The Telepathy Tapes – S2E27: "Unlearning Our Fear of Death"
Host: Ky Dickens
Guest: Lynette Wallworth (Emmy-winning filmmaker & artist)
Date: April 29, 2026
Episode Overview
This episode explores humanity's relationship with death—especially the fear, denial, and loss of knowledge surrounding dying prevalent in Western cultures. Host Ky Dickens speaks with Lynette Wallworth, a filmmaker whose near death experience at age nine set her on a lifelong path studying alternate cultural understandings of death, dying, and the "edge of life." Drawing from Lynette’s personal story, indigenous wisdom, psychedelic-assisted therapies, and her new documentary Edge of Life, the conversation reveals how losing, reclaiming, or altering our relationship with death fundamentally changes the way we live.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Introduction to Lynette Wallworth’s Journey (01:35–05:00)
- Lynette introduces herself and discusses her background in immersive technologies and documentary filmmaking.
- Her exploration into death began young, after a series of unexplained grand mal seizures as a child.
- At age nine, Lynette had a seizure that led to her clinically dying and experiencing a vivid, life-changing near death experience (NDE).
Quote:
"I had just left my body completely. I saw myself on the ground, and then very swiftly, I was traveling through light of extraordinary color... I was still myself, but I was no longer in my body."
—Lynette Wallworth (03:15)
- She describes meeting two loving beings she later recognized as great-grandparents, and having an abiding sensation of belonging and connection.
2. The Aftermath and Cultural Isolation (05:00–06:50)
- Lynette struggled with integrating her experience in 1970s Australia; the term "near death experience" didn’t yet exist.
- Doctors dismissed her account as a mere dream.
Quote:
"The doctor said to me, 'Oh, you had a dream?' I said to him, 'No, this is the dream.' I remember realizing very swiftly, oh, I've said the wrong thing, I should not talk about this."
—Lynette Wallworth (05:38)
- She internalized her experience and realized over time that her relationship to death had changed—she no longer feared it, a perspective that made her feel alienated until decades later.
3. Belonging, Connection, and Impact of the NDE (06:51–07:58)
- Lynette likens returning from an NDE to living on the surface of a lake, falling in, discovering a whole other world, and being pulled back, expected to pretend nothing unusual had happened.
- The NDE instilled in her an unshakable connection to life, people, and nature.
- Her relationship to death changed: she still experiences grief, but has no fear of a loss of connection or ongoing existence.
4. Indigenous Perspectives on Death & Belonging (08:00–12:45)
Connection with the Yawanawa of the Brazilian Amazon (08:19–09:17)
- Meeting Tashka Yawanawa and exploring the Yawanawa peoples’ attitudes to death and their use of ayahuasca.
Quote (Tashka Yawanawa via Lynette):
"We are sad when someone dies, but we don't fear death." (09:12)
Yawanawa Wisdom (09:28–10:09)
(Clip from Lynette’s film, Mucha, Yawanawa tribe)
- Death is seen as a natural passage, led by family members who have gone before, and should not be feared but surrendered to.
Clip Highlight:
"Death will open the way for us...they will meet us and they will lead us to where they went. So tell people that they will reach this point, but they shouldn't worry. It's like surrendering your body to death." (09:35)
Realization:
- Lynette finds kinship with indigenous perspectives, understanding that death-denial is cultural, not universal (10:10–10:37).
On Mystical States and Psychedelics (11:21–12:24)
- Plant medicines give indigenous peoples direct access to experiences beyond the physical body, paralleling her NDE.
- Lynette never took ayahuasca, but found mutual understanding with those who have.
Quote:
"There's a channel that opens up in consciousness...recognizable in some way to others who also have that same channel opening." —Lynette (10:42)
5. Western Death Denial & the Role of Psychedelics (15:53–21:05)
The Documentary: Edge of Life
- Lynette documents a clinical psilocybin trial at St. Vincent’s Hospital, recording two palliative patients’ journeys confronting death.
Patient Stories:
-
Roz, a Christian woman grieving her husband and facing cancer, has a psilocybin experience mirroring Lynette’s NDE—she lifts out of her body, sees her children thriving, reunites with her deceased husband and parents, and loses her fear of death (17:52–19:57).
-
Flavia, the second subject, seeks guidance from Mayan shamans following her psychedelic session. Sergio Peches shares how the Mayan tradition frames death as recycling into the universe, not an end but a new cycle (20:36–21:33).
Quote (Mayan Shaman):
"We don't disappear or die. We simply recycle life. And the gift that life gives you is the power to know that we don't cease to exist." (21:21)
Continuing Indigenous Guidance:
- As Flavia nears death, the Mayan shamans send her comforting messages, which her family and she find deeply helpful.
6. Healing Grief & Reclaiming Rituals (22:04–23:58)
- Touching the body of the deceased (vs. outsourcing funeral rituals) provides profound closure and embodiment of the transition.
- Western funeral practices’ removal of personal participation intensifies fear and avoidance.
Quote:
"Just that touch helps. We know something through our physicality that needs to be comprehended by our minds that are dealing with this extreme pain." —Lynette (22:18)
- Lynette’s purpose in making her film is to help reconnect this broken thread and support healthier, more communal grieving.
