TORONTO - s4story -- On near-death, choice, and the power of will. Colleen Quinn, a licensed psychologist, recounts two near-death experiences that fundamentally reshaped her understanding of existence. During the first — a near-fatal car accident at 27 — she entered the tunnel of light and was given a choice by the light itself: return or move on. That moment of free will, she says, was the most empowering revelation of her life: she was choosing to be here. The second, a life-threatening battle with pneumonia that left her lungs bleeding, brought a different lesson — a plea to "be love in every moment" that sent her immediately to a breathwork retreat in Costa Rica and catalysed her complete spiritual reorientation. Both experiences, she argues, were tailor-made initiations.

Full interview: https://auraverse.network/programs/claudiu-murg...

On breathwork, plant medicine, and the science of going inward. Quinn offers a rare clinical-meets-mystical comparison of meditation, breathwork, and psychedelics, explaining that all three shut down the brain's default mode network — what maps directly onto Freud's ego — allowing access to the pineal gland and the endogenous DMT that carries cellular messages of well-being. She positions breath work as the "middle path": no substance, yet visions as vivid as plant medicine, with the critical advantage that the breath only takes the practitioner as deep as the soul is ready to go. Plant medicine, she cautions, is the easiest doorway in but the hardest to integrate — she herself spent a year in somatic experiencing therapy after a single psychedelic session to process what was released.

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On modern mental health, essence merging, and what is missing. As a practitioner, Quinn is candid about the failures of conventional mental health care — insurance pressures, clients seeking quick symptom relief, and a therapeutic culture that too rarely centres love as the primary healing agent. She points to decades of research confirming that the therapeutic bond — rapport, safety, genuine care — is the single greatest predictor of treatment success regardless of modality. Her concept of essence merging, which titles her book, describes the practice of soul-to-soul presence in every moment: treating a conversation, a mundane task, or a gaze into another's eyes as a direct encounter with the divine. You are the one you have been looking for.
www.EssenceMerging.com

Resources:
Auraverse.Network
ClaudiuMurgan.com
SoulAwakeningStore.com