Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

Out-of Body Experiences and the Near-Death Experience Part 1 Imagine that you are a patient in a hospital and surgery is being performed on you. You are sound asleep. You were sound asleep long before they wheeled into the operating room. But while you are asleep something very strange happens. During the operation, you are suddenly awakened to find yourself floating near the ceiling! Down below are the doctors working on your body (as in the cartoon on the left). You see a strange sign hanging from the ceiling which says "You are dead." You watch as the doctor puts the electric paddles on your chest. You have a wonderful peaceful feeling which you have never had before. The doctors give your body a shock and you are back in your body sound asleep again. Hours later, you awaken and tell the doctor about your out-of-body experience and the "You are dead" sign. The doctor smiles and tells you, "Your heart stopped during surgery and we had to revive you." The doctor then explains to you, "You are part of a near-death study and you just had a near-death experience. You are the first patient who has ever read that sign. That sign can only be read by someone reading it from the vantage point of the ceiling. And because you were able to read this sign and tell us about it, you have proven scientifically that the mind can function outside of the body. A great scientific discovery has just occurred. Congratulations. You have proven scientifically that consciousness transcends our physical body and possibly death.​ 1. How NDEs will Prove the Survival of Consciousness After Death Someday, someone is going to have a near-death experience and observe a scientifically controlled test object, such as a sign like "You are dead" which can only be seen if the observer is actually outside of their body. However , this is only the first step. Researchers must also do the following: a. Prove that consciousness can transcend the body by perceiving verifiable events while out of the body.​ b. The next step is the same as the first step except it occurs while the body is verifiably "dead" (i.e., clinical and brain death).​ c. Once the above can be proven, all the skeptics will have to admit that consciousness survives death.​ It may surprise some people to know that these kind of studies are going on right at this moment. Indeed, it is only a matter of time when someone tells a doctor they saw the "You are dead" sign. For test purposes, however, the sign will probably say something more cryptic to insure the uniqueness of such an event. 2. Examples of Out-of-Body Visual Perception A large number of near-death experiencers have witnessed verifiable events occurring outside of their body. Unfortunately, such evidence does not constitute "scientific evidence." The reason is because scientific evidence involves replication of the experience and the existence of strict controls over the events being witnessed. However, the example I gave at the beginning of this page is the kind of test environment which can provide such scientific evidence. Many examples of anecdotal evidence of verifiable perception are provided on this web page. The following are three of the most interesting out-of-body testimonies from three NDEs. They are from the near-death experiences of Dr. Dianne Morrissey, Dr. George Ritchie, and Reinee Pasarow. They are exceptional because they are NDEs involving an extended out-of-body phase, when the experiencer observed events happening around their body. a. Dr. Dianne Morrissey's NDE and Out-of-Body Perception Dr. Dianne Morrissey is the author of the books You Can See The Light and Anyone Can See the Light. She describes her beautiful NDE in detail in her video entitled Soul Journeys Beyond the Light. It is one of the best videos I have ever seen. When Dianne was twenty-eight years old, she was electrocuted and had a very profound NDE. The following is the out-of-body aspect of her NDE reprinted by permission from her book Anyone Can See the Light: "I bent over to pick up the plastic tubing. As I began to straighten up, I accidentally bumped the tubing on the edge of the tank. The water suddenly squirted across my face - the pain was so sharp, it felt as if a knife where slitting my cheek! I screamed from the shock and pain, then felt a moment of temporary relief as the water crossed over my molars. My reprieve was short-lived, however, as the electrified water rushed into my mouth. "As my body bent over in shock, I had the most uncanny knowledge that death was ahead of me. I began to mourn the loss of everything I'd known: the Earth, my home, my friends - all that I'd been aware of, all that I loved. Everything I'd believed to be true and lasting was slipping away from me. I was face to face with death, face to face with the unknown." "My body was thrown backwards and to one side by the current. My body crashed to the floor, thrown with such force that my head went right through the drywall, about a foot above the floor. I never felt the injuries, however, because I was no longer in my body. I was actually watching my electrocution from above! How could I be out of my body and still be alive? I wondered, astonished. "Suddenly, I was aware that I was inside a vast, seemingly infinite blackness. I wasn't sure where this blackness was in relationship to the Earth, but for some reason I was unafraid. My blackout period was brief, for I now found myself back in my home, but in a new form. I was transparent, yet I still looked like me. "How elated I felt! Now, out of my body, I had no worries, no cares. Never had I felt like this when I was "alive". My entire spirit body was transparent, and I was inside a glowing white light that extended about three feet around me. At that moment, an awareness overtook me - I am not my physical body! This realization made me feel so free, so wonderful! My spirit was glowing with a white light that illuminated the entire room. "Then, I was up near the ceiling again. Everything still looked the same - the furnishings, the walls - but there was a new awareness about the dimension to the scene - it had become transparent. I could see everything more clearly than ever before, and like a scientist, I found myself looking at life through a microscope, discovering minuscule particles of matter normally invisible. "I was now aware of the absence of physical sensations, yet I was