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by Gail Bernice Holland

When David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, proposed investigating the "rainbow
body," a phenomenon in which the corpses of highly developed spiritual individuals
reputedly vanish within days of death, he received an enthusiastic response from
Marilyn Schlitz, IONS' director of research.
In a new joint initiatie with the Lsalen Institute, IONS is expanding its research on
"metanormal capacities"behaiors, experiences, and bodily changes that challenge our
understanding o ordinary human unctioningbecause they raise crucial questions about
the deelopmental potential o human beings.
"Brother Daid told us that he had taken this project to arious institutions and oundations
looking or support," recalls Schlitz. "lis intention was to corroborate these claims, and
accumulate data that would not only help us understand more about the rainbow body, but
also look at its broader implications. le had been told that this type o research is
unacceptable within mainstream science. But I said, '1his is exactly the kind o project we're
interested in at IONS. As long as the research can be conceptualized within a rigorous
critical rame, we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea o
what is possible as humans'."
Steindl-Rast's own curiosity about the rainbow body began when he heard arious stories o
1ibetan masters who had, through their practices, reached a high degree o wisdom and
compassion. It was reported to him that when they died, rainbows suddenly appeared in the
sky. "And I was told that ater seeral days their bodies disappeared. Sometimes ingernails
and hair were let. Sometimes nothing was let."
1hese stories made him relect upon the resurrection o Jesus Christ, which is central to his
own aith. "\e know that Jesus was a ery compassionate, selless person. \hen he died,
according to the gospels, his body was no longer there."
In today's world, Steindl-Rast points out, the resurrection o Jesus Christ is interpreted
dierently, depending upon one's spiritual leanings. lor undamentalists, the resurrection
the act o rising rom the deadhappened only to Jesus, and couldn't happen to any other
human. 1he minimalists, on the other hand, says Steindl-Rast, ocus on Jesus' spirit liing
on, and beliee that the resurrection o Jesus had nothing to do with his body.
\et, a large number o people ,including himsel, are open to the concept that the body, too,
is signiicant in the spiritual realm, and that certain spiritual experiences are uniersal.
In 1999, he decided to explore the strange phenomenon o the rainbow body and a possible
connection to the resurrection o Jesus. "I sent a ax to a riend in Switzerland, who is a Zen
Buddhist teacher. I knew that many 1ibetans lie there, and so I asked him i he could
inquire about the rainbow body. 1wo days later, I receied a ax back stating that a 1ibetan
had unexpectedly approached him, and when the rainbow body was mentioned, the 1ibetan
said, 'It happened to one o my teachers just recently, and a amous lama who witnessed the
eents wrote an account about them'."
At this point, Steindl-Rast contacted lather lrancis 1iso, an ordained Roman Catholic priest
who has not only studied ten languages, including 1ibetan, but is also amiliar with 1ibetan
culture. ,lrancis 1iso holds the oice o Canon in the Cathedral o St Peter, Isernia, Italy,
and is assigned to the Archdiocese o San lrancisco, where he is parochial icar in Mill
Valley.,
"I was aware," says Steindl-Rast, "that lather 1iso occasionally went to 1ibet, so I asked him
i he was planning to trael there in the near uture. le told me he was leaing that ery
day."
Steindl-Rast asked i he would stop in Switzerland and interiew the 1ibetan. Despite the
short notice, 1iso took a detour to Switzerland, and thus the research journey began.
1he rainbow body is a complex phenomenon that will probably take years o study. "I we
can establish as an anthropological act," says Steindl-Rast, "that what is described in the
resurrection o Jesus has not only happened to others, but is happening today, it would put
our iew o human potential in a completely dierent light."
Recent Rainbow Body Lxperiences
1hrough his Swiss contact, 1iso receied the name o the monk whose body had anished
ater his death: Khenpo A-chos, a Gelugpa monk o Khams, 1ibet, who died in 1998. 1iso
was able to locate the illage, situated in a remote area where Khenpo A-chos had his
hermitage. le then went to the illage and conducted taped interiews with eyewitnesses to
Khenpo A-chos' death. le also spoke to many people who had known him.
