Recently I got a new cell phone subscription. It came with a whole new cell phone as well – “for free,” as the slick offer put it, although my monthly subscription payments eventually cover more than well for its cost.
Anyway, it’s quite a piece of technology, and I’ve been spending lots of time figuring out just a fraction of the stuff I can do with it. It’s obvious that I won’t even use most of it. But it does have this GPS functionality that I do like.
Just in case you don’t know what GPS is, it stands for ‘Global Positioning System.’ It’s basically a satellite system that allows the GPS receiver installed on my phone to calculate my exact position on the globe.
When I give in coordinates or address info for another position that I want to go to, an app on my device can then calculate the shortest or fastest way to get there.
Pretty neat, right? With a gadget like this, you can’t really get lost anymore. That is, if the device is first able to locate my current position. After all:
We only get lost because we don’t know where we are. Without that basic information, we can’t find the way home. The app will never be able to figure out how to get to where we want to be if it doesn’t know where we are to start with.
Now it’s worth realizing it’s pretty much the same thing in life… kind of like John Lennon used to sing:
And in order to be able to plot a reasonable course for ourselves in life, one of the most essential starting coordinates is our concept of “who we are.”
Because without having a more-or-less accurate view of it, we can hardly make true sense of our experience in life, let alone grasp the enormous power we possess to take control of our experience and change it into one that actually makes us feel happy and fulfilled.
In that context, the sad thing is that most people don’t have the slightest notion of who they really are.
That’s why this article intends to provide some (empowering) perspective.
So let’s dig in…
So Who Are You?
Most people identify themselves with the role(s) they play in their lives, such as their job, income, upbringing, likes and dislikes, family and acquaintances, etc.
Watch an average game show on TV and you’ll see people tell ‘all about themselves:’
“Hi, my name is Bob Bloggs, I’m a banker and make loans and deposits and stuff, I’m married with three children, I like football and also like to have a good laugh and party.”
This is one perspective on the question of “who am I,” which pertains to our ordinary, day-to-day experience, and one that most people are inclined to limit themselves to. And indeed:
When we think about ourselves we typically see the various roles and identities we manifest. In Carl Jung’s psychological terms, these are called ‘personas.’ And of course, our personas have plenty of reality:
- Any one persona can take center stage in our consciousness and totally control who we ‘are,’ ranging from a few moments to an entire lifetime.
- And most of the time we don’t deliberately use them… It’s rather the other way around: our personas use us, as they pop up pretty much automatically and involuntarily, and without any conscious control on our part.
So we must not underestimate their power.
But that doesn’t mean they’re who we really are…
Beyond The Roles We Play
The roles and personas mentioned above are pretty much entirely associated with our body.
But then consider this:
Experienced meditators and those who got skilled at the ‘participant-observer’-method (described in this article) have developed the ability to basically ‘get behind’ their ordinary identities and roles, through a simple act of mentally disidentifying from the immediate experience by ‘stepping back into observer mode’…
In other words:
They have essentially experienced that they don’t have to be frozen into any one, concretized pattern, but that there’s fluidity underneath all these patterns. And once we actually experience this, we immediately feel a sense of control and deliberate choice:
- Suddenly we’re no longer at the mercy of emotional whims and negative thoughts…
- We now even gain the ability to make a conscious choice about which persona to ‘put on’ when, thus using them to a certain end by leveraging their strengths, and then setting them aside when appropriate…
- And rather than identifying our whole self-concept with them, it also allows us to say: “I have a certain set of beliefs, and I don’t know if they’re really true, but I act on them sometimes.”
In fact, we can even distance ourselves from them even more by asking: “Do I want to believe that is who I am?”
Basically, we see that we no longer have to confuse the theories we have about ourselves with who we really are (even though they may have effectively run our lives until now). Put differently:
We’ve gained a new level of awareness that’s less dependent on the body, and in fact gives us a first hint that we’re more than just our bodies and brains.
Albert Einstein put it as follows:
So if we’re not solely equivalent to our brains, bodies, beliefs, roles and identities, then who are we?
For that, we have to dig in deeper…
How To Dig In Deeper
Asking the right questions allows us to dig in deeper. And indeed: every now and then people send in questions in response to a newsletter or a survey, or to simply bring up a topic they want me to address.
Now in the context of this article’s subject matter, a while back there were actually a few folks who asked an interesting one that’s relevant to our exploration here. The question was:
Now there’s one that’s not easily answered! (At least not empirically…) And what’s more:
- It’s one that’s often accompanied by more than a little emotional charge and zealous reactions, because of the many fear-laden images that are associated with it and all the various religious connotations that often surround it.
- Besides, you may not even care… Because at first glance, the question may not seem so relevant to our current experience. After all, if we’re seeking to improve our existence right now, then what the hell does it matter what happens when it’s all over?
However, the truth is that the question can be highly relevant even to our current experience. To get a feeling for why, consider these words by the influential Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou (also known as Zhuangzi, Chuang Tzu and Chuang Tse) in this context:
In other words:
- Our whole perspective of ‘death,’ along with any kind of preconceived notions we have about the afterlife (or lack thereof) has the potential to influence our whole motivation for existence, and thus the overall atmosphere of our life experience and the nature of the roles we manifest in life.
- And as such, our own metaphysics informs our understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of becoming, along with how we decide to go through life.
So it can serve us well to explore this topic. Because in our investigations of who or what might survive death, we’re simultaneously investigating who we really are.
So let’s dig in deeper…
What ‘Death’ Tells Us About Who We Are
Obviously, empirical study in the context of death remains difficult for the contemporary scientific method, which typically requires some form of (double-blind) experimentation. And let’s face it: it can be a bit of a challenge to experiment with death.
Besides, as the dominant stance in the mainstream scientific community is that consciousness is solely produced by the brain, relevant research that actually is performed in the area of death is often received with lots of skepticism, preconceived notions and disbelief by the establishment.
Nevertheless, today even mainstream science is beginning to take cognizance of the ever growing body of experiences that suggest the reality of consciousness living beyond the body and brain.
From a scientific point of view, at the time of writing this article it’s particularly the recent work of Penny Sartori [1] and Pim van Lommel [2] that appear to suggest how conscious experience outside the body can take place during a period of clinical death when the brain is flatlined.
To provide some illustration:
Van Lommel is a Dutch cardiologist who produced a massive exploration of near-death experiences, and his findings even got published in the reputable British medical journal The Lancet [3].
He got interested in the whole phenomenon about 40 years ago when a patient told him about her near-death experience. But it was only after reading a book called Return From Tomorrow [4], in which an American doctor called George Ritchie detailed his own near-death experience, that Van Lommel started to study the phenomenon seriously.
He began to ask all his patients if they remembered anything from the period of time during which their hearts had stopped beating. Here’s a quick selection of some of the accounts he recorded:
What’s interesting to note about all this is the fact that these people were able to ‘perceive’ in a state of detachment from their bodies. They were separated from their bodies, but they were still ‘there,’ and they didn’t need their eyes or any other part of their bodies to ‘perceive.’
Another striking notion is the consistency between all the different near-death experiences. The bliss, the tunnel, being met by long-passed loved ones, and the disappointment of having to come back are all recurring themes.
Near-death experience isn’t limited to people with specific demographic characteristics either: there’s no clear relationship between their occurrence and a person’s age, sex, marital status, race, religion and/or spiritual beliefs, social class, educational level, income, frequency of church attendance, size of home community, or area of residence.
It’s not even a phenomenon of this day and age alone. Out-of-body and near-death experiences appear to have been occurring universally throughout the ages. For example:
- They’re described at length in both the eighth-century Tibetan Book of the Dead and the 2,500-year-old Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- Also, in Book X of The Republic, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato gives a detailed account of a Greek soldier named Er, who came alive just seconds before his funeral pyre was to be lit and said that he had left his body and went through a ‘passage way’ to the land of the dead.
- Furthermore, the Venerable Bede gives a similar account in his eighth-century work A History of the English Church and People.
- Carol Zaleski, Harvard professor of world religions, says that medieval literature is filled with accounts of near-death experiences [5].
- British theologian Paul Badham concludes that the near-death experience “shares many of the characteristics of the deepest religious experiences know to humanity” [6].
- And it has been argued that near-death experiences provide striking parallels to the teachings of the Hindu Upanishads and to early Babylonian, Egyptian and Zoroastrian texts, as well as to shamanism, Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, Gnostic Christianity, Mormonism, and other faiths [7].
Here’s a summary of a typical near-death experience [8]:
Of course, there are other characteristics too, and not all near-death experiences involve all the above elements. But this description seems to capture the overall gist.
Van Lommel and Sartori have not been the only ones studying this phenomenon seriously. A plethora of similar cases is recounted by other authors and researchers as well, including ones where the ‘dying’ person was able to report things they really couldn’t know from a rational point of view.
For example:
According to Van Lommel, when some people ‘return to their body,’ they often have a sense of being imprisoned compared to the freedom they had experienced briefly. Others say it transformed their lives, and they all lose their fear of death. As Van Lommel says:
This suggests that what passes through that ‘tunnel’ is a level of our consciousness that’s independent of the brain and body, perhaps the self-aware essence that we really are and that’s making a transition from one level of ‘reality’ to another.
Here’s what Van Lommel says of ‘death:’
Van Lommel goes on to explain how his work led him to understanding that the brain does not produce consciousness. According to him, the body and brain are a receiver/transmitter of information like a computer or television:
In addition, there’s other (not-so-conventional) science that appears to support the idea of consciousness that lives on after physical death. For example, scientists at the University of Virginia have been studying apparent cases of reincarnation for over 45 years.