feeling a heightened sense of awareness such as I'd never felt while alive. I knew I was different from the "Dianne" I had been, but I also knew I was "me". It was similar to looking at your reflection in a mirror; you know you're not the reflection, but it does appear to be you. "Now, I saw that everything was shrouded by a mist. Despite a lack of gravity, I could easily control my direction, and when I moved into the living room, I noticed that I had just walked through the glass coffee table. Wow! How did I do that? I marveled. "Tuffy (her dog) suddenly entered the den and began nipping at my face and pawing at my arm, trying to get my body to wake up. I knew that his relentless attempts to awaken my physical body wouldn't work, yet I was proud of him for trying, and even hoped his efforts might work. I wondered where his chum, Penny, was, and suddenly I was next to her in the backyard. I opened my mouth to talk to her and felt my tongue moving, but no sounds came out. I could distinctly hear my voice, and then realized it was coming from my mind. I tried several times to get Penny's attention, yelling, "Penny, can you see me? Penny, can you hear me?" Apparently she didn't, because there was no response. "Next, I walked around my backyard. As I looked through the walls of my house toward the front sidewalk, I noticed a man walking down the street. Eagerly, I flew to him, right through the walls, and tried to get his attention. Staring deeply into his eyes, I said forcefully, "Can you help me? I need help." Then I tried to shake his shoulders, but he still didn't notice me. Frustrated, I tried to touch his shoulder to get him to look at me, and my hand went through his upper right shoulder blade and out his back. This startled me. "What am I to do? I wondered, becoming upset when I realized that the man could neither see nor hear me. Instantly, I was back in my yard again, Penny beside me. I noticed that whenever I felt any apprehension, I was instantly moved to a place of greater comfort. "On the way back to the den, I stopped right in the middle of the wall between rooms. I sensed that I was to look down at something fantastic, and as I gazed downward, I saw a long silver cord coming out of my spirit body, right through the cheesecloth-like fabric I was wearing. The cord extended down and out in front of me, and as I turned around, I saw that the silver cord draped around and behind me, like an umbilical cord. I followed it through the two hallway walls and into my den, where I saw it attached to the back of the head of my physical body. The cord was about an inch wide and sparkled like Christmas tree tinsel. "As soon as I saw that the silver cord was attached to my physical body, my spirit body was thrust into a dark tunnel. I moved through it with great speed, traveling faster than I could have imagined possible. Although the tunnel was filled with an all consuming darkness, I felt peaceful and unafraid." (Dr. Dianne Morrissey) b. Dr. George Ritchie's NDE and Out-of-Body Perception In 1943, Dr. George Ritchie died of pneumonia and nine minutes later returned to life to tell about it. The following is the account of the out-of-body aspect of his NDE excerpted from his excellent book Return From Tomorrow. His follow-up book is My Life After Dying: "The men let go of my arms ... I heard a click and a whirr. The whirr went on and on. It was getting louder. The whirr was inside my head and my knees were made of rubber. They were bending and I was falling and all the time the whirr grew louder. I sat up with a start. What time was it? I looked at the bedside table but they'd taken the clock away. In fact, where was any of my stuff? "I jumped out of bed in alarm, looking for my clothes. My uniform wasn't on the chair. I turned around, then froze. Someone was lying in that bed. I took a step closer. He was quite a young man, with short brown hair, lying very still. But, the thing was impossible! I myself had just gotten out of that bed! For a moment I wrestled with the mystery of it. It was too strange to think about - and anyway I didn't have the time. "I went back past the offices and stepped out into the corridor. A sergeant was coming along it carrying an instrument tray covered with a cloth. Probably he didn't know anything, but I was so glad to find someone awake that I started toward him. "'Excuse me, Sergeant,' I said. 'You haven't seen the ward boy for this unit, have you?' "He didn't answer. Didn't even glance at me. He just kept coming, straight at me, not slowing down. "'Look out!' I yelled, jumping out of his way. "The next minute he was past me, walking away down the corridor as if he had never seen me, though how we had kept from colliding I didn't know. And then I saw something that gave me a new idea. Farther down the corridor was one of the heavy metal doors that led to the outside. I hurried toward it. Even if I had missed that train, I'd find some way of getting to Richmond! "Almost without knowing it I found myself outside, racing swiftly along, traveling faster in fact than I'd ever moved in my life. Looking down I was astonished to see not the ground, but the tops of mesquite bushes beneath me. Already Camp Barkeley seemed to be far behind me as I sped over the dark frozen desert. My mind kept telling me that what I was doing was impossible, and yet ... it was happening. I was going to Richmond; somehow I had known that from the moment I burst through that hospital door. Going to Richmond a hundred times faster than any train on Earth could take me. "Almost immediately I noticed myself slowing down. Just below me now, where two streets came together, I caught a flickering blue glow. It came from a neon sign over the door of a red-roofed one-story building with a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer sign propped in the front window. Cafe, the jittering letters over the door read, and from the windows light streamed onto the pavement. Staring down at it, I realized I had stopped moving altogether. Finding myself somehow suspended fifty feet in the air was an even stranger feeling than the whirlwind flight had been. But I had no time to puzzle over it, for down the sidewalk toward the all-night cafe a man came briskly walking. At least, I thought, I could find out from him what town this was and in what direction I was heading. Even as the idea occurred to me - as though thought and motion had become the same thing - I found myself down on the sidewalk, hurrying along at the stranger's side. He was a civilian, maybe forty or forty-five, wearing a topcoat but no hat. He was obviously thinking hard about something because he never glanced my way as I fell into step beside him. "'Can you tell me please,' I said, 'What city this is?' "He kept right on walking. "'Please sir!' I said, speaking louder, 'I'm a stranger here and I'd appreciate it if ...' "We reached the cafe and he turned, reaching for the door handle. Was the fellow deaf? I put out my left hand to tap his shoulder. There was nothing there. "I stood there in front of the door, gaping after him as he opened it and disappeared inside. It had been like touching thin air. Like no one had been there at all. And yet I had distinctly seen him, even to the beginnings of a black stubble on his chin where he needed a shave. "I backed away from the mystery of the substance-less man and leaned up against the guy wire of a telephone pole to think things through. My body went through that guy wire as though it too had not been there. "There on the sidewalk of that unknown city, I did some incredulous thinking. The strangest, most difficult thinking I had ever done. The man in the cafe, this telephone pole ... suppose they were perfectly normal. Suppose I was the one who was - changed, somehow. What if in some impossible, unimaginable way, I lost my ... hardness. My ability to grasp things, to make contact with the world. Even to be seen! The fellow just now. It was obvious he never saw or heard me. "And suddenly I remembered the young man I had seen in the bed in that little hospital room. What if that had been ... me? Or anyhow, the material, concrete part of myself that in some unexplainable way I'd gotten separated from. What if the form which I had left lying in the hospital room in Texas was my own? "And if it were, how could I get back to it again? Why had I ever rushed off so unthinkingly? "I was moving again, speeding away from the city. Below me was the broad river. I appeared to be going back, back in the direction I had come from, and it seemed to me I was flashing across space even faster than before. Hills, lakes, farms slipped away beneath me as I sped in an unswerving straight line over the dark nighttime land. I was standing in front of the base hospital. "And so began one of the strangest searches that can ever have taken place: the search for myself. From one ward to another of that enormous complex I rushed, pausing in each small room, stooping over the occupant of the bed, hurrying on. "I backed toward the doorway. The man in that bed was dead! I felt the same reluctance I had the previous time at being in a room with a dead person. But ... if that was my ring, then - then it was me, the separated part of me, lying under that sheet. Did that mean that I was ... "It was the first time in this entire experience that the word death occurred to me in connection with what was happening. "But I wasn't dead! How could I be dead and still be awake? Thinking. Experiencing. Death was different. Death was ... I didn't know. Blanking out. Nothingness. I was me, wide awake, only without a physical body to function in. "Frantically I clawed at the sheet, trying to draw it back, trying to uncover the figure on the bed. All my efforts did not even stir a breeze in the silent little room. "Suddenly I was aware that it was brighter, a lot brighter, than it had been. I stared in astonishment as the brightness increased, coming from nowhere, seeming to shine everywhere at once. All the light bulbs in the ward couldn't give off that much light. All the bulbs in the world couldn't! It was impossibly bright. It was like a million welders' lamps all blazing at once. "'I'm glad I don't have physical eyes at this moment,' I thought. 'This light would destroy the retina in a tenth of a second.' "'No, I corrected myself, not the light. He. He would be too bright to look at.' "For now I saw that it was not light but a man who had entered the room, or rather, a man made out of light, though this seemed no more possible to my mind than the incredible intensity of the brightness that made up his form." (Dr. George Ritchie) c. Reinee Pasarow's NDE and Out-Of-Body Perception Reinee Pasarow was as a teenager when she had a NDE after she became unconscious following an allergic food reaction. While outside of her body, she could sense every sound, every action and even every thought of the persons people around her. She observed two firemen's frantic efforts to revive her. All the events she witnessed while out of her body - the conversations, the actions of the persons involved, the hospital scene - happened exactly as she remembered them. Furthermore, aspects of her OBE have been reported by other people who have had OBEs which is remarkable because this type of information was something she did not know about at the time and would read about later. "Then, just like that (clapping her hands), I became a ball of light or energy in the midst of this crowd that was circling a body. I became massively aware, unlike any awareness I had had during physical existence. I was not really aware of myself. I was aware of everyone around me. I was aware of my mother and my neighbors, and my friends and the firemen and what they were thinking and what they were feeling and what they were hoping and what they were praying. This was such a pummeling input of emotion and information that I was all at once overwhelmed and confused, and rather disoriented. "I followed their attention to something on the sidewalk and I looked at a body on the sidewalk. I looked at the curve of the wrist bone and I recognized it. I remember looking at it and thinking, "That looks so much like my wrist bone." And then I became aware that the thing on the sidewalk, that thing that suddenly became a piece of meat to me, was what I had identified as myself before, but had no connection with it other than that I had been with it for a very long time. But it had nothing to do with me because suddenly, I was more of a person than I had ever been before. I was more conscious than I could ever be. I was free of the limitations of being a physical being. "I looked at my body and I was repulsed with the grief and the tumult around it and with the very idea that I had ever considered something physical to be my reality, to be a human reality. "And with that (taps the