"1his was a ery interesting man, aside rom the way he died," obseres 1iso. "Leryone
mentioned his aithulness to his ows, his purity o lie, and how he oten spoke o the
importance o cultiating compassion. le had the ability to teach een the roughest and
toughest o types how to be a little more gentle, a little more mindul. 1o be in the man's
presence changed people."
1iso interiewed Lama Norta, a nephew o Khenpo A-chos, Lama Sonam Gyamtso, a young
disciple, and Lama A-chos, a dharma riend o the late Khenpo A-chos. 1hey described the
ollowing:
A ew days beore Khenpo A-chos died, a rainbow appeared directly aboe his hut. Ater he
died, there were dozens o rainbows in the sky. Khenpo A-chos died lying on his right side.
le wasn't sick, there appeared to be nothing wrong with him, and he was reciting the
mantra!"# #%&' (%)#* +,#! oer and oer. According to the eyewitnesses, ater his breath
stopped his lesh became kind o pinkish. One person said it turned brilliant white. All said it
started to shine.
Lama A-chos suggested wrapping his riend's body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug
monks wear. As the days passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his
bones and his body were shrinking. 1hey also heard beautiul, mysterious music coming
rom the sky, and they smelled perume.
Ater seen days, they remoed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and a
ew other indiiduals claimed that ater his death Khenpo A-chos appeared to them in
isions and dreams.
Other Rainbow Body Manifestations
lrancis 1iso remarks that one o his most intriguing interiews was with Lama A-chos. le
told 1iso that when he died he, too, would maniest the rainbow body. "le showed us two
photographs taken o him in the dark, and in these photographs his body radiated rays o
light."
Because Lama A-chos emphasized that it was possible to maniest the rainbow body while
still alie, not just in death, 1iso plans to return to 1ibet with proessional camera equipment
to try to photograph this radiating light.
Other incidents o metanormal occurrences upon death are also being studied. lor instance,
two o 1iso's colleagues were present or the postmortem process o Dilgo Khyentse
Rinpoche, who died eight years ago. "1his man was a ery large-boned indiidual," says 1iso,
"and it was reported that seen weeks ater his death the lesh was reduced. 1hat could hae
been done by chemical substances. loweer, the bones also shrank."
Shrinkage o the body occurred with another guru, Lama 1hubten. lis miniature-sized
rame is now kept in a monastery in Manali, India. 1iso has ascertained that incidents o
bodies shrinking or disappearing shortly ater death were documented centuries ago, such as
in the classic story o Milarepa, a Buddhist saint rom 1ibet who lied in the eleenth
century. Milarepa's biography was translated into lrench by Jacques Bacot in 1912, and into
Lnglish by \alter Lans-\entz in the 1920s.
"In the ninth chapter o this literary classic," explains 1iso, who wrote a dissertation about
the Buddhist saint, "it states that his body completely disappeared shortly ater his death."
Len the earliest biographies o Milarepa, says 1iso, attest to this phenomenon. In addition,
accounts exist about the great eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhaa and how his
body anished.
1he Significance of Practice and Culture
\hen conducting this type o research, says 1iso, it is important not only to interiew as
many people as possible, but also to study biographies and any written explanations o these
eents. \hen he arried in 1ibet to inestigate the death o Khenpo A-chos, 1iso was
ortunate enough to obtain the bulk o his biography by Sonam Phuntsok within an hour o
his arrial.
\hat is at stake, explains 1iso, is not simply eriication o a phenomenon, but
understanding the alues, spiritual practices, and culture in which this phenomenon is
embedded. "\e need to examine these institutions and practices in a new light in order to
recoer or humanity some ery proound truths about the expansion o the human
consciousness and our potential as human beings."
1his opportunity is present in the Nyarong region in 1ibet, where seeral incidences o the
rainbow body are said to hae occurred. 1he research team is now studying their way o lie,
especially their spiritual practices. 1iso has also obtained copies o spiritual retreat manuals,
which hae been particularly helpul.
Lama A-chos told 1iso that it takes sixty years o intensie practice to achiee the rainbow
body. "\hether it always takes that long, I don't know," acknowledges 1iso, "but we would
like to be able to incorporate, in a respectul way, some o these practices into our own
\estern philosophical and religious traditions."