As part of this, they studied spontaneous statements made by young children about a previous life that proved to be surprisingly accurate upon further investigation. Others appear to show birthmarks or birth defects that appear to match wounds suffered by previous personalities [12-18].
Of course, this doesn’t mean that this is the exact way it always goes, but it does provide additional illustration to the possibility that consciousness survives death of the body and brain.
So to summarize:
Who we are, whether we choose to call that our ‘soul,’ ‘essence’ or ‘consciousness,’ is not totally equivalent to the brain or the body. Even when the body dies eventually, our consciousness appears to live on.
That said, let’s conclude with more clarity about who we really are, and what that means in regards to plotting our course in life…
CONCLUSION: A New Starting Coordinate
I remember a couple of years ago when my grandmother died… At the funeral my mother and her sisters decided to keep the coffin closed, because they wanted everyone to remember her like she was: a vibrant, sparkling woman.
Her body had deteriorated significantly due to all kinds of cancer. It was lying there in the coffin as lifeless as a switched-off and heavily corroded computer.
However, they had put a picture of my grandmother on the coffin from when she was still with us. Her body may have been dead, but I can tell you one thing:
That picture was alive!
It had captured her smile, the sparkle in her eyes, the ‘life energy’ that was the real ‘her.’
The essence of who we really are can’t get much clearer than that. ‘Living’ people have a sparkle in their eyes that conveys one of the clearest signs of ‘living consciousness’ we can find. It’s expressed most clearly when people are happy and laugh. They just radiate life.
So that body in the coffin was not my grandmother; it was but a switched-off machine. The real ‘her’, i.e. her awareness, simply can’t cease to exist, and the material explored in this article appears to support that notion.
But back to our basic coordinate: who are we really? Well:
“Who we really are” seems to be a unique vantage point within infinite awareness. And ‘life’ (as we know it on this plane of existence) and ‘death’ are merely different states of an infinite consciousness that’s essentially located everywhere.
Van Lommel concludes his study as follows:
Now let that be the new basic coordinate from where to plot our new course in life!
Here’s how we can…
NEXT STEPS: Plotting A New Course
Near-death experiences and similar mystical experiences may point the way toward unlocking humankind’s dormant spiritual potential.
The cumulative effect of the uplifting accounts of the ever-increasing number of experiencers may foster the spiritual evolution of both the individual and the collective consciousness of humanity, if we open ourselves up to their message [20].
In that regard, here are some practical takeaways to implement in our own lives:
(1) Realize that the real power of ‘manifestation’ fully resides in your consciousness and your ability to steer it:
You really do have far-reaching powers to create the kind of happiness, fulfillment, and success you seek. But it’s worth realizing that that power is not in your mind, nor in any particular technique!
The mind is merely a tool that can be applied in the process of steering your consciousness, and certain techniques can serve as stepping stones and training instruments towards internalizing that ability (<– without making ourselves dependent on them).
(The Crack Your Egg Program and other articles and e-books on this website help you do so.)
Then, from there…:
(2) Step BEYOND Your Apparent Roles & Beliefs:
Our new basic coordinate of who we really are clearly shows that we’re not frozen or stuck in any one, concretized pattern, role or identity. With our new understanding of who we really are, the question really is this:
Now that you’ve read this article and you look in the mirror, who do you choose to see and be?
- Do you choose to see your job, like the garbage man, a stock broker, a doctor, a ‘lead integration optimization orchestrator,’ or whatever you do for a ‘living?’
- Do you choose to see a ‘friend of,’ ‘husband/wife of,’ or ‘son/daughter of’ someone (apparently) (un)important?
- Do you choose to see a poor, hard-working slave with little perspective of anything other than making ends meet in our modern-day jungle?
- Do you choose to see some powerless pipsqueak who’s been made to believe they’re at the mercy of vaguely-defined ‘greater powers,’ and/or designated by ‘the universe’ as a martyr or a victim of life?
- Do you choose to see the arbitrary result of a long chain of random accidents that’s arbitrarily being shuffled from cradle to grave and completely ceases to exists afterwards?
- Or do you choose to see a unique representation of infinite consciousness with the inherent freedom and power to create your own reality, and begin to act accordingly?
The choice is yours, and it will determine the entire motivation for your existence, the atmosphere of your experience, your implicit intent, and your ability to leverage the creative power you really harness deep inside. (So choose wisely!)
And if you notice that a particular role, emotion or inhibiting belief begins to get the best of you, so to dominate your consciousness and put you in a state that’s no longer constructive to what you seek to accomplish, use this technique to gain back control.
And finally, from there:
(3) Don’t hold back and begin to make a life NOW!
It’s not all just about ‘making a living’… It’s also about ‘making a life,’ and the latter doesn’t exclude the former. Never forget:
You harness a staggering (perhaps dormant) power to really make something out of your life (<– which is explained in detail in the Crack Your Egg Program)… So why not turn it into a thing of beauty, happiness and fulfillment?
After all, to quote Lewis Carroll:
Take it from the many near-death experiencers that got to see themselves as integral parts of a benevolent and purposeful universe, and experienced an increased appreciation for life, a heightened sense of purpose and decreases in their fear of death and competitiveness.
As a practical starting point to this end, ask yourself:
- “What I you really want to do with my life?” And/or:
- “What do I really want to bring to this world, and/or create?”
Then begin by taking the first step today (no matter how small)… or take a next step if you were already on a path that you still stand behind. Either way, whatever it is:
- Don’t take some half-baked approach to just “try…”
- Instead: do it with full engagement and (renewed) inspiration!
Just go for it with all your heart. Don’t hold back. Feel the experience. And enjoy the ride.
Because as the content of this article illustrated, consider the words of the late comedian Bill Hicks as an appropriate conclusion to this article:
So what’s your choice?
P.S. Feel free to post a comment below to share your thoughts.
References
[1] Sartori, P. (2014), The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us to Live More Fully, Watkins Publishing Limited, Oxford, United Kingdom;
[2] Lommel, P. van (2011), Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, HarperOne, New York, NY;
[3] Lommel, P. van, R. Van Wees, V. Meyers, and I. Elfferich (2001), “Near-Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands,” The Lancet 358 (9298), pp. 2039-2045;
[4] Ritchie, G.G. and E. Sherril (2007), Return From Tomorrow, Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI;
[5] Zaleski, C. (1987), Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times, Oxford University Press, New York, NY;
[6] Badham, P. (1997), “Religious and Near-Death Experience in Relation to Belief in a Future Life,” Second Series Occasional Paper 13, Oxford: Religious Experience Research Center, p. 5;
[7] Greyson, B. (2006), “Near-Death Experience and Spirituality,” Zygon 41 (2), pp. 393-414;
[8] Talbot, M. (1991), The Holographic Universe, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York, NY, p. 240;
[9] Raymond Moody, Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon – Survival of Bodily Death, Harper Collins, San Francisco, CA;
[10] Moody, R. and P. Perry (2005), The Light Beyond, Rider, London, United Kingdom;
[11] Alexander, E. (2012), Proof of Heaven, Piatkus, London, UK;
[12] Keil, H.H.J. and J.B. Tucker (2000), “An Unusual Birthmark Case Thought to Be Linked to A Person Who Had Previously Died,” Psychological Reports 87 (3f), pp. 1067-1074;
[13] Stevenson, I. (2000), Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, Revised Edition, McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, NC;
[14] Keil, H.J.J. and J.B. Tucker (2005), “Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives: Cases with Written Records Made before the Previous Personality Was Identified,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 19(1), pp. 91-101;
[15] Pasricha, S.K., Keil, J., Tucker, J.B. and I. Stevenson (2005), “Some Bodily Malformations Attributed to Previous Lives,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 19 (3), pp. 359-383;
[16] Tucker, J.B. (2005), Life Before Life: A Scientic Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY;
[17] Tucker, J.B. (2008), “Children’s Reports of Past-Life Memories: A Review,” EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing 4(4), pp. 244-248;
[18] Tucker, J.B. (2013), Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY;
[19] Wilber, K.E. (1998), The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion, Random House, New York, NY;
[20] Fontana, D. (2004), “Survival Research: Opposition and Future Developments,” Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 68 (4), pp. 193-209.
Dr. Elizabeth Kübler Ross worked with dying people, and people, who came back to life for many years, and she documentet her work as an author too. I remember reading one of her books, maybee 30 years ago. Very much the same statements referred as in your article. Someone borrowed the book and I am not sure of the title, but it was very interesting and moving.
Twenty-one years ago today, a young man died in Tokyo; his father was my favorite actor, and although I had never met the son, I felt very sad for the family. Six weeks later I read in a gossip column that the young man, who had been working as a model, had died of a drug overdose, and I became furious with him for his stupidity and carelessness. But I was in the habit of meditating every night at the time, and I finally calmed down to go into my trance. Shortly afterward, I felt the presence of someone who was really angry–telling me off not in words I could hear, but words I knew he was using, like “stupid cow who doesn’t know anything.” I knew it was him. I immediately apologized, mentally, telling him that I should have known better than to believe a gossip column. He calmed down, and I felt that he was as surprised as I was that he’d made contact. Needless to say, I tried to keep in touch with him during meditations afterward, and he’s been around–a much more cheerful spirit now. I haven’t told a lot of people about this because they’d think I was having hallucinations, but it seems to me that everyone has a different experience when it comes to death. I’ve never been particularly afraid of death, and now I rather look forward to it, hoping to meet this fellow face to face.
Thanks for reminding me too, ENJOY THE RIDE !! I love the way Bill HICKS presented that saying!! Thanks again!!
Thank you! You handled that question AMAZINGLY!
To Cheryl, Your comment moved me.
Regarding finding purpose in life when there is so much sorrow and tragedy. I think most of us on this site struggle with that.