table) again like this, I was bumped way up, up above some light wires. From that point I could watch everyone beneath me, but I was not as closely associated with them, [but] I was completely feeling everything they were feeling. "I watched my mother and a boy come out of the house and up the hill which I could not have seen physically. I was very sad for my mother. I was very sad for my friend who kept calling me. And I was very sad for the child who had come out of the house. I was very sad that he would think I was dead. So my concern was for them. I spent my time observing them and calling to them - calling to them that everything was as it should be, that everything was fine, that I was free, that it was wonderful, that I loved them and that they loved me and that the bond, unlike physical bonds, would never be destroyed. I tried to communicate this to them over and over again and I realized that I had no mouth. I had no body. They could not hear what I was saying to them. I would have to leave them in the same hands I had left myself in the process of dying. With that I turned away, just sort of like a ball, just turned away. "My attention turned away lovingly but knowing that there was nothing I could do. I turned away from them and began to pull up. I became aware (it was as if I were a camera on a space ship or something) of our place, my particular little street and then my particular little town. I kept pulling up and up and up to a point where I could observe the whole Earth. This was wonderful! (After Reinee's visit to heaven, she returns to where her body is located.) "With a terribly hard crash, I became aware of the scene I had left earlier - the fire trucks, and now an ambulance. There were men who were picking up my body and loading it into the ambulance. I was in a state of complete grief. I felt that I had become Eve and was cast out of the garden of Eden. "As I was descending down this tunnel, my heart was already attached to my home beyond. I was begging not to leave. I crashed down into this realm of existence and was suddenly confused by time and space. It was as if I had never existed physically. I was suddenly disoriented. My concern was for my mother, because she was by herself and she was losing a sixteen year old daughter. She knew that this was happening because the ambulance attendant looked at the driver in front and said, "DOA. DOA," which means of course dead on arrival. The driver turned off the siren and slowed down the ambulance. Before, he had been driving in a very reckless manner. "We were coming out of the mountains. As we did that, my concern was for the pain of my mother. I simple wanted to comfort her and to wrap my soul around her. To assuage the loss of a daughter, the loss of a child, I found myself simply praying for her. "I followed the ambulance to the hospital and I watched as my body was unloaded. My mother followed the gurney into the emergency room. I watched as the first doctor went to work on me. I wasn't particularly interested in the first doctor because the first doctor had, that day, been through motorcycle accidents coming out of the mountains. He had been through a very long day and he was not concerned with someone who had been brought in dead on arrival. He had no connection with me. He didn't care and had no affection. So I had no interest in watching what he did because my interest was based on affection and love. "I then left the emergency room and was above my mother and some friends who had followed her into the other room. I again tried to communicate with them. I tried to let them know that, "This is a very joyous occasion. I am dead on arrival. Hopefully all would go well. They are never going to be able to revive me. I was going to be dead now. Death had become life to me. Death was not something to be frightened of, but something to look forward to." "What happened then was the first doctor pronounced me dead and was sending my body off to the morgue. My own personal physician, who was a country doctor and a very gruff man, stormed into the emergency room in a tuxedo with his black bag. He looked at the nurse on the phone who was calling the morgue, and looked at the doctor who was washing his hands, and looked at my [covered] body and said, "What the hell happened here? Where is the patient?" They said, "She was dead on arrival." He said, "The hell she was." He proceeded to scream at the other nurse who was sort of standing off in the corner, "I want injections of adrenaline. Bring them to me immediately and come over here and assist me." He began to go to work on my body. He began to beat on the chest and began to shock. I was simply terrified by this turn of events and disgusted that they would treat a body so brutally. "All of a sudden I sort of became protective towards my body, even though I wanted nothing to do with it. I began to be protective. They could at least be nice about it. But they were beating on my chest and shocking my body, but I was up in the corner of the emergency room accompanied by other essences who were keeping me contained in that emergency room." (Reinee Pasarow) Reinee then described how she finally returned to her body as a result of her doctor's last effort to revive her. The medical professionals she talked to did not know how to deal with her experience. 3. Verified Out-of-Body Perception In Near-Death Experiences The "holy grail" of NDE research is finding an undeniable answer to the question of whether consciousness can survive bodily death. But before this can be answered, researchers must first determine whether consciousness can transcend the brain and function outside of it. One way is to discover this is to examine those NDEs which are "veridical" (i.e., verified). Veridical NDEs occur when the experiencer acquires verifiable information which they could not have obtained by any normal means. Often, near-death experiencers report witnessing events that happen at some distant location away from their body, such as another room of the hospital. If the events witnessed by the experiencer at the distant location can be verified to have occurred, then veridical perception would be said to have taken place. It would provide very compelling evidence that NDEs are experiences outside of the physical body. NDE research is coming very close to providing such undeniable evidence. What follows are some examples. a. Pam Reynolds's Verified Out-of-Body