At the same time, continues 1iso, the research team plans to expand the scope o this
research beyond the conines o the 1ibetan culture, so they can compare the rainbow body
phenomenon with the resurrection o Jesus Christ. 1o our knowledge, says 1iso, the bodies
o most Christian saints did not disappear or shrink ater their deaths. "lighly realized saints
in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity tend to moe in the direction o incorruption, so that
the body does not decay ater death."
loweer, he adds, bodily ascensions are mentioned in the bible and other traditional texts
or Lnoch, Mary, Llijah, and possibly Moses. And there are numerous stories o saints
materializing ater their death, similar to the widespread phenomenon known as the "light-
body."
"In my church o Saints Cosmas and Damian in Italy, we hae a large number o accounts,
going back centuries, that indicate that these saints appeared in dreams and isions, rescued
people rom harm, and cured them o diseases. Len today, people still tell me they hae
these isions," says 1iso.
In 1984, when 1iso was meditating with his eyes open in a chapel in Italy, he, too, had an
extraordinary ision. Jesus Christ, he says, appeared beore him in the orm o a iolet light-
body. At that time, 1iso was considering taking a teaching position in the United States, but
in this ision Christ indicated he should stay in Italy. "It was important not to make a
mistake at that point in my lie," relects 1iso. "I did stay in Italy, where I was eentually
ordained, and I lied in a hermitage chapel or almost twele years."
1iso has also had seeral 1ibetan teachers appear to him in dreams. \hen he gies public
lectures he speaks rankly about these experiences, because he eels it is important or people
to understand that they are more common than we think. "I think that as people mature in
their spiritual practice, they begin to hae isionary experiences."
Research Implications
Countries such as China, 1iso notes, and certain political moements in \estern Lurope,
hae chosen to abandon and een physically destroy anything to do with the contemplatie
lie. "\e're now being asked to examine those institutions and their practices in a new light
in order to recoer or humanity some ery proound truths about who we are as human
beings."
1his research is clearly controersial because it tackles the age-old questions o lie ater
death, the immortal soul, and reincarnation. lurthermore, it suggests that the alleged
resurrection o Jesus Christ was not an isolated case, but shines as an example o what may
be possible or all human beings.
Both 1iso and Steindl-Rast emphasize that these experiences are said to occur only in highly
eoled indiiduals who are the embodiment o compassion and loe. 1hey speculate these
qualitiesconscience and consciousnessare a driing orce o eolution. "It is my great
hope that the rainbow body research will make us more aware o this possibility," says
Steindl-Rast.
1iso holds the opinion that in today's world, where consumerism, exploitation, and
economic injustice are still out o control, there is an urgent need to reinorce the more
loing, altruistic, and spiritual dimensions o the human being.
In the uture, he says, we should consider establishing new models o monasteries and
retreat centers or indiiduals who wish, with idealistic motiations, to intensiy their
spiritual practices. le also proposes initiating a "holy" laboratory to document the progress
o indiiduals.
As or the rainbow body, 1iso and his team hope to actually witness and scientiically
document the entire experience while it is occurring.
"\hat is important" says Schlitz, "is that we broaden our scope o what we beliee is
possible. \e want to discoer i there are ways we can begin to deelop spiritual practices
that, een though they might not lead us to personally experience the rainbow body, could
lead us to some other maniestation o our highest potential."
GAIL BLRNICL HOLLAND is an associate editor o -"./ 0*1'*23 and ormer editor o
45&&*67'5&8. She is the author o 9 4%:: ;5< 45&&*67'5&= /5:,7'5&8 ;5< 4<*%7'&> % \hole .*2 4,:7,<*
,New \orld Library, 1998,.
The Rainbow Body by Gail lolland, appeared in the .5*7'6 /6'*&6*8 0*1'*2 ,No. 59, March
May 2002, pp. 3235,, the quarterly publication o the Institute o Noetic Sciences
,IONS,, and is reprinted with permission o IONS ,www.noetic.org,, all rights resered.
Copyright 2002.