7. Restoring Lost Knowledge & Practices (24:09–25:40)
Dr. Christopher Kerr:
- Edge of Life features Dr. Christopher Kerr, a hospice physician whose research confirms these transcendent, visionary experiences at the end of life.
- Ky notes Kerr’s data supports these accounts are "not new knowledge, this is lost knowledge." (24:09)
Practical Suggestions:
- Lynette encourages connecting directly with indigenous teachers if possible, or through contemplative, meditative practice to build one’s "interior landscape" (24:49–25:40).
8. Tech, Cultural Amnesia, and the Supernatural (25:58–27:03)
- Ky and Lynette discuss how technology has fragmented communal, nature-connected practices, including healthy relationships to death—the "losses" we can’t even recognize until generations later.
- Death, and its acceptance, is another of those skills lost in modernization.
9. The Human Right to the Mystical (29:06–32:11)
Preserved Mysticism: The Mazatec Example (29:06–29:55)
- Mazatec people in Mexico risked their lives to keep psychedelic healing rituals alive during colonial suppression—an act suggesting the importance of "direct experience of the mystical."
- Lynette calls it “maybe a human right”—not to force, but to know that mystical states are available (29:55).
Lost Western Traditions:
- Reference to The Immortality Key (Brian Muraresku; S2E7): ancient Greeks, early Christians, and Jews likely used psychedelic rites for mystical experience and to lessen fear of death.
- Mysticism and transcendence were once familiar terrain in the West, now nearly erased.
10. Shifts in Death Practices and the Path Forward (32:11–34:41)
- Ky traces how embalming and the American funeral industry shifted the cultural approach to death.
- Lynette asserts changes are possible again, especially as quantum physics opens new paradigms suggesting connectedness akin to mystical/telepathic states.
Quote:
"The capacity of particles to know what another particle is doing...sounds a lot like telepathy, right?" —Lynette (33:43)
- She declares that fear is the principal obstacle in Western cultures’ approach to death.
Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)
-
NDE as a Child:
"I saw myself on the ground, then very swiftly, I was traveling through light of extraordinary color... I was still myself, but I was no longer in my body."
—Lynette Wallworth (03:15)
-
Early Realizations & Societal Gaps:
"No, this is the dream." (05:38)
—Lynette’s response to a doctor calling her NDE a dream
-
On the Cultural Nature of Death Fear:
"The fear of death is not universal, it's cultural." (10:09)
—Lynette
-
Indigenous Guidance:
"Death will open the way for us...they shouldn’t worry. It’s like surrendering your body to death." (09:35)
—Mucha, Yawanawa Tribe (via translation)
-
The Importance of Mystical Experience:
"Maybe it's a human right to have access to a direct experience of the mystical." (29:55)
—Lynette
-
Funeral Rituals and Grief:
"Just that touch helps. We know something through our physicality that needs to be comprehended by our minds..." (22:18)
—Lynette
-
On Quantum Physics and Mystical States:
"The capacity of particles to know what another particle is doing...sounds a lot like telepathy, right?" (33:43)
—Lynette
-
Lost Knowledge:
"This is not new knowledge, this is lost knowledge." (24:09)
—Dr. Christopher Kerr (as cited by Lynette)
Suggested Pathways for Reconnection
- Seek indigenous wisdom where possible, respecting boundaries and willingness to share (24:49).
- Practice meditation and introspective techniques to cultivate an inner sense of belonging and acceptance of mortality (25:40).
- Reconsider death rituals—engage physically and communally, reclaiming personal participation (22:18).
- Understand that mystical states are part of human inheritance, not exclusive to any one tradition (29:55).
Conclusion – What Can Change, and Why It Matters (34:01–34:41)
- Cultural approaches to death can and do change, shaped by need and historical events.
- Lynette’s hope is for a shift away from fear and toward reconnection with lost forms of wisdom—through science, spirituality, and open dialogue.
Quote:
"I think we're coming to a time culturally where we're going to need all of this more because we're careering into some challenging times...We can lose things from culture and generations down, we may not even know they're gone, but the loss of them impacts us in our sense of self and sense of happiness."
—Lynette (25:58)
Essential Takeaways
- Fear of death isn’t universal or natural—it’s learned, and can be unlearned.
- Direct or mystical experiences (via NDEs, psychedelics, or meditative/contemplative practices) transform one's relationship to mortality, making death less fearsome and enhancing a sense of connection.
- Indigenous traditions and wisdom keep portals open to understanding death as a continuation or transformation, not a final void.
- Restoring ritual, direct experience, and communal participation helps heal both the dying and the grieving.
- Reconnecting with lost knowledge and shifting cultural narratives around death could profoundly improve how we live and die.
Recommended Next Steps:
- Watch for Lynette Wallworth’s Edge of Life documentary release (early access via Apple TV, with broader streaming in Q1 next year).
- Explore episode S2E7 for Brian Muraresku’s work on psychedelic roots of Western spirituality.
- Seek out ways to connect with indigenous perspectives or to build personal contemplative practices if facing mortality or seeking to heal from loss.