Perception In Dr. Michael Sabom's book, Light and Death, he includes the NDE account of a woman named Pam Reynolds who underwent a rare operation to remove a giant basilar artery aneurysm in her brain that seriously threatened her life. The surgical procedure used to remove the aneurysm is known as "hypothermic cardiac arrest" or "standstill." Pam's body temperature was lowered to 60 degrees, her heartbeat and breathing were stopped, her brain waves were flattened, and all the blood was drained from her head. For all practical purposes, she was put to death. After removing the aneurysm, she was restored to life. But, during the time that Pam was in standstill, she experienced a profound NDE. Her remarkably detailed veridical out-of-body observations of her surgery were later verified to be very accurate. Pam's case is considered to be one of the strongest cases of veridical perception evidence in NDE research because of her ability to describe the unique surgical instruments and procedures used and her ability to describe in detail these events while she was clinically and brain dead. The following is the out-of-body aspect of her NDE in her own words: "The next thing I recall was the sound: It was a Natural "D." As I listened to the sound, I felt it was pulling me out of the top of my head. The further out of my body I got, the more clear the tone became. I had the impression it was like a road, a frequency that you go on ... I remember seeing several things in the operating room when I was looking down. It was the most aware that I think that I have ever been in my entire life ...I was metaphorically sitting on [the doctor's] shoulder. It was not like normal vision. It was brighter and more focused and clearer than normal vision ... There was so much in the operating room that I didn't recognize, and so many people. "I thought the way they had my head shaved was very peculiar. I expected them to take all of the hair, but they did not ... "The saw-thing that I hated the sound of looked like an electric toothbrush and it had a dent in it, a groove at the top where the saw appeared to go into the handle, but it didn't ... And the saw had interchangeable blades, too, but these blades were in what looked like a socket wrench case ... I heard the saw crank up. I didn't see them use it on my head, but I think I heard it being used on something. It was humming at a relatively high pitch and then all of a sudden it went Brrrrrrrrr! like that. "Someone said something about my veins and arteries being very small. I believe it was a female voice and that it was Dr. Murray, but I'm not sure. She was the cardiologist. I remember thinking that I should have told her about that ... I remember the heart-lung machine. I didn't like the respirator ... I remember a lot of tools and instruments that I did not readily recognize. "There was a sensation like being pulled, but not against your will. I was going on my own accord because I wanted to go. I have different metaphors to try to explain this. It was like the Wizard of Oz - being taken up in a tornado vortex, only you're not spinning around like you've got vertigo. You're very focused and you have a place to go. The feeling was like going up in an elevator real fast. And there was a sensation, but it wasn't a bodily, physical sensation. It was like a tunnel but it wasn't a tunnel." (Pam meets her deceased relatives and then must return to her body.)"But then I got to the end of it and saw the thing, my body. I didn't want to get into it ... It looked terrible, like a train wreck. It looked like what it was: dead. I believe it was covered. It scared me and I didn't want to look at it. It was communicated to me that it was like jumping into a swimming pool. No problem, just jump right into the swimming pool. I didn't want to, but I guess I was late or something because he [the uncle] pushed me. I felt a definite repelling and at the same time a pulling from the body. The body was pulling and the tunnel was pushing ... It was like diving into a pool of ice water ... It hurt! When I came back, they were playing Hotel California and the line was "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." I mentioned [later] to Dr. Brown that that was incredibly insensitive and he told me that I needed to sleep more." (Pam Reynolds) b. Dr. Charles Tart's Case of Verified Out-of-Body Perception Dr. Charles T. Tart, www.issc-taste.org and www.paradigm-sys.com, is a transpersonal psychologist and parapsychologist known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness (particularly altered states of consciousness), as one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology, and for his research in scientific parapsychology. He served as an instructor in psychiatry in the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia, and as a consultant on government funded parapsychological research at the Stanford Research Institute. Dr. Tart, the author of The End of Materialism, is known for his experimental work in autoscopic out-of-body and near-death experiences. He is currently a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis. Dr. Tart published an article in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research which documents the OBE of a young woman who was one of his research subjects. What makes this particular OBE remarkable is that she was able to leave her physical body and read a 5-digit number from a significant distance and correctly give it to him upon return. This is one of best examples of a veridical OBE occurring under laboratory conditions. Read the article here. c. Reverend George Rodonaia's NDE and Verified Out-of-Body Perception In Dr. Raymond Moody's documentary entitled, Life After Life, he interviewed a Russian scientist named Rev. George Rodonaia, who had a near-death experience during which he observed an infant crying in a nearby room. George observed that no one could figure out why the infant was crying so persistently. But George learned while out of his body that the infant had a broken arm. When George returned to life, he told the infant's parents about the broken hip. An x-ray revealed that the infant's arm was indeed broken. This same incident is documented in Dr. Melvin Morse's book (along with Paul Perry) called Transformed by the Light. The following excerpt from "Transformed by the Light" describes George's observation of this infant while he was out of