And today, with this blog and the comments, I feel that I can safely say,
this life has to be an VERY important part of the afterlife!
How can we possible explain why we would leave that LOVE and SAFETY and BELONGING and come here? AND THEN< ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR IT!? The religions hold NO answers for me! PUNISHMENT! BAD! NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR HEAVEN! etc…
Maybe in this New Age, the answer will be revealed from within and someone will share it! They already are. Maybe,we are connected through technology for a reason too.
I think often that I must be INSANE! to come in and do this life!
Like the asylums door open and everyone came to earth!
But the truth is, there is SO much LOVE here, it doesnt fit with that.
Lets all STAY, and see what happens—together!
I really enjoyed the posting, I will check out Van Lommel’s book. This simply shows what I have always believed. How could we possibly “die” when we are made up of energy to begin with…energy doesn’t die it simply changes form. So when our bodies die, we move on in another form and another way of life. Thank you for your article, I enjoyed it very much.
While your explanation of the existance of conciousnes is very interesting and perhaps plausable, it is a subjective view that attracts as many arguments against the possibility as for it. Articles have been written depicting the light in the tunnel as a physical reaction of the eye at a time of great stress or of ones life unfolding before them as merely a final function of the brain before final shut down. It would seem that the only true way to prove or disprove this theory would be to seperate conciousness from the physical entrapment of the body under controlled conditions and evaluate the results from this perspective. Like the actor who plays the part of the doctor but is still aware of himself. He realizes that he is the observer of the role, not the role itself. Perhaps the near death experience is an expanded awareness of the brain yet upon final death this awareness ceases to be. Since no documented accounts of the existance of awareness or conciousness are available after absolute death but only at times of near death, how do you establish whether the experience is a function of a still functioning brain at unmeasurable frequencies or awareness seperate from the physical form. Awareness tat trancends physical life.
Recently had a obe completely unexpected. I am very happy with this experience, learning for myself the reality of consciousness expanding beyond my physical body. Also enjoyed reading Michele Lemieux’s experience of being in the forest and the forest being in her. Beautiful.
What a wonderful article. Thanks for publishing it. Saying anything more would just be piling on one superlative on top of another. Like sugar on top of sugar, Like whipped cream on top of ice cream. It’s already sweet so just enjoy what is there. Thank you.
Im 69, at age 8 I was thrown into a river and drowned. I still remember every split sec. To keep the story short, when I opened my eyes ,I was standing on the river bank with my back to the river. About 3 meters infront of me there was a semi circle of people, all looking down. I looked down, and seen the upturned feet of a small person and the back of a girl sitting on the stomic of that(doing what was considered resus at that time) I decided I would walk up behind the girl, and look over her shoulder to see if I new who it was. Shock horror next thing I know Im on my back looking into the face of the girl.( thats right I did not know it was my body.)
This article validates an experience that I had about 25 years ago where I had been walking down a street and all of a sudden I felt as if I stepped outside of my perceived reality and saw from a different perspective from what I thought was life as we all know it…..from this new perspective where i was on the outside looking in, it seemed like some sort of carnival…I heard the carnival music and things moved slower than normal and I felt all of the fair of what a carnival offers…..it seems like I connected with something much greater than myself and was the observer……NOTHING felt real anymore to me…….and I had no awareness of my physical self or where I was…..slowly but surely I came back to my present reality and back into myself and the awareness of where I was before this experience…..anything could have happened to me while I was in this state and I will never forget it….I always wondered what another person saw who observed me in this state of being ………can someone please respond to this and offer me your thoughts on it as well…
I somehow think I know all this but can’t quite bring this into everyday conscious awareness.
I think maybe there are lots of other people who think the same way.
I think there must be lots of people who understand on an intellectual level what this life is really about, indeed all the things you talk about but are just possibly a ‘cats whisker’ away from the real knowing that brings the life of our dreams that we all are meant to experience. I feel I know this truth and hopefully for me and everyone else it is just a matter of time and conviction to believing these truths and clearing the way before we all make a gigantic shift.
The world will be a better place when this happens.
Many thanks for your revealing articles which I look forward to reading which add to my understanding and contribute to my ‘knowing’
Kind regards
Phil.
Excellent article. Back in 1997 I had a personal experience like you specified in perfection above. I had a car accident and “I became ‘detached’ from the body sitting like a bird on a big tree near the place it happened like hovering and being light as a feather. I clearly remember for approx 30. minutes every detail from the time it happened until they reanimated me in the hospital and when I woked up I had the feeling like knowing nothing, just nothing and after a while – looking around – I was extremely happy, all that last 30 minutes being imersed in a fantastic and warm light. And yes, I had also a conversation with someone from above: I said- look that’s me, oh boy I am dead and look there are funny people trying hardly to help me get bachk- what should I do now? And the voice said- go back. And I jumped from that tree like a feather back into my body. after so many years it is one of my best and happy moments I had and I dream even now of that wonderful pictures.
The question isn’t “Is there life after death?” The Bible clearly says there is. The real question is “Where will you spend it?” John 3:15
Enjoyed the article. I’ve been in the tunnel… frustrated and annoyed that I was ‘yanked’ back so to speak. I think the great fear of death that many experience is so that we might consider the brevity of life and “why we are here”. Without this ever-present concern about dying we’d be so totally involved in the physical we would not stop to ponder anything beyond.
As for the comment about the dead not coming back… we don’t die period. Secondly there is proof of the afterlife among other sources, http://www.victorzammit.com.
Eternity is not a thing that starts from this life. That would be somehow absurd. Eternity is more like a circle. No beginning… no end. Eternal life does not commence when we die. We are eternal.
Loved the comment that we are here to learn how “to give” of ourselves. So simple really yet so fundamental to becoming more spiritual. How utterly selfish the world really is. How much we need to learn.
Kurt Wrebel’s comment was so spot on. His brother laughing so soon after his death. There really needs to be a new name for ‘death’ besides transition (accurate yet somehow missing the mark). ‘Release’ perhaps… not profound enough? ‘Expanding’ perhaps? Anyway, keep an open mind and remember that to be eternal we needed to have existed long before we were ever born.
Because consciousness is all there is, I was wondering about dreams. I know that psychologists have all kinds of theories about dreaming. But is this NDE not just another form of dreaming? The difference being that you leave your body involuntary because it is in a very bad state and not in the same way as when you are just resting and repairing the body.
I make no claim to authority or any particular originality of thought on this topic but, to me, it doesn’t seem that complicated. Looking around the observable relative universe in which we are fully integrated, I notice phenomena arise, exist and change for a period and then dissolve and return to the state they in which they initially existed before. Waves collapse back into the ocean, plants return to the earth, I will return to the mysterious void. I don’t feel any fear in that even though I know nothing of the purposes, if any, and nature of the void. I don’t imagine I have any of it sussed but nevertheless, feel complete trust and comfort in the simple natural processes of the world. We aren’t separate from them. We are them in every tiny aspect of our being from beginning to end. Speculating on the nature of “reality” is fun and I enjoy it immensely but regarding any of our own hypotheses seriously is an exercise in foolishness.
What a very interesting subject. Almost without exception this is something that I have believed for a long time. In the late seventies I had a older friend who was clinically dead. He described the leaving his body, going into a brillant light, and spending time in a realm beyond our capability, to understand. He also was told that he had to return because his time had not come yet. I will always remember his comment “how distasteful it was to have to re-enter his body”. This life is a preparation for the eternies. If we knew the exact moment we were to die, then we might live life with such passion that we would suprise ourselves.
hi
I had several “strange” experiences and one of them is “out of body”. It is very pleasant feeling no doubt and going back was a bit difficult (there is temptation simply to stay out).
What forced me back was when I heard my sister approaching my room along the corridor, and I new somehow with total certainty that if she sees my body without me – I will be dead and no way that I would be able to go back then. Then I realised that I do not know how I came out on the first place and next moment I found myself having something like a heart attack.
It certainly took away fear of death. LaterI was wondering how frustrating must be for spirits to see us doing stupid things and NOT BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE? I guess only wise one can handle that?!
Excellent! I am a believer in past lives having remembered my most recent, plus bits of others that are older. It is a discussion I enjoy.
Hi,
I just love reading your articles and I too have written a book on the LOA. Often times when I read what you have written I was aware of but its always nice to hear another perspective of it and you do put your articles together nicely. Keep up the good work. Thank you and God Bless.
Very enjoyable article. I didn’t find it controversial though. But I found some of the comments controversial–I don’t believe that we return again and again until we’ve learned all we need to learn so to speak. I believe the regressions several talked about are experiences we have with persons on the other side with whom we have a certain rapport. Their influence on us is so strong that we feel that their experiences were our own. I can’t really explain it beyond that. For now I’ve adopted the words of the New York Lottery ad–“Hey, ya never know!”. Anyone out there who shares my doubt about reincarnation?
I liked this article and I agree with it, I have read quite a few books covering this topic and I have myself believed in some form of life after death ever since I was a small .child.. To me it is a beautiful meaningful belief and it is in more or less all of the great and lesser religions.-the shamanistic beliefs of native religions have a strong afterlife belief as well.
Henk, Judgeing by the overwhelming responce to this article you should be reveling at the cheering croud as you pass each base because its quite obvious that you hit this one out of the park and over the freeway as well.My take on this is that we are faced with the many so called problems in order to learn how to overcome so that we may learn from them on our journey to perfection.Our spirit is perfect now but our earthly body is still in a learning stage and I believe that the more progress we make now is one we will not be faced with in the next life,and I am quite convinced that none of us is is qualified to take our rightful place with our creator until we have learned the fact that painful problems,near impossable situations,and overwhelming obstacles are really oportunity in disguise and until we finally recognise that we will be forced to relive them over and over until we do.In my mind I believe this is one of if not the greatest articles you guys have ever penned.Keep up the good work,—Don
One of the comments here mentioned the importance of living in the present and not the past or future. The notion of living only in the present as an avenue to contentment has long confused me. What of the person who spends their “present” gambling, buying stuff, getting high, eating junk food, without thinking of the future impact on the credit card, the health, the losses?
