John Wren-Lewis

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John Wren-Lewis (1923 – 25 June 2006) was a British-born scientist who taught at
universities in Great Britain and the United States of America. He became known for
his publications ranging over the fields of science, psychology, education and
religion. He played a leading part in the so-called "Death of God" movement in
Britain. In later life, after a traumatic near-death experience in Thailand in
1983, he wrote and taught about the meaning of mysticism and a broad spectrum of
spiritual teachings.

Contents
1 Life
1.1 Travel to Asia and near-death experience
1.2 Australia and death
2 Views
3 See also
4 Publications
5 References
6 External links
Life
Wren-Lewis graduated in applied mathematics from the Imperial College of Science,
University of London. In the 1950s and 1960s, while working as industrial research
executive with Imperial Chemical Industries, he became known for his publications
as scholar, author and lecturer on topics of science, psychology, education and
religion.[1]

As of 1970 he was president of the British Association for Humanistic Psychology,

which later became the European Association for Humanistic Psychology.

Participating in the Regents' Lectureship Program in the UC Santa Barbara in 1971–

1972,[2] he moved to the United States in 1972 with his life partner, the dream
psychologist Ann Faraday. In 1972 he joined New College of Florida in Sarasota as
visiting professor of religious studies[1] and member of the faculty until 1974.[3]
Faraday and Lewis worked with the Esalen Institute since 1976.[4] He has taught at
universities in Great Britain and the United States of America.

Travel to Asia and near-death experience

John and Ann left the US to undertake three years of extended travel to India and
East Asia.[1]

They spent the year 1982 together in Malaysia. Earlier, in her publications
relating to dream theory, Ann Faraday had cited writings of Kilton Stewart, who had
seen great potential in what he had called "Senoi dream theory", and similarly
Patricia Garfield referred to techniques of the Senoi when describing her work on
dreams. However, Faraday and Wren-Lewis did not find any evidence supporting the
use of dream control education in local culture.[5][6]

In 1983, travelling with Ann, he was nearly poisoned to death in Thailand in the
course of an attempt of robbery and underwent a near-death experience which
profoundly changed his world view, and which has since been cited as a well-known
example of experience of transcendent consciousness.[7] Having been a convinced
sceptic up to that point, he changed perspective. He said of the movie Fearless by
Peter Weir that it conveyed "the actual feeling of a dimension beyond the life of
space and time".[8] He has described his changed view of perception in the words:
What I perceive with my eyes and other senses is a whole world that seems to be
coming fresh-minted into existence moment by moment.[9]
Australia and death
In 1984 the couple moved to Australia. He later said of himself that at that moment
he was "still reeling" from his experience of a year before.[10] He became honorary
associate at the Faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney.[11]

He and Ann Faraday together wrote a book The 9:15 to Nirvana about his near-death
experience.[12]

As recorded in the Ryerson Index, he died on 25 June 2006 at Shoalhaven, New South
Wales, aged 82 years.

Views
After his near-death experience, Wren-Lewis was no longer a sceptic of mysticism as
such, yet remained critical of endeavours aimed at attaining personal growth and
spiritual awakening by following existing paths of practice, in particular when
undertaken with the aid of a guru. His change in viewpoint was reflected in his
later work:

I know from firsthand experience that the "joy beyond joy" is greater than the
wildest imaginations of a consciousness bogged down in time. But I can also see
that the very impulse to seek the joy of eternity is a Catch-22, because seeking
itself implies a preoccupation with time, which is precisely what drives eternity
out of awareness. […] So what to do? One thing I learned in my former profession of
science was that the right kind of lateral thinking can often bring liberation from
Catch-22 situations, provided the Catch-22 is faced in its full starkness, without
evasions in the form of metaphysical speculations beyond experience. This is the
exploration to which my life is now dedicated.:[13]

The psychologist Imants Barušs has interpreted this as a notion of a pre-physical

substrate with similarity to the implicate order, as it has been postulated by
theoretical physicists David Bohm and Basil Hiley.[7]

In his book review of Ken Wilber's book Grace and Grit: Sprirituality and Healing
in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber, he wrote:

My conviction, which I share with Jean Houston and many others, is that the human
race is entering a new phase, a new dispensation if you will, wherein we can
develop a more truly empirical mysticism than has ever existed in the dogma-
dominated cultures of the past.[14]