his body. Note that in Dr. Morse's book, he refers to George by his Russian name "Yuri". [During his NDE and while outside of his body], Yuri could go visit his family. He saw his grieving wife and their two sons, both too small to understand that their father had been killed. Then he visited his next-door neighbor..They had a new child, born a couple of days before Yuri's death. Yuri could tell that they were upset by what happened to him. But they were especially distressed by the fact that their child would not stop crying..No matter what they did he continued to cry. When he slept it was short and fitful and then he would awaken, crying again. They had taken him back to the doctors but they were stumped. All the usual things such as colic were ruled out and they sent them home hoping the baby would eventually settle down..While there in this disembodied state, Yuri discovered something: "l could talk to the baby. It was amazing. I could not talk to the parents - my friends - but I could talk to the little boy who had just been born. I asked him what was wrong. No words were exchanged, but I asked him maybe through telepathy what was wrong. He told me that his arm hurt. And when he told me that, I was able to see that the bone was twisted and broken." ​ Eventually the doctor from Moscow came to perform the autopsy on Yuri. When they moved his body from the cabinet to a gurney, his eyes flickered. The doctor became suspicious and examined his eyes. When they responded to light, he was immediately wheeled to emergency surgery and saved. Yuri told his family about being "dead." No one believed him until he began to provide details about what he saw during his travels out of body. Then they became less skeptical. His diagnosis on the baby next door did the trick. He told of visiting them that night and of their concern over their new child. He told them that he had talked to the baby and discovered that he had a greenstick fracture of his arm. The parents took the child to a doctor and he x-rayed the arm only to discover that Yuri's very long-distance diagnosis was right. (Rev. George Rodonaia) d. Dr. Pim van Lommel's Case of Verified Out-of-Body Perception In January of 2001, near-death experiences and near-death research earned greater scientific respect and credibility when the findings of a particular NDE study were published. The distinguished British medical journal The Lancet published an article by Dr. Pim van Lommel of the Rijnstate Hospital in the Netherlands on the first large-scale study of NDEs which he conducted. His study began in 1988 and lasted 13 years. It included 344 survivors of cardiac arrest from 10 Dutch hospitals. Of these 344 survivors, 18 percent experienced a NDE. And because Lommel and his staff conducted follow-up interviews with these patients over many years, they were able to rule out such factors as anoxia, seizures, medication, etc. Lommel's findings confirmed prior research findings conducted by other near-death researchers. It confirmed that NDEs are real and they cannot be explained by physiological or psychological causes alone. Lommel also accepted the implication that consciousness survives death and that consciousness is not completely dependent upon the brain. Lommel noted that only 10 seconds after the heart stops beating, the electroencephalogram goes dead. At this point, there is no activity in the brain cortex and the brain cannot manufacture visions. Within 10 minutes, brain stem activity ceases and irreparable brain damage can occur. However, Lommel notes that some patients still reported being conscious at this point. One particular example cited by Lommel is a man who came into the hospital already blue from a lack of oxygen. The hospital staff spent 90 minutes trying to resuscitate him, using artificial respiration, heart massage and defibrillation, before they could move him to intensive care where he was remained in a coma for a week with brain damage. But when the patient regained consciousness, he was able to describe events that occurred around him while he was brain damaged and out of his body. This veridical evidence comes from a coronary-care-unit nurse who reported the veridical out-of-body experience of the comatose patient: "During a night shift an ambulance brings in a 44-year-old cyanotic, comatose man into the coronary care unit. He had been found about an hour before in a meadow by passers-by. After admission, he receives artificial respiration without intubation, while heart massage and defibrillation are also applied. When we wanted to intubate the patient, he turns out to have dentures in his mouth. I remove these upper dentures and put them onto the crash car. Meanwhile, we continue extensive CPR. After about an hour and a half the patient has sufficient heart rhythm and blood pressure, but he is still ventilated and intubated, and he is still comatose. He is transferred to the intensive care unit to continue the necessary artificial respiration. Only after more than a week do I meet again with the patient, who is by now back on the cardiac ward. I distribute his medication. The moment he sees me he says: "Oh, that nurse knows where my dentures are." "I am very surprised. Then he elucidates: "Yes, you were there when I was brought into hospital and you took my dentures out of my mouth and put them onto that car, it had all these bottles on it and there was this sliding drawer underneath and there you put my teeth." "I was especially amazed because I remembered this happening while the man was in deep coma and in the process of CPR. When I asked further, it appeared the man had seen himself lying in bed, that he had perceived from above how nurses and doctors had been busy with CPR. He was also able to describe correctly and in detail the small room in which he had been resuscitated as well as the appearance of those present like myself. At the time that he observed the situation he had been very much afraid that we would stop CPR and that he would die. And it is true that we had been very negative about the patient's prognosis due to his very poor medical condition when admitted. The patient tells me that he desperately and unsuccessfully tried to make it clear to us that he was still alive and that we should continue CPR. He is deeply impressed by his experience and says he is no longer afraid of death. Four weeks later he left hospital as a healthy man." (Dr. Pim Van Lommel)