I have two sons currently unemployed. I hope they think about the future every day.
What am I missing?
thanks God, the most merciful and beneficent. what I believe is that there is life after death.our body is dead but not our soul or divine spirit. your articles inspires not to be fear of death. it comes to us just matter of time. just watch and prepare.
Hi Henk – What an interesting topic – I believe in life after death and reincarnation as well.
A couple days before my husband passed away, he indicated to me he felt a presence
near his left shoulder, a very strong one. I believe it was the angels coming to take him.
If you want to read a beautiful complete account of life after death experience….. read the book called, “Embraced by the Light” by Betty Jean Eadie. Marvelous account with descriptions so intense that it makes one wonder what we are missing here by not being consciously aware!
What I read here, including in the different comments, are but false concepts which leads to having no fear DEATH. These believes (falsely teaching) tell that death is not our end but only another step in a never ending cycle. I have faced death a number of times and live today only due a loving and healing God. Jesus also shares that after death, being under God’s judgment, we face everlasting punishment unless we have been released by our accepting of the shed blood of Jesus.
I will briefly share an account of my fathers death.
My father,aged 89 ,died in my sisters house located in a city about 150 kilometers away from where I lived.Since he died due to bronchial haemorrage at 3 in the morning and I was immediately informed of the fact,I set out by road for my sisters house. Being winter, I encountered heavy fog enroute which, together with darkness, slowed my progress to a snails pace while I was anxious to reach and take charge of the funeral arrangements.I reached at 8am; meanwhile they had washed and prepared the body for burial and laid it on a bed in the guest bedroom.Numbed with grief and tension I asked for a few moments alone with my father.I sat on the other bed besides the covered body not having the guts to lift the cover and see my fathers face.Suddenly I sensed (rather than saw) my fathers body hovering above his bed and talking to me and consoling me.He was saying that he was feeling great and was perfectly all right and that I should not grieve.As this message sub consciously registered in my mind the hovering body moved straight into the wall against which the two beds were placed and vanished. I felt a strange peace descend upon me.I shook off my lethargy and grief and proceeded to arrane taking back the body to my city for burial very calmly.Many relatives commented on my remarkable self control, without however, knowing where it came from.
I had a near death (or out of body) experience following a lengthy operation.
I became aware of looking down on Intensive care staff rushing to attach me to IVs & monitors.Theatre staff were stood by the trolley saying “We’ve lost her pressure”…..”She’s been down 16 & a half hours”….”every one on plastics did a stint”…”yeah, we had to send out for pizza”
Then from ICU staff “40” . Then “60” & I was back in my body feeling painfully entombed.
I was looking down from just below ceiling height & it just felt very peaceful- no surprise, shock or fear (that all came back when I was back in my body, & I can’t say I wanted to be back in there at that time! ). I am very grateful for the whole experience now & have no fear of death.
A friend worked as a theatre (cardiac) nurse at a nearby hospital & they had suspended a picture just below the theatre ceiling to see if anyone experiencing NDEs or OBEs could describe the picture. Its a common experience but one which people often keep to themselves as its often dismissed by scientific explanations….even the results of the cardiac theatre picture were never disclosed to my knowledge.
By the way how can there be a heaven or hell if individual free will is a illusion? ultimately the universe is the cause of all action if there is a cause at all. as this body-mind i am not the thinker or the doer. like the article points to, i am the reciever of consciousness and thoughts. . . not their creator.
Interesting timing. just ordered some books on ‘out of body or astral projection’. hovering over the physical body is usually the first experience one has so it is similar in some ways. i do see this objective experience or life as a ride, a dream, a movie a mirage. i feel i am awareness and not a limited personal self. if after this body dies, there is no memory of this person, how could that be a problem? it sucks to fear death. i was raised to fear death and i have been working on ending that fear my whole life. i read alot about this. thanks for the article,
This was a wonderful and beautifully well-written article.
Kudos for putting it all out there for everyone to read!!!!!!
I am enjoying the comments, particularly Cheryl’s right now. I don’t know why I am “required” to still be here, I’ve had enough imo.
I wish I could really get that we create our own lives. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so lost.
Brilliant.
Yes, those who believe in reincarnation (the Hindus and Buddhists, in particular) do subscribe to the theory that their is Life After Death. The Hindu Texts also describe about the consequences – Heaven and Hell stories – more like as if they exist.
While I have not had a chance to read Dr. Weiss or Dr. Raymond Mody on this subject, Dr. Michael Newton, in his three volumes has described Life after death vividly, and whatever he has said, and explained, is more a recollection of what has been dealt with in the Hindu Texts. I do not believe that he had studied these texts before writing his research work, for he has described what his subjects have told him. Hell is what we choose to make of our lives, as he has described.
I suggest anyone interested in this subject, should go through Dr. Newton’s works too.
Can totally agree with all you say about conscious immortality.Was once sitting in a chair when very ill and decided to get up and make a cup of coffee,I walked over to the place where the electric kettle was and reached out to pick it up,after attempting to pick it up twice and failing I intently watched my hand to see why I was missing it,.to my astonishment my hand was passing right the stainless steel kettle after trying a few more times I decided I would just have a drink out of the tap over the sink but again my hand went right through the tap and the sink.deciding that that I was hallucinating I turned round to sit down again and confronted my body still sitting in the chair,something said to me you know you are not to do this go back back in immediatly which I did and it was as if the lighs went suddenly very dim I had not realised untill then that every thing was so bright and that I had felt so very well and alive but I was now back with the sickness and pain.Have had two other similar experiences since then and know that so called death is not so.We live eternally
Absolutely and beautifully phenomenal article. Seldom do I take the time to read your articles that come to me on a regular basis — typically because I have other “more pressing” things to get to in my day (unfortunate, isn’t it!). But this morning something led me to take those extra few moments (everything else could wait), and am I thrilled that I did! Thank you!
I’m reminded of one of my very favorite movies, “City of Angels” with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Any of you who read this article and have not seen it, it’s an absolute must, as far as I’m concerned. It, along with articles such as this, continue to reinforce my view of life here on earth and our absurd fear of “death”. The most astounding to me are my Christian friends, who, despite all their hymn singing about live across the Jordan and peace like a river, seem to be the ones who are saddened the most when a loved one dies or is on the brink of death.
One of the greatest joys and feelings of satisfaction in my own life was the day I was with my mother at her bedside in an assisted living facility. She was obviously in an unbelievable amount of pain (I think she was trying to pass what was left of a kidney stone that was scheduled to be removed just a few days later), and I could tell her body simply couldn’t take any more. She couldn’t even speak, she was in such pain.
I calmly looked down at her and said, “Mom, you look like you are just totally worn out and ready to just give up and move on. If that’s the case, it’s perfectly okay.” She passed within the next couple of hours. I have never felt any sadness or regret about that day, and have never been anything but fully confident that she was immediately much better off and much happier than she had been in a very, very long time.
The same was true several years prior when I got word that my dad had passed. He was in Tampa and I was 1000 miles away in Washington, DC. I was expecting the call, and when it came and the doctor let me know, my very first thoughts were, “You go Dad! Now you’re out from under! Good for you!” And I have yet to have one moment of grief for him.
Yes, I do miss them, but they are as close as the air I breathe. In fact, everyone who has ever lived and ever WILL live on this earth is not only as close as the air we breathe. They are PART of the air we breath, and thus a part of us and a part of that which gives us life.
The only grief we suffer is that which comes when we don’t allow ourselves expand our awareness beyond that extremely limited data that our brains and our bodies interpret for us. Life is indeed a wonderful amusement park, and we choose our rides. Let’s choose the most enjoyable and revel in the thrill! There’s an even greater and more thrilling amusement park waiting on the other side!
Other creatures on earth appear to have an acceptance of death which humans seem to fight with huge effort. Other creatures wil try to survive within their capabilities but also accept that death is a natural occurence in the circle of life.
Humans on the other hand have gone to the point where we keep people alive even though they can’t live, we don’t allow people to leave even though they want to and suicide is a sin.
This fear of death seems to be perpetuated by a belief in heaven and hell. For others there is a belief that we merely become food for the worms.
For millions of humans living in poverty, war and disease maybe they are already in hell and death would set them free.
This is a long time coming comment. Sometimes I think people don’t want to come back to earth after they experience an NDE. It’s because of the freedom of their soul when they’re flying without a body. Then the pull of earth’s gravity pulls them back into their bodies and they feel a bit heavy even though they can see that their senses are not them exactly. Great article Henk, thanks.
If all we do is come into this life at birth,grow physically and then,die,that’s an awful waste of time and energy. I’ve come to believe,through the information I’ve read in the last 4 years,that we have a purpose here. The sad thing is,that most of the people who ever lived,knew or know nothing of this purpose..and if they heard anything about it unintentionally,they dismissed it completely because of pre-programmed misinformation that they learned from childhood to adulthood. The Creator is in all of us.We are all part of the Creator. The Creator wanted to experience what we call life through all of us. We are the Creator made physical,to see,feel hear,touch,taste and experience everything that a physical body can experience. We have been separated from what we are for so long that we don’t recall it..we are beginning to remember now and are eager to regain the power and knowledge that is ours by birthright,given to us by association with the Creator. When we physically die, aware of this connection,we rejoin with the Creator and become One again,As it was in the Beginning…
I so totally agree that death is not an end all; it is just a change. I cannot prove this, I simply feel it – ever since my first out of body experience. It is not like I was accustomed to this sort of thing either! It is really weird that the thing that makes us human can at the same time, be so troublesome. EMOTION! I love it though when you can experience out of body because suddenly, there is no bothersome emotions; however, one can limit themselves because of earthly beliefs. I remember the first out of body – it was all going so well – until I hit the wall. I later found out that because I saw the wall as solid – I hit the wall as solid. If I had not had that limiting belief, I could have traveled as far as I wanted.
