and the next breath can feel like such a gift. How does one make this journey?”
“All souls are wounded. Cancer is a powerful impetus to address the difficult work of reconciliation, sorrow and partnering with our mind in such a way as to cultivate a stronger and more compassionate presence.”
“Perhaps the real question we need to ask, then, is not ‘Why did I get cancer’, but ‘What am I going to do with it.’ “
“Go beyond surviving cancer–use it to fuel your trowth, expand your consciousness, heal your heart, and transform your life.”
“Yet even while cancer may threaten to take your life, it also amplifies it with the messsage, Look Feel Taste. Be aware, . Don’t miss this. Don’t miss this beautiful, ordinary day. It may be the last time you feel this good, taste this food, take this step…It is the bumpy road to full awareness.”
On Belief Systems:
“Here’s that cognitive dissonance, the mental stress experienced when your realityis shattered by another…it can be triggered by exposure to any idea, beliefs, values or emotions that are so troubling they cause you to tune out.”
“Ahead lie chaos and a new creation (the two always go hand in hand).”
“The biology of belief is simply not a variable that fits neatly into the curriculum of Western medicine.”
On Spirituality:
“It is immanent and transcendent. It is both within you and just beyond your grasp, a realization that you are not alone….You are the stuff of stars, and the implications are simply staggering.”
“Spirituality must be an individual experience, as we can only encounter the world through the filter of our senses and the blinders of our perceptions. But it is always a corporate expression, manifest in how we treat ourselves, each other, and the world.
Religion, on the other hand, is corporate, systemic spirituality; corporate in that it is a shared group experience, systemic in the is is structured upon beliefs, rituals and doctrine”
“Faith is a state of connected consciousness. You experience God as immanent and transcendent, both flowing through you and infiinitly greater than you, sustaining you in every moment. Far from being the conductor of your life, you, instead, an instrument in a vast symphony being expressed from God. Healing may then be understood as coming into tune with the sacred song.”
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