 

[Skarekrow]

Hey I wondered if you had suffered any kind of psychological break? Not my business really but I was curious. You sound relatively undivided and open.


P.S. maybe a diff. thread don't want to get off the path.

Yeah, I was in the hospital for almost a month straight and about half of that was in my room with the lights off. I've mentioned it openly on here once or twice I think so it isn't a big secret or anything.

Sorry to hear that sprinkles…I figured as much but never asked either.
I actually attribute the severe depression that I have suffered from time to time in my life due to multiple concussions as a kid.
I had amnesia once for about a day…but nothing compared to a month unconscious. Or in limbo.

 

[Skarekrow]

Out-of Body Experiences and the Near-Death Experience Part 2

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4. Miscellaneous NDE Testimonies on Out-of-Body Perception

Jane Seymour: The famous movie actress who starred in the television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," describes the following out-of-body experience during her NDE: "I literally left my body. I had this feeling that I could see myself on the bed, with people grouped around me. I remember them all trying to resuscitate me. I was above them, in the corner of the room looking down. I saw people putting needles in me, trying to hold me down, doing things." (Jane Seymour) Vicki Umipeg: In Dr. Kenneth Ring's book, Mindsight, he documents his research concerning NDEs in people born blind. One of his subjects, Vicki Umipeg, told Dr. Ring that she found herself floating above her body in the emergency room of a hospital following an automobile accident and saw for the first time in her life. She was aware of being up near the ceiling watching a male doctor and a female nurse working on her body, which she viewed from her elevated position. Vicki has a clear recollection of how she came to the realization that this was her own body below her: "I knew it was me ... I was pretty thin then. I was quite tall and thin at that point. And I recognized at first that it was a body, but I didn't even know that it was mine initially. Then I perceived that I was up on the ceiling, and I thought, 'Well, that's kind of weird. What am I doing up here?' I thought, 'Well, this must be me. Am I dead? ...' I just briefly saw this body, and ... I knew that it was mine because I wasn't in mine." In addition, she was able to note certain further identifying features indicating that the body she was observing was certainly her own: "I think I was wearing the plain gold band on my right ring finger and my father's wedding ring next to it. But my wedding ring I definitely saw ... That was the one I noticed the most because it's most unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it." (Vicki Umipeg) Brad Steiger: The author of the NDE book One with the Light experienced the following event during his NDE: On an August day in 1947, 11-year-old Brad Steiger nearly died of multiple skull fractures after being caught in the metallic blades of a piece of machinery on his family's Iowa farm. He felt his "essential self" drift away from his body. He watched his sister run for help and realized he was simultaneously in his father's arms being carried from the field, and above himself, observing. (Brad Steiger) Dannion Brinkley: In his book, Saved by the Light, Dannion Brinkley describes the following: "I began to look around, to roll over in midair. Below me was my own body, thrown across the bed. My shoes were smoking and the telephone was melted in my hand. I could see Sandy run into the room. She stood over the bed and looked at me with a dazed expression, the kind you might find on the parent of a child found floating facedown in a swimming pool." (Dannion Brinkley) Kimberly Clark Sharp: In a paper published in the Journal of Near-Death Studiesconcerning veridical NDE evidence, Dr. Ken Ring included perhaps the most famous case of veridical observation in NDE research at that time. Kimberly Clark Sharp first documented the NDE of a woman named Maria in her book, After The Light. "Maria was a migrant worker who, while visiting friends in Seattle, had a severe heart attack. She was rushed to Harborview Hospital and placed in the coronary care unit. A few days later, she had a cardiac arrest and an unusual out-of-body experience. At one point in this experience, she found herself outside the hospital and spotted a single tennis shoe on the ledge of the north side of the third floor of the building. Maria not only was able to indicate the whereabouts of this oddly situated object, but was able to provide precise details concerning its appearance, such as that its little toe area was worn and one of its laces was stuck underneath its heel. Upon hearing Maria's story, Clark, with some considerable degree of skepticism and metaphysical misgiving, went to the location described to see whether any such shoe could be found. Indeed it was, just where and precisely as Maria had described it, except that from the window through which Clark was able to see it, the details of its appearance that Maria had specified could not be discerned. Clark concluded, "The only way she could have had such a perspective was if she had been floating right outside and at very close range to the tennis shoe. I retrieved the shoe and brought it back to Maria; it was very concrete evidence for me." (Clark, 1984, p. 243). Dr. Kenneth Ring: A study on veridical perception in NDEs was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Ring and Madeline Lawrence. It included the 1985 account of Kathy Milne who was working as a nurse at Hartford Hospital. Milne had already been interested in NDEs, and one day found herself talking to a woman who had been resuscitated and who had a NDE. Following a telephone interview with Kenneth Ring on August 24, 1992, she described the following account in a letter: "She told me how she floated up over her body, viewed the resuscitation effort for a short time and then felt herself being pulled up through several floors of the hospital. She then found herself above the roof and realized she was looking at the skyline of Hartford. She marveled at how interesting this view was and out of the corner of her eye she saw a red object. It turned out to be a shoe ... he thought about the shoe... and suddenly, she felt "sucked up" a blackened hole. The rest of her NDE account was fairly typical, as I remember. "I was relating this to a [skeptical] resident who in a mocking manner left. Apparently, he got a janitor to get him onto the roof. When I saw him later than day, he had a red shoe and he became a believer, too."" (K. Milne, personal communication, October 19,1992)) [TR] [TD="class: style2, align: center"]After Dr. Ring's initial interview with Milne, he made a point of inquiring whether she had ever heard of the case of Maria's shoe [as described in the introduction above]. Not only was she unfamiliar with it, but she was utterly amazed to hear of another story so similar to the one she had just recounted to Dr. Ring. It remains an unanswered question as to how these isolated shoes arrived at their unlikely perches for later viewing by astonished NDErs and their baffled investigators. After Dr. Ring's initial interview with Milne, he made a point of inquiring whether she had ever heard of the case of Maria's shoe [as described in the introduction above]. Not only was she unfamiliar with it, but she was utterly amazed to hear of another story so similar to the one she had just recounted to Dr. Ring. It remains an unanswered question as to how these isolated shoes arrived at their unlikely perches for later viewing by astonished NDErs and their baffled investigators.

