Elaine Pagels

And maybe that's just the thing people need when they go into death to allow them to do it. But there may be something else. So I have a sense that what we think of as the invisible world has deep realities to it that are quite unfathomable. I think about this in the way that Tanya Luhrmann at Stanford wrote a brilliant book called How God Becomes Real. She's talking about Jewish tradition.

She's talking about Muslim tradition, about witchcraft, and about Christianity, various kinds. And she says... People don't just talk to invisible beings because they believe they're there. They actually engage in practices like prayer, meditation, opening themselves up to a larger sense of expectation of what's real.

She's talking about Muslim tradition, about witchcraft, and about Christianity, various kinds. And she says... People don't just talk to invisible beings because they believe they're there. They actually engage in practices like prayer, meditation, opening themselves up to a larger sense of expectation of what's real.

She's talking about Muslim tradition, about witchcraft, and about Christianity, various kinds. And she says... People don't just talk to invisible beings because they believe they're there. They actually engage in practices like prayer, meditation, opening themselves up to a larger sense of expectation of what's real.

And as they practice that, they become susceptible to envisioning more reality than the visible world. Or seeing the transcendent in the visible.

And as they practice that, they become susceptible to envisioning more reality than the visible world. Or seeing the transcendent in the visible.

And as they practice that, they become susceptible to envisioning more reality than the visible world. Or seeing the transcendent in the visible.

I do. I do. And Tanya does herself in the book. So it need not be spirits and gods. It could be the beauty of nature, the way it transforms people, or of art or music that seems to open up. a wider reality than the visible. So, yes, I'm now bizarrely open to that.

I do. I do. And Tanya does herself in the book. So it need not be spirits and gods. It could be the beauty of nature, the way it transforms people, or of art or music that seems to open up. a wider reality than the visible. So, yes, I'm now bizarrely open to that.

I do. I do. And Tanya does herself in the book. So it need not be spirits and gods. It could be the beauty of nature, the way it transforms people, or of art or music that seems to open up. a wider reality than the visible. So, yes, I'm now bizarrely open to that.

No, not too much, except... Except when I bring it up. As we get older, yes, it does come in. It does cross the mind from time to time. But I had some experiences with people I love who died that... I couldn't explain at all and totally didn't expect. I thought this was – I couldn't imagine it would happen. What were they?

No, not too much, except... Except when I bring it up. As we get older, yes, it does come in. It does cross the mind from time to time. But I had some experiences with people I love who died that... I couldn't explain at all and totally didn't expect. I thought this was – I couldn't imagine it would happen. What were they?

No, not too much, except... Except when I bring it up. As we get older, yes, it does come in. It does cross the mind from time to time. But I had some experiences with people I love who died that... I couldn't explain at all and totally didn't expect. I thought this was – I couldn't imagine it would happen. What were they?

Well, even after my husband's sudden death in a mountain climbing accident, it was just an utter total shock. I went to a Trappist monastery in Colorado where I happened to have gone with musicians who were playing music for the monks from the Juilliard Quartet, Robert Mann. And I got to know the monks, and I often went there and meditated in this very beautiful well of silence in the chapel.

Well, even after my husband's sudden death in a mountain climbing accident, it was just an utter total shock. I went to a Trappist monastery in Colorado where I happened to have gone with musicians who were playing music for the monks from the Juilliard Quartet, Robert Mann. And I got to know the monks, and I often went there and meditated in this very beautiful well of silence in the chapel.

Well, even after my husband's sudden death in a mountain climbing accident, it was just an utter total shock. I went to a Trappist monastery in Colorado where I happened to have gone with musicians who were playing music for the monks from the Juilliard Quartet, Robert Mann. And I got to know the monks, and I often went there and meditated in this very beautiful well of silence in the chapel.

I couldn't be a Catholic. It's just sort of against my Protestant resistance to that kind of authority. But there's something very deep and powerful about those experiences with those monks. And after my husband's death and after planning the funeral in a very spiritually deprived Protestant church in town, I went out there and meditated with one of the monks, who was an amazing man.

I couldn't be a Catholic. It's just sort of against my Protestant resistance to that kind of authority. But there's something very deep and powerful about those experiences with those monks. And after my husband's death and after planning the funeral in a very spiritually deprived Protestant church in town, I went out there and meditated with one of the monks, who was an amazing man.

I couldn't be a Catholic. It's just sort of against my Protestant resistance to that kind of authority. But there's something very deep and powerful about those experiences with those monks. And after my husband's death and after planning the funeral in a very spiritually deprived Protestant church in town, I went out there and meditated with one of the monks, who was an amazing man.

And I thought I heard a voice saying to me, I thought I could suddenly, after we meditated for an hour, I had the idea that I could ask my husband a question. I said, well, what do you think about this? And a voice came into my head, not auditory. This is fine with me. It's you I think about now. And I said, fine with you? What do you mean fine with you? You leave me with two tiny babies.