I have had more than a passing interest in N.D.E. but have never been aware of having one myself.
I have had the occaisional experience when I have woken up early in the morning crying, but with an overwhelming feeling of love, completeness and just knowing that everything is O K. Then followed by an overwhelming urge to give all my friends/partner/ex-partners/future partner(s)? a big hug and tell them I love them very much and tell them not to worry, that everything was, is and always will be fine.
This runs contrary to some of my beliefs (programming?) but I realise that I have known some of this since a small child.
I realise that the purpose of life is to learn to love unconditionally (can be a little difficult at times!) all life in all its forms.
I have also come to the conclusion that I know and I have met many people in this life and in my past lives, that, too I feel a really strong connection to some people in the present but have no idea why, I just know that with some of my friends when we met, we have met before and have a really strong love for one another.
Love Peace ‘n’ stuff,
Stu.
Well said Joseph! Wake up people. Death is just another limiting belief. You either die because you expect it or because you choose it. All this talk about succesive lives to learn lessons…if you simply would realize that by taking the challenges that life presents and listening to what they are tring to teach you, you can very quickly work through what it would have taken you many lives and deaths to achieve. The Earth is our mother, God is our father, We are both Body and Soul.That is who you are.The Shift is the marriage of both aspects.
I have had a near death experience, it was amazing. I do not fear death, what scared me was life.When you open your mind to learning, your eyes to seeing, your ears to hearing, your heart to loving, life is also amazing.To live in body and soul is heaven
Thank you for this very interesting article and the responses. My husband died of Colon cancer last year and I was both very upset and angry. A few weeks after his passing, I was awoken In the early hours of the morning by my husband holding on to my arm and saying a few words of comfort to me and I answered him. Also I not only could feel him but smell his Aftershave as well – It was so very real that for an instant I thought he was still alive as I could feel him gripping my arm. In life he was not the sort of person who would either give you a firm handshake or hold my arm tightly, but the grip was so hard that it was almost painful. I certainly believe that there is life after so called ‘death’ as my husband has proved this.
Instead of speculating on what will happen after my body ceases to function, I choose to seek and support the technology that will extend, enhance, and immortalize my physical life.
The Nobel prize for medicine in 2009 was awarded jointly to a trio of scientists for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
As we age and our cells replicate telomeres become shorter and shorter until death occurs. Ongoing research is investigating ways of keeping our telomeres long. Certain forms of brief and repetitive exercise are suspected to contribute to that goal. Also, research has identified omega 3 supplements as a probable preserver of telomeres.
Why concentrate on death when immortality presents a much brighter future. And, when it’s validated, it’s a sure thing, not speculation, like “life after death”. Once we accept the possibility that death is not inevitable, life becomes much more valuable.
I posted the above before reading what Ravi said…
Please, people, do not be fooled by the warm, fuzzy feelings of the afterlife as told by people who have not gone through the whole death experience! You see, all these people had Near death experiences and not ACTUAL death experiences. Of course, they are going to experience nothing of hell until they are judged and you are judged only once…at the time of your REAL death! Food for thought…
Thank you for this beautifully written and profound article.
Most delightful reading. It is most comforting to realise that at the end of my life, I wont have to say with disappointment “Is this all there is?” It is comforting to know that there is a better life after this one. Death appears to be so much less frightening when we know that it is merely a doorway into a much better life.
Thank you for your work and for your help. Your work is good and plain of wonderful thought. I am also tired. I wish you only good things and kindness.
Sorry to dampen your article a little, though I feel it was well written. There is only one way for any individual to know what happens after death. That is to die. The other person’s experiences do not matter for the reasons as under:
The narrators have ‘come back to life’. Thus all that happened or they saw coudl be simply hallucination in the mind. The common experience of a dark tunnel could be caused by oxygen being cut off and bright lights by the activity of neurons in the brain. Unfortunately a dead person has never appeared in another form to tell us what it is like. Thus because the experiences were similar we can say that there is a connection between the bodily functions and the hallucinations. True death has not occurred.
Secondly this ‘dying experience’ is a very strong experience that could cause trauma for the victim. and therefore the impressions are etched in the mind even after he wakes, unlike the other dreams. These could be explanations of why we experience the tunnel and all that in such experiences.
The real reason we are obsessed about death is because we know that it is inevitable, and what ever we achieve in this life is going to the mud in the end. Religions have sprung up in history and all religions center on the fear of death. Every religion has something to say on the hereafter – heaven, hell, or even rebirth. Thus it was that priests constructed pyramids, and today you are scared and made to bow down before the altars because they know that you are scared of death.
To be scared of something that is inevitable is silly. if you remove the fear of what will happen when you die, you can turn to today and live today in joy. When death comes YOU find out.
If you were right and there is an after life,enjoy that then. if you will simply stop existing, it is better to concentrate on the now and here. Darwin , when confronted with the question – what wil you do if after death you found that God did make the world and he confronted you?
The great naturalist replied – I would tell him it was an Honest mistake.
Go do the same. Make honest mistake. Enjoy the blue sky, your pain and joy. If possible bring joy to others, and try to be nice to every one. If you lived this life well, you need not bother about what will happen when you die.
Very good article. I too had a near death experience about 14 years ago. I had a choice to come back or stay and I decided to come back as I felt there were things unfinished on this earth that I needed to do. My experience was a little different than most I have heard or read about, as I had a choice while most do not. I was shown my past and remembered things long forgotten because of blocked memories from my child hood. The very interesting thing is that I was shown my future if I was to stay here on earth, however I do not remember what it will be. I was told by my guide that I will not remember my future here on earth as I nor anyone else is supposed to know what our future holds because it is up to us to persue it or not. It is all about freedom. I’ve never heard it put that way before, but I find it liberating.
The consensus among physicists is, “For a new theory to succeed, it must be carzy enough.” Thus the now considered as a Sacrosanct Law of Physics – The Theory of Relativity – was once not immediately accepted by some physicists themselves because it seems to violate “common sense”.
Our world is a “state of consciousness of being conditioned to believe that it is common sense reality.” Belief is what we think is the Truth.
Meaning, the majority of the human mind accepted such a state as our phyical reality. Any new idea beyond this realm is “crazy”.
Controversial matters, therefore, are those rejected by our consciousness as against “common sense reality”.
Furtheremore, Quantum Physics states, “There is no reality beyond the Mind.”
Simillarly, Relativity Physics states, “There is no such thing as the past that is gone or the future that is yet to come; but every event is Eternal Now. What we do now simultaneously creates the future.”
Evidently, we cannot change our world now, because we have been simultaneously created by the events of the Past. Nevertheless, we have the Free Will to build our Future World Now.
However, a stable future world can only be successfuly built on our knowledge and deeper understanding of the structure of our past reality. This is the solid foundation upon which, we can build a beautiful paradise on earth for man to live in – our future world.*
Dr. G. G. Macias
Founder & Supreme Master – S.A.G.E.S.
The Galactic Order of Dominions of Man & Universe.
*The Metaphysics of Life – The Dying Process of Creation
Hello EveryONE,
I invite you to look up Lee Carroll who channels Kryon energies and they speak about the otherside and where the soul goes and what happens and our return.
It may be a bit far out there but have a listen and see what resonates with you !!!!
Love to All.
That was such a profound and informative article.
I almost wasn’t going to read it but I’m glad I did. It has really helped me to think about what is in my life ‘right now’ instead of fearing how I can ‘secure my future’. Now I know that’s not really what I should be concentrating on as a priority. I also am going to download this as an ebook and show friends and family because I think its actually a wonderful and helpful article.
Thank you, and I’m glad I took the time to read it.
This physical reality is what we call our 3rd Dimension. Where our creations are created and where we really are is in another dimension. Einstein came close to say, the problems we create are of one consciousnes but the solutions come from a different one. We are all consciouness. This is what you are discibing in your story. This is our playground. I like that.
Bless you all.
It is time to inform people about the fact that “we are eternal” … We come an go to get
“educated” in new life-experiences and then we move on in our “Parasomatic Bodies”.
One has to be smart and think that we are ENERGY and that energy lives on and is never
lost, it only gets transformed …
In what concerns the ‘religious’ point of view, I would say that we have to come to the stage
(of which every religion speaks of) which the Christ expressed as : “I and My Father are
One”.
Herta
Dear Henk:
We are like pilots in a hugh air plane, we are about 7″ high and, acording to a man, we have no sex or there are not differences between a man and a woman. Another lady who wrote about her experiences after she died, complain because, when she was faced to a judgment gruoup, there were only men in the group. If there is not differnces how could the women writing about this, could tell the differnce.
She wrote that she had been at a library up there; you have only to read the book’s title and all knowlege of it is in your brain (if you are up there).
We come MANY times but if you don’t learn this life lesson, because of your way of thunking, your next life will be worse rhan this one. This life is like a school or a university where you are faced with lessons you have to learn.
We MUST try to do our best now because, there is not limit to the lifes we experience, but jus think about all the learning you have to do in each life (learning to talk, to walk, learning those arithmetic tables, etc.) We better learn as much as we can. Some timea we are teachers and in other ocasions we learn from somebody else that is we are pupils.
