Coast to Coast AM - Nov 01 2011 - Visitations & Spiritual Experiences

Host: George Noory
Guests: Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Dr. Bruce Fagel

Hour 1 - Attorney and physician Dr. Bruce Fagel talked about surgical blunders and catastrophic medical injuries.

"There are a lot of things that happen because of the complex interaction between physicians and nurses," and the assumptions made between them," he said, citing mistakes that happen during surgery, as well as the anesthesia process, and post-surgical monitoring. Medicine is not as heavily regulated as, say the airline industry, and doctors aren't checked for drug and alcohol use the way that pilots are, he noted.

Hours 2, 3 & 4 - Scholar, award-winning poet, Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition), Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, discussed people's extraordinary or supernatural experiences, including spiritual visitations.

Some cultures have tried to suppress or discount people's spiritual encounters, such as declaring that a person is mentally ill, if they say they've seen a religious apparition, or something that is greater than themselves. She disparaged this practice, saying "it's like putting a scourge on them," and telling them they are not worthy to have this experience.

Delineating our spiritual and psychological nature, she said the spirit is the animating force of the psyche, whereas the soul is a gigantic broadcasting and transmission system, capable of receiving from beyond the body and the mind. The soul could be thought of like the universe, while the ego is just a tiny island, Dr. Estes continued. Regarding people's supernatural encounters such as the appearances at Fatima, Lourdes, and Medugorje, she said "there's a huge force in the world, call it whatever you like. We are too small to comprehend it, but we have representations of it," such as the Holy or Blessed Mother.

These apparitions are called different names in various cultures, and the effects they have on people are more important than the specifics of what they see, she commented. Imagination is different from fantasy; it is the perception that allows us to see the other world, Estes stated. She also shared her own childhood encounter with a 'Blessed Mother' type figure, who came to her from the water on a beach. Later, her family denied her experience and told her she was seeing a nearby lighthouse.