See also
Ann Faraday
Publications
Books
John Wren-Lewis: What shall we tell the children?, Constable (London), 1971, ISBN
0-09-456050-1
Charles Rycroft, Geoffrey Gorer, Anthony Storr, John Wren-Lewis, Peter Lomas:
Psychoanalysis Observed, Edited with an introduction by Charles Rycroft, Coward-
McCann, 1967 – Book Review
C.F.D. Moule, John Wren-Lewis, D.A. Pond, P.R. Baelz: Faith, Fact and Fantasy,
Westminster Press, 1966
Articles
John Wren-Lewis: The implications of Near-Death Experiences for Understanding Post-
Traumatic Growth, Psychological Inquiry, vol. 15 no. 1, 2004
John Wren-Lewis: A Terrible Beauty: Reflections on Love and the Near-Death
Experience. First appeared in IONS Review No. 54, December 2000 – February 2001,
pp. 16–19 (now published under the name Shift–At the Frontiers of Consciousness)
John Wren-Lewis: On Babies and Bathwater: A Non-Ideological Alternative to
Mahner/Bunge Proposals for Relating Science and Religion in Education, Science and
Education, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996, pp. 185–188, abstract
John Wren-Lewis: Death Knell of the Guru System? Perfectionism Versus
Enlightenment, Journal of Humanistic Psychology Spring 1994, vol. 34 no. 2, pp. 46–
61, doi:10.1177/00221678940342004, abstract
John Wren-Lewis: Aftereffects of near-death experiences: A survival mechanism
hypothesis, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology vol. 26 no. 2, 1994, pp. 107–115,
abstract
John Wren-Lewis: Avoiding the Columbus Confusion: An Ockhamish View of Near-Death
Research, Guest Editorial, Springer, Journal of Near-Death Studies, 1992, vol. 11
no. 2, pp. 75–81, doi:10.1007/BF01074300, abstract
John Wren-Lewis: The Darkness of God. A Personal Report on Consciousness
Transformation Through an Encounter with Death, Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Spring 1988, vol. 28 no. 2 pp. 105–122, doi:10.1177/0022167888282011, abstract (and
excerpt in German translation)
John Wren-Lewis: Resistance to the study of the paranormal, Journal of Humanistic
Psychology vol. 14 no. 2, Springer 1974, pp. 41–48, doi:10.1177/002216787401400205,
abstract
John Wren-Lewis: Faith in the technological future, Futures, vol. 2 no. 3,
September 1970, pp. 258–262
John Wren-Lewis: The Passing of Puritanism I, Critical Quarterly, vol. 5 no. 4, pp.
295–306, December 1963 (Article first published online: 28 September 2007,
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8705.1963.tb01196.x) abstract
References
Wren-Lewis, www.capacitie.org
Regents´ Lectureship Program, UC Santa Barbara Archived 27 September 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
New College faculty members 1960–2010[permanent dead link], New College of Florida
Wren Lewis
Peter J. Bräunlein: Auf der Suche nach den "träumenden Senoi", In: kea 13 / 2000 –
Träume/n, pp. 45–90; p. 77 Archived 26 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in German
language)
Ann Faraday, John Wren-Lewis: The Selling of the Senoi (full text).
Imants Barušs: Quantum Theories of Consciousness, Baltic Journal of Psychology,
2006 vol. 7 no. 1 p. 39–45[permanent dead link]
John Wren-Lewis: A Terrible Beauty: Reflections on Love and the Near-Death
Experience. First appeared in IONS Review No. 54, December 2000 – February 2001,
pp. 16–19 (now published under the name Shift–At the Frontiers of Consciousness)
Wren-Lewis, J. (1988). The darkness of God: A personal report on consciousness
transformation through an encounter with death. Journal of Humanistic Psychology,
28, 105–122, see page 116.
Near-Death Experiences: A Significant New Inter-Religious Phenomenon by John Wren-
Lewis. URL: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 September 2011.
Retrieved 25 June 2011.
See Footnote to John Wren-Lewis: Avoiding the Columbus Confusion: An Ockhamish
View of Near-Death Research, Guest Editorial, Springer, Journal of Near-Death
Studies, 1992, vol. 11 no. 2, pp. 75–81, doi:10.1007/BF01074300, abstract
"Fall Trade Paperbacks: New Age". Publishers Weekly. 253 (32): 161. 14 August
2006. The 9:15 to Nirvana (Oct., $19.95) by John Wren-Lewis and Ann Faraday
attempts to explain the "eternity consciousness" that emerged after Wren-Lewis's
near-fatal poisoning.
John Wren-Lewis: The dazzling dark
Book review of Ken Wilber's book Grace and Grit: Sprirituality and Healing in the
Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber (PDF)
External links
Wren Lewis at www.capacitie.org, with archive and links
Comments from Professor John Wren-Lewis on Susan Blackmore's book Dying to Live:
Science and the Near Death Experience, Harper Collins, 1993 (PDF)
John Wren-Lewis: The dazzling dark (full text)
Book Review by John Wren-Lewis, University of Sydney, of the book The Little Book
of Life and Death by D. E. Harding (PDF)
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
VIAF 1WorldCat
Categories: British scientistsNear-death experience researchers2006 deaths1923
birthsBritish expatriates in the United StatesAlumni of Imperial College
LondonBritish expatriates in IndiaBritish expatriates in MalaysiaBritish
expatriates in Australia
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