.. it is really great article…as always be.. thanx for sharing and look forward for ur next article..
It is something I strongly believed that there is life after the mortal coil perishes.. we have so many testimonials abt reincarnations… Death is not the end of everything..rather it is a beginning of a fresh lease of life..ur article is very inspiring.. You are right to say that there will be controversial thinking… some schools of thought do not believe in rebirth… however, the experience of many favour the idea that there is life after death… thanks once again… Prem
its wonderful article i had the similar experience some people, i feel the overwhelming happiness like a little boy who had ice cream on both hands, but i feel i was moving speeder than the light or sound and going through walls elegantly with out any effort. it only happened about 5pm in the afternoon its so beautiful.
Hi Henk, I would love to know the answer to the question of what exactly continues after death and what it might feel like. I don’t think though that, good as it was, your article can be said to prove the existence of life after death. I would love to know if more research has been done along these lines: ‘ Heidi’s uncanny adventure, which took place in December 2000, is the first recorded case of an out-of-body experience induced by electrical stimulation of the brain. As long as her body maps were synchronous, her felt position in space and her seen position in space did not match. Her mind cast about for the best-fit way to turn her confusion into a coherent experience, and concluded that she must be floating up and away with a view downward.
…..Plenty of people report briefly perceiving the world from a location outside their bodies, often during a near-death experience. One explanation for the phenomenon is alterations in blood flow. Large arteries converge near the angular gyrus inside your brain. If anything constricts the flow of blood to that area, your felt body sense can become disoriented. You might get the feeling that you are floating above an operating table or the scene of a car crash. At the same time your field of vision might have what is called a scotoma – a big blank spot – that your brain fills in with images of what if expects or would like to see.’ (The body has a mind of it’s own – Blakeslee).
I’m not saying that this explains everything about NDE’s or OBE’s but having an understanding of how the brain and body interact to make sense of differing experiences and applying it to phenomenom like these seems to me to be essential.
We fear death, thats natural but really the pain that may cause death or even the pain of leaving a loved one. But actually what we should be fearing is re-birth. Unborn (as opposed to death) is beautiful as described here but it is not the “ultimate” as there would be no re-birth- its not permanent although time is different it “changes” and rebirth takes place. After death is just as illusionary as what we call life although we can build houses and gardens, boats or planes or anything we desire simply by thought without the effort to do it physically because the mental energy is so easy to mold or manipulate finally to “crystallize” into our “reality” it is nevertheless an illusion quite as real as what we think of our Earth world.
But to be reborn is to be plunged back into the cauldron of pain, right from the first breath and pain all the way to our next rebirth. “All life is suffering” was what the Buddha taught, what he meant was all rebirth brings us to the plane of pain which will continue until we gain enlightenment. Yes we live forever there is NO DEATH thats scary- would it be so much easy if the lights could be just switched off and -nothing? Or is it better to know that our awareness is open to more struggle, an endless ongoing drudge up a steep hill only to find another towering over us still to be climbed on and on? There is a way and the Buddha found it and still teaches it. Its not about religion- worshiping GOD -its never found by making offerings or prayer-by following commandments or eating the right food -by doing rituals or following any dogma (even Buddhism) but by the inward search for self understanding (Vipasana) is a term for this or translated it means “INSIGHT” “inner sight” a mental condition of seeing everything clearly. When Buddha was asked after his enlightenment ,”what are you are you a God, are you a spirit are you a savior”,what are you? He simply replied, “I AM AWAKE”!
Peace to all the one searching here.
Loved the article. Life is one hell of a ride, I can see why we might do it again and again.
It seems clear that energy is measurable in every spectrum of the Universe (and beyond?) so of course THAT energy connects us to each other and everything.
Energy is not contained in a cup, a bag, a warehouse. IT JUST IS. I believe that our essential energy/soul is discrete (with furry boundaries) but that is all. The form it currently manifests is just that. Our current form. Our essential energy/soul goes on forever.
This is something I am very curious about–perhaps a comment or two?
It seems that instead of being glad our loved ones have left us and have gone on
in peace & love and we allow them to go–that we are expected to grieve for them?
That if we didn’t we’re disloyal to their memory?
For instance I saw on TV last night a couple who lost a daughter to her murder and
they kept her room in shrine-like existence. They intended that forever that life-moment was
frozen. Never to embrace life again? I know these moments I’m 72. Rose
Hi Henk, I am now a widow and in my 70s. I was a Hypnotherapist for 15 years in Sydney Australia. My husband (he was a scientist) wished to look into life after death, I said it was a lot of rubbish, he got a young man willing to be the test subject. Well it turned out I did most of the research, after several hundred regressions into life after death experience, I have to admit YES THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATH AND WE COME BACK TIME AND TIME AGAIN UNTIL WE LEARN. Always they hate having to return. I often asked whilst they were ‘over there’ ‘Why are you having to go back? ‘To learn! ‘Learn what? ‘To give’ ‘To give what? ‘Of myself – To give of myself to others’. We did regressions years before Dr. Elizabeth Koubler Ross wrote her book on the experiences of patients death and being medically recalled. Yet all of our patients told of the tunnel and the light. All this was over 30 years ago. I don’t usually talk about this as people don’t understand.
Best regards…..Gloria Kearton.
far out, I was pleased to read this as , a lot of people explain these experiences as lack of oxygen etc, but the examples quoted of people knowing things that were physically impossible for them to have known prooves that there is a consciousness that leaves the body. it removes some worry from the process.
Yea!!! This is what I do for a living. I help people remember their PAST LIVES!!! It’s impact is not as dramatic as the near death but it helps them remember. Without the trauma that caused the near death a lot of self work can take place quickly without the need to repair the body, too. That helps them change their core beliefs in this life and brings joy where fear once lived. It’s great work helping to change lives for the better.
Very good article !!! I have always believed that it’s only the body that “dies” because the soul lives on and on……. Thank you for clearing that up. I am so grateful.
Two years ago I lost my son in a car accident. Through this horrific loss I have learned so much. I am no longer afraid of death, because I know he will be there to receive me, which has been a huge gift. This experience has created in me an awareness, which would not be there otherwise. It has confirmed the power in unconditional love. This love is what links us to each other and goes through into eternity. I know the only thing that separates me from my son is my breath. I often feel the awareness his presence generated in me when he walked into the room. I feel it most when I am by myself and I know he is there beside me. I have always felt my children are extensions of myself, whether they were running down the football field or singing in a choir. It is as if I am doing that. Now a piece of myself has moved on to the next realm and I am no longer afraid of moving on either. I have always had a problem telling someone my son “died”, because he really isn’t dead, but just living in another realm, beyond this material world. As painful and difficult it has been, and continues to be, the sorrow is because I miss seeing him, hearing his laugh, and looking into his eyes. The sorrow isn’t for him, he is truly in a much better place.
He had learned the lessons he was put here to learn, so he was able to graduate. I guess I have more lessons to learn.
Focused energy creating a variety of forms in order that we may experience different things. While on a camping trip one year, my friends and I were hiking and as I needed to relax quickly having only 4 days of vacation, I got last in line and decided to walk at my own pace, noticing everything around me. At some point, I did notice I couldn’t feel my weight as my feet touched the ground. Immediately I looked at my feet only to realize I wasn’t touching the ground but just sort of gliding slightly above it. I continued staring at my feet and somehow walked right through a tree, like we see in movies sometimes. I stopped and for a moment, thought I was hallucinating and felt like calling out to my friends. Something told me not to because maybe whatever was going on would stop and I didn’t want it to stop, this was fun!
As we feel the limits of our body, suddenly I felt my body limits expand to encompass the whole forest, simultaneously I felt the forest in me and I in the whole forest: fusion. Like water absorbed in a sponge. I wanted to call my friends again and say hey, I’m invisible!
I didn’t. I have no idea how long this lasted, I just suddenly heard my friends speak and it stopped. They were lost. The only thing I could think of is no way was I going to stay in the middle of a national park at night with all these bears wandering here and there. I turned around and led them straight out directly to our canoes. Strangely, although while walking I was looking immediately close to me, my eyes had noticed little things like the shape of branches, the colour of a mushroom, my skin remembered air currents, warm, dry, humid, cool, my nose the different smells, my ears the different sounds of the wind passing through trees and bushes. My whole body was a compass.
I had had a “NOW” moment and it is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. The freedom is amazing.
I am convinced death as we think of it doesn’t exist. We just release the energy and go out of our “space suit” which ultimately goes back to it’s original “form”: energy.
Now is what it’s all about because it is all there is, eternal now.
Oh, that was so so lovely!!!!! So in the meantime. Lets all go and fly!!! Live to the best of our ability without limitation. It’s so exciting!!!
Hi This reads like a page out of a Lobsang Rhampa book.I have almost the full set.
Thank you very much for the interesting article. I feel that life must live. Life cannot die. Just like the tree, producing young sprouts in spring, and the leaves growing greener and larger in summer, changing color in autumn and falling down in winter and the next year the same process takes place, we humans are in the same cycle, and will continue to live after our life span here on earth. When the body has completed its journey and when it is of no use for the soul, the soul leaves the body. This experience , we call death. Death is not a terrible thing as we think. We have been taught to think it as a horrible experience. When our time comes we have to go. No one could stop it, not even the best doctors in the world. Everything that is born has to die. Therefore, let’s accept death when it comes, but in the meantime lets try to live in harmony with our fellow human beings.
