Wow, he covers a lot of ground. Religion, near-death, drugs, meditation, he's got it. When I was young, this stuff fascinated me, as it seemed incredible that you could go beyond your everyday self, but as I got older, it was this that I came to like. Famous Zen story - monk gets enlightened, and the birds come to his hut and sing to him. His teacher is angry, and tells him this is narcissistic horse-shit. He carries on meditating, and the birds fly away.