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MYSTICAL STATES + 235 good and evil, suffering and happiness, small and large. We now are certain that consciousness continues after the body dies, and that it existed long before this particular physical form. We see the entire universe in a blade of grass and know what our face was like before our parents met. Extraordinarily powerful feelings surge through our consciousness. We are ecstatic, and the intensity of this joy is such that our body cannot contain it—it seems to need a temporarily disembodied state. While the bliss is pervasive, there's also an underlying peace and equanimity that's not affected by even this incredibly profound happiness. There is a searing sense of the sacred and the holy. We contact an unchanging, unborn, undying, and uncreated reality. It is a personal en- counter with the "Big Bang," God, Cosmic Consciousness, the source of all being. Whatever we call it, we know we have met the fundamental bedrock and fountainhead of existence, one that emanates love, wisdom, and power on an unimaginable scale. We call it "enlightenment" because we encounter the white light of creation's majesty. We may meet guides, angels, or other disembodied spirits, but we pass them all as we merge with the light. Our eyes now, finally, are truly open, and we see things clearly in a "new light." The import and momentousness of the experience stands alone in our history. It may serve to focus the rest of our life toward the completion, filling out, and working through of the insights obtained. Some of these types of experiences occurred in our volunteers within the context of another more compelling category of encounter, such as mind- body healing, being contact, or near-death experiences. For example, Willow's near-death experiences partook of a deep spiritual nature. And Cassandra's DMT-tolerance sessions involved more than simply working through personal trauma; she also experienced the presence of deeply loving and healing beings. In this chapter, we'll hear about spiritual expe- riences that predominated the volunteers' sessions. These DMT sessions were some of the most satisfying of the re- search. Since Elena's and Sean's came relatively early in the studies, they supported the validity and importance of studying the spirit