Several years ago, I had an experience that changed my life. Here are some of the details to share…
>>A place opened up above me with a brilliant, white, misty Light streaming from it. The Light was extremely bright, but it didn’t hurt my eyes. I was moving toward the opening quickly and suddenly, I was in the Light…
Before me, a row of tall, lush sunflowers created a fence of sorts. I had the distinct impression that I was absolutely NOT to go beyond that border of sunflowers.
Standing behind, looking over the flowers were what appeared to be Beings made of Light. They had a human body shape, but there were no facial features. Rather I was seeing a silhouette that was made of just Light instead of darkness. Around the edges, an aura of a brighter, white Light radiated.
Although no words were spoken – I KNEW who they were. I knew what they were thinking or trying to project to me. I knew to my very core that they were expecting me. These Beings of Light knew that I was coming for a visit and were waiting for me. Again, they didn’t communicate verbally, I just KNEW these things without any doubt. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it.
The Beings were projecting thoughts and feelings to me, and I could feel what it was that they were expressing to me. I felt the most wonderful Love pouring into me. I began sobbing from the relief and joy of it because it was so wonderful.
It felt like the Love was filling up every cell in my body until they were about to burst. I felt no judgment from these Beings of Love, just totally enveloped in this warm, caring, tender love. They impressed upon me that the most important thing here is living from that LOVE. Love with all your heart, love everyone and everything. Make all your choices from this place of Love.
Then, I was zooming back, looking at the open space and watching it become smaller until it was gone.<<
I couldn’t stop thinking or talking about the experience. I had to find out what happened to me. I had heard of near-death experiences before, but hadn’t really delved into it. Now, I could not get enough stories to read. I was amazed to find people recounting stories with similarities to my experience!
This experience, whatever it was, changed my life. My passion is helping people to find this Love – the Light that lives within everyone’s Heart. We are all a part of this Love, it is our very essence, our Spirit.
Riki
Well done Henk, It dosent get better anywhere on the internet, Many of us seek for truth and find the best explanation here,thats because we know something exist other than the hype we got all our life forcing us to live by the rules created to controll over 3.000 years ago.
Today I feel like am breaking out faster because,though I have been searching for that truth which I stronghly believe exist,and getting bits and pieces you break things down without fear of those who may find it as too revealing.keep the truth hidden and hold on to the power.
This was a difficult question,great responce.I thing its a good Idea to have as many people reading this article as possible,it may produce a little love in their hearts.
George.
Well done Henk. Another great article. I haven’t read the comments yet, I’m saving them to enjoy later when I’ve got more time. But I just want to say thank you. This is the kind of enlightenment and truth that should be openly taught in schools under the title ‘LIfe and Enlightenment Studies.’
I spent my early years, up until my mid twenties terrified of death. As a little boy I would be hit by a black wave of one day never existing, death…nothingness… and the sheer horror of it would wake me up or stop me in my tracks and plunge me into a panick attack of unspeakably horrific proportions.
Little did I know that it was the seedling desires of an inner quest for enlightenment and truth, and for years now I’ve known the truth about “death.” Life scares me a bit. Which is silly I know. But “death” certainly doesn’t.
A few months ago my fifty year old brother died. I remember seeing him that morning lying there on the hallway floor where he’d collapsed. He looked more peaceful than I’d ever known him to look. My ego kept saying “well come on…cry…that’s your brother you know. He’s dead!” But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I found it impossible to take seriously. The whole thing, to me, seemed so peaceful, so natural, so beautifuly unreal and dreamlike.
But it is no wonder I felt this way, because a short while later I left everyone at the house to walk down the road and tell my mother what had happened. An unenviable task of course, but it was okay, I wasn’t alone.
As I walked along the road, all I could feel was my brother’s presence about six to ten feet above my left shoulder; and guess what? He was laughing uncontrollably. When physical, my brother had the loudest laugh imaginable. And right then, I could hear it. And between bouts of laughter I heard him say “I didn’t know it was going to be like this! This is great!”
I’m closer to my brother now than I’ve ever been – and it seems more real now than it ever was.
Kurt
I would like to say thank you for this insight on this issue. My mother passed from cancer in August. From studying the mind and body for a while now I can tell you that after she passed I saw something which looked like an energy ball or cloud above her bed while all the children cried around her. After they all left the room I came back into the room and what I had seen earlier was no longer in the room. I knew my mother had left or moved on.
Thank you
when I am feourious and feel that I’ve been disrespected and mistreated and my husband have not been honest with me and have cheated on me and … too many owful thing in the ride I have gone through, And when I see him after death hé also shall go through the path and at the end of the tunnel, he’ll see the light and will be the same warm and feeling good and peacefull like I will be or any one else, THEN I feel more like we are all ONE, THEN I find it becomes too easy for me to forgive him, If there is nothing there to punish him for he humilated me and hurted me and my emotions… I find it easier for me to give up and be less emotional, FOR WE ARE ALL ONE, and what ever he did and he does is what is in his ride, whether is his choice or what ever… I shuld be less concerned about him, by judging him or hating him, I should be taking care of my monents of NOW till I reach that light which we all will, no matter how our rides are, untill I reach that moment, I can be more of my part of “THE ONE” by caring and loving and enjoying and spending the time I have left in the ride on things I like, and I care.
with love
Fatemeh
very nice article to read, and i really enjoy it. it clearly show wht universe are. tiz subject hve come along for such a long time and finaly human n science able to determined it. recently i read moeslem people holy book (quran). tiz subject also came across although not really clear about what it said, but the whole meaning is there. good know fr science to able to prove it. before i was doubt abt wht people said abt words of God….but thnks to science, now is revealed.
Live, love, laugh. Turn of the TV, opinions, labels, judgment, and learn to manifest your own reality. Appreciate the slice of life you’ve been given and stop trying to “transcend” into what you have always been and will always be.
Over the years I’ve learned to drop labels. Life is all about the expansion of consciousness and sometimes a spark or sparks takes one for the team.
The one’s who expect a certain outcome and make the assumption that things will play out a certain way, meet and make it reality. Sometime it’s beautiful, sometimes is ugly, but it is always a learning experience.
I appreciate the experience and existence of all, whether positive or negative, and realize that every decision can have both negative and positive aspects.
My personal near Death experience wasn’t as tranquil as the one’s discussed in the comments, but it did bring me an amazing ability to manifest and the realization that I was manifesting. I enjoy the ride more now and realize that the world is mine to create.
In the words of Jay-Z, and yes I am quoting a rapper.
“I wish you a hundred years of success, but it’s my time”
“Life is but a beach chair”
-NumerousOne aka La Luz
I remember being very sick in my early 20’s.
I was lying on the bed the wrong way around, facing what was supposed to be, a blank wall alongside the window.Mum and Dad were there, along with a doctor.
In front of me was an open doorway surrounded by brilliant blue and white light. A hazy figure was there, but I couldn’t see a face. More like a trick of the light than a body.
I had no fear, and I could hear a voice telling me that I had a choice. To go through the shining doorway = death, to stay where I was = life.
I knew Mum was really upset and horrified that I was about to die, and I think my father felt the same way.
Not afraid, not really noticing anything much going on around me, I just lay there thinking about my next move, and eventually chose NOT to go through that doorway.
It was as if I was in a deep meditative state, actions and speech around me could be heard but did not affect me much as I was too entranced with the blue light.
It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!!!
It felt very strange to be back in the world again after my decision was made.
I heard Mum crying, and the pain and sickness overwhelmed me once more.
I wished at that point that I had chosen the other option instead., but knew the devastating effect it would have had on my lovely mother, and she was the main reason why I chose ‘life’
A lot of the time, even now, I feel as if life is an imposition and I can find no purpose for my continued living, and it seems as though there are so many things sent to try me that are unnecessary. I often find myself asking the Higher Powers (whoever they are) why ??
All my actions and thoughts have some connection to that day.
I have no fears about death itself now, just the business beforehand and the fact that someone else will have to sort out my home and possessions etc, and that worries me more in case I run out of time to sort stuff out myself.
I hate the idea of my treasures being sent to a charity shop or thrown in the rubbish bin !!!!
I like the site and find it very interesting reading.
from Cheryl
My dear friend,
Thank you for the article. I have read a lot on this subject, plus reincarnation in Buddism( I am Christian) and all goes at the same path. We live and continue to live a good number of times, till we become a smaller picture of God.
The point is, when you really know that you will continue to come here and front the same problems again and again-till you understand and move beyond them- then you become calmer, stop harm the others and your sowl is brighter and full of love.
We are not alone, we have all the help we wish, and all we need is faith,love and trust.
All best for all.
Inspiring Read!!
Thanks for this eye-opening article. It really does cohere with my experiences and beliefs, and reminds me of that line in the song “The Rose” by Bette Midler: “……and they’re so afaid of dying, they never learn to live”
I have just read your article. As I sat there puzzled over why I have no memory of ever being afraid of death, I remembered I used to have spontaneous OBE (out of body experiences) as a young teenager. These happened as I was about to fall asleep. I would experience a taste of fried onions on the back of my tongue and think, wow here we go again.
Although I never went higher than the ceiling of my bedroom I found the experience fun. Yes it did cross my mind to learn to go further, however, as it always happened at night when most people my age were either going to bed or already had, I found that idea boring as I knew they wouldn’t see me.
As I greatly fear pain I do not want a painful cruel death. This is definitely on my list to leave my body on my terms. Just lift out as a teenager, but without returning.
good article!
While I enjoyed your article Henk, I would like to provoke further discussion. We are talking about ‘Near’ death experiences…. not ‘Death’ experiences. I know of others including myself who have had these experiences through meditation and other techniques that bring one into the ‘present’ moment. Many Yogis have demonstrated the slowing down and even, the stopping of the heart….as happens in NDE (near death experiences ). Have you ever turned off an electrical device such as a TV and watched as the on/off diode indicator goes on glowing for a short while? Perhaps the NDE is similar, in that, the brain’s electrical activity remains ‘glowing ‘ but at a much reduced level, and, in a body of a person who is in a weakened state on a hospital bed, one requires external stimulus to pull back from the “off” condition. ( i.e.; CPR etc). As for the expanding awareness that is experienced with NDE, this is a natural result of letting go of all the ‘labels’ and ‘definitions’ we, as individuals have chosen to create. If there is a ‘You’ and a ‘something else’ (i.e. object’) , then you will experience separation from ‘Oneness’. We ‘define’ ourselves out of, and away from, the Oneness. Instantly, we have created “Me’ and “everything else’ This equals a feeling of separation. “Separation”, by it’s nature implies distance and Time. ‘Distance’ and ‘Time’ imply past and future. Generally, we live most of our lives feeling ‘separated’ from life, Oscillating in our thoughts between past regrets and concerns for the future, and never pausing in the “now” long enough to realize what’s going on. If we did, the past and future would dissolve into one…… including our separate identity. Then our awareness is set free from the body which is now just another object. The ‘awareness’ that is our true nature, ‘sees’ without boundaries or limitations once the illusion of a separate self has dissolved into the ‘present’. One question remains… will this awareness continue after the complete death of the body? Or……will it end when the ‘diode’ glowing in the brain is depleted.
Another author whose books on this subject are brilliant is Dr Michael Newton.
I have out-of-body experiences on a regular basis, I’ve had some real adventures, but perhaps the most important thing that I’ve come to understand is that life does indeed go on after death. Afer all, death is just transition from the physical to the spiritual. I have met many ‘dead’ people on my out-of-body journeys, some have been friends and relatives who have gone into the beyond, others I have not known.
Hey, but let me tell you, it’s great on the other side and it’s great to be here too, being life in Life.
We are Life living in Eternity.
Love to All,
Ali.
This article is really amazing and gives me a right conclusion that there is nothing such as DEATH its just an illusion. We are always here not as bodies but as consciousness. If somebody is wiling to get enlightened ( to merge with supreme consciousness) this is the best time to get into this heavenly state and get to know the real self. I have seen the secret movie, before that i had “god” knowledge from my master and these days reading and listening to osho as well and i am doing my best to live in present and live moment to moment. because when we begin to live such a life then only we can experience real bliss. we are not concerned with our past and neither worried about our future. This can be attained by little conscious breathing and meditating on your feelings,accepting everything not creating any conflict and when we do this we emerge as a new being transformed one, full of love and compassion for every living creature. We see the world as we are, so when ever one feels something he/she should introspect and would get to know the cause of that particular feeling is already there in us not in the outer world, not in people, not in circumstances,not in situations so create a heaven in the inner world which would reflect back the same to the world. this is my experience and what ever i say can be experienced by any one.
the real sign of transformation and realization comes when we are accepted and loved by everyone without any efforts of our own. take care enjoy life and get enlightened.
This is a great article! It shows us that life is eternal, it never really ends, so what’s to fear? When we die, we go to the other realm and rest for awhile and then we come back, in a different body, but our spirit lives forever. That’s a beautiful notion.
Apart from the books and the authors you mentioned, I’d like to refer you to four more books by Dr. Brian L. Weiss, ( a psychiatrist who heals people through regression) which are really wonderful. Those books are:
1. Many lives many Masters
2. Messages from the Masters
3. Only love is real
4. Through time into healing.
Those books can shed some more light on the subject and give us some more comprehensive point of view.
Your articles are all so interesting and enlightening that I wouldn’t miss one. I have read many life after death books and I certainly would like to read the new one from the researcher from the Netherlands. I strongly believe we are all connected and that energy is everywhere and the energy from your articles resonate with me..Thank you, thank you ,thank you. Jan
I’m rather pleased to see that you have addressed this issue…it kind of lets us see the bigger picture and I think that it will gather momentum as more and more people are confronted with the question of “death”.My opinion is that knowledge of the Hereafter serves us in the task of enjoying and BEING and CREATING in the HERENOW..;)..after death there is no time just eternity and that is the “shift in consciousness” that humanity is collectively taking.The only obstacle is F.E.A.R (False Evidence Appearing Real) an thre are ways to confront and neutralize it 😉
Another interesting detail of many NDEs & OBEs is the fact that many people meet a very wise & loving presence – often more than one – that is commonly referred to as the Guardian Angel/Spirit Guide/Higher Self Matrix..
Now it is possible for people to make contact with these unconditionally loving beings who have always been with us from before our physical birth while still alive.They have proven invaluable to me on my path and continue to be for which I am eternaly grateful ( I have managed to overcome extreme skepsis to an irrefutable acknowledgement of their living presence), often allowing me to glimpse that bigger picture — the Law of Attraction–just another name for the Law of Belief (currently elevated to a pseudo-scientific dogma with it’s “mathematical unforgivingness” ) is not the only Law operating thank goodness ( the Law of Love …in particular S/self Love fo example) ….there is more to it than that ( just think about the fact if it was so, people ignorant of it would not have their prayers answered even though that does occur and has occurred throughout history).
These “higher” beings are responsible for the connection between heaven and earth and function through the conduit of our individual intuition without our ever being aware of them our whole life long.
I highly encourage everyone to make contact with their own unique helpers/guardian spirits who can shed light on many matters pertaining to both heaven and earth spiritual aswell as material/practical.It is an experience that may truly and radically alter your perception beyond anything that you or even an earthly mentor could ever do ( as there are almost always regardless of how enlightened they are or may apear to be residues of a limited earthly personal ego-bound perspective that colour their words & actions — they are still souls evolving on this plane of existence…I speak from my experience of being a reli-shopper in the spiritual marketplace of gurus and teachers for many many years)
Here is a wonderful site btw about one of the most well documented NDEs:
http://www.mellen-thomas.com
which answered a great may questions fo me aswell as showing me that in the hereafter aswell as the herenow we are involved in an interactive holographic experience of co-creation…:-)
L,P,A & Blessings
Hi,
Excellent and interesting article.
As a traditional Native medicine maker, I am glad to see people taking an active interest in explaining these things. We are all part of the circle of life. A circle is completeness and it is never ending. It is all about change . . . continuous change . . . this is the way of existence. It is only when we are at the source — the realm of pure Spirit, that change and vibration ceases, for the Source is beyond such things.
It’s true, I can reason that what we call death is just the separation of the physical body from our spirits. Since pain, fear,etc relate to our five senses that is the physical body then it must be clear that the spiritual body is free from the attributes of the physical.
Great article – made my body tingle.
My husband died of lung cancer – during the time we went through this situation we talked about a lot of things. One was I asked him “when you pass over will you come back and visit me?” He said “I don’t know if I can, but I wil save you a place”. The moment he died was probably the most peaceful moment of my life. BUT, at his grave side service, an Eagle sored over the crowd for several seconds and then disappeared. I know he is OK. I no longer fear death, but imbrace it.
This article brought back memories. Thank you!
Provocative article . . .
Yet the majority of us continue to question what are the most obvious facts: 1) we were created and therefore we are not an accident; 2) that creative process was and is the result of intelligent design that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend; 3) creation embodies purpose and therefore we are all here with a purpose that is beyond our ourselves, our abilities, talents and skills are not just for ourselves; and 4) we have a creator with whom we are connected and through whom we are connected with all of creation – past, present and future.
I recall an article I picked up while taking a study break in the library at the University of Michigan that was written by a group of research physicians at Johns Hopkins University. They were studying death and what happens to a person at the point of death.The study report noted a number of patients (as I recall about 20 or so) that were terminally ill, only a matter of days remained before death. These people were placed on a special bed that laid on an empirical balance that was able to measure changes in weight by fractions of a gram. The patients were also hooked up to all of the heart, respiration and brain wave monitoring equipment that fed their data continuously to a computer. What the researchers discovered was that at the moment of “clinical death” – ceasation of heart, respiration and brainwave (flat line) there was a distinct and inexplicable change in the empirical balance by a few grams. Every case, every patient, every time at the same “moment” their was a loss of 1 to 3 grams in the body weight that matched the moment of “physical” death. The only explanation the researchers offered was that this must be the human “soul” – nothing physical or material had changed.
I believe that the questions for us to answer are not whether there is life after death, but what is this “life,” what is the “next purpose” of our existence, where will this life be lived and are there things we can do or should not do that can positively or adversely affect us in the “hereafter”?
CL
Great peice! There is a need to somehow get men and woman to “look beyond” and drift away from believeing that THEY end where their skin stops.
There is no true freedom of spirit in most people, they speak of “freedom” as some kind of political goal.. but they can never know freedom until they can de-link from the mental, physical and psycological prison of the flesh and blood body, along with the 3 dimensional world that is neccessary to sustain the body and the illusion.
The life that is limited to 3 dimensional “stuff”, and the accumulation, storage and disposal of “stuff”, excacerbated by the lifetime concerns of keeping the body alive at any cost is truly the dungeon devised by the Devil. All of the foregoing needs to be positioned as “secondary” to education of the spirit of man.
NEV
in the last year, i flatlined 3 times. I dont rember leaving my body but, i did feel a peace that was beyond explanaition. I still have that.
Also, i realize, ‘everything i see in my life, i create..What an adventure!!!—
Brilliant article. Readers interested in the subject may do well to read the books titled “God Speaks” and “Discourses” by Meher Baba which details consciousness. It covers beautifully the evolution of consciousness, birth and death, mental states of heaven and hell, reincarnation and karma. It even covers higher planes of consciousness, which he calls the ‘involution’ culminating in ‘Liberation’ or ‘Self Realization. Thanks. Mehercy.