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Dr. Joyce Harmon: In the summer of 1982, Dr. Joyce Harmon, a surgical intensive care unit (ICU) nurse at Hartford Hospital, returned to work after a vacation. On that vacation she had purchased a new pair of plaid shoelaces, which she happened to be wearing on her first day back at the hospital. That day, she was involved in resuscitating a patient, a woman she didn't know, by giving her medicine. The resuscitation was successful and the next day Harmon chanced to see the patient, whereupon they had a conversation, the gist of which (not necessarily a verbatim account) is as follows:

"The patient, upon seeing Harmon, volunteered, 'Oh, you're the one with the plaid shoelaces!' "'What?' Harmon replied, astonished. She says she distinctly remembers feeling the hair on her neck rise.' "'I saw them,' the woman continued. 'I was watching what was happening yesterday when I died. I was up above.'" (J. Harmon, personal communication, August 28, 1992)

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P.M.H. Atwater: The following is one of P.M.H. Atwater's case studies from her bookBeyond the Light which is not only veridical, it is highly suggestive of the survival of consciousness after death. Atwater has stated that this testimonial has been verified by relatives of the experiencer involved. Here is the excerpt:

"I spoke of Margaret Fields Kean who nearly died in 1978 after being hospitalized for about three weeks with severe phlebitis. A blood clot had passed to her heart and lungs and she became deathly ill. Then she was given injections for nausea that, due to the blood thinners she had previously received, caused internal hemorrhaging. Pandemonium reigned as she slipped away. While absent from her body, she witnessed the scene below her, then heard and saw people in the waiting room down the hall - right through the walls - as well as nurses at their station. She also knew their thoughts. Margaret went on to have a transcendent near-death experience in which she instantly knew and understood many things; her future, and that she would become a healer. This completely contradicted her vision of herself at that moment in her life, for she was content being a super-mom farm wife who rode horses, taught Bible classes, led 4-H and Girl Scout groups, gardened, canned, and baked bread. A healer? Ridiculous! Yet, when Margaret revived, she immediately began to heal other patients in the room around her by 'reaching out' to them. Then, she 'projected' into the isolation room of a white boy charred black by severe burns. She 'sat' next to him on the bed, introduced herself, and proceeded to counsel him about his purpose in life. She told him it was okay if he chose to die as God was loving and he had nothing to fear. Months later, while continuing her recovery and still in great pain, Margaret was attending a horse show when a couple, hearing the loudspeaker announce her daughter's name as a winner, sought her out. They were parents of the severely burned boy. Before he died, he had told them about meeting Margaret and relayed all the wonderful truths she had told him about God and about life. The parents were thrilled to have finally located her so they could say thanks for what she had done for their son. The dying boy had identified her by name - even though the two had never physically seen each other or verbally spoken in any manner, nor had any nurse known that the two had ever communicated, nor had it been possible that Margaret ever could have known if the isolation room was even occupied much less who might be there." (P.M.H. Atwater)

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Dr. Kenneth Ring: Dr. Ring reported in a scholarly paper one of the most interesting case of verified out-of-body perception. In the late 1970s, Sue Saunders was working at Hartford Hospital as a respiratory therapist and had the following experience resuscitating a patient:

"One day she was helping to resuscitate a 60-ish man in the emergency room whose electrocardiogram had gone flat. Medics were shocking him repeatedly with no results. Saunders was trying to give him oxygen. In the middle of the resuscitation, someone else took over for her and she left. A couple of days later, she encountered this patient in the ICU. He spontaneously commented, 'You looked so much better in your yellow top.' She, like Harmon, was so shocked at this remark that she got goose-bumps, for she had been wearing a yellow smock the previous day. 'Yeah,' the man continued, I saw you. You had something over your face and you were pushing air into me. And I saw your yellow smock.."" (S. Saunders, personal communication, August 28, 1992))

Saunders confirmed that she had had something over her face - a mask - and that she had worn the yellow smock while trying to give him oxygen, while he was unconscious and without a heartbeat. Saunders confirmed that she had had something over her face - a mask - and that she had worn the yellow smock while trying to give him oxygen, while he was unconscious and without a heartbeat. According to Dr. Ring, this case attests to these three important observations:

a. Patients who claim to have out-of-body experiences while near-death sometimes describe unusual objects that they could not have known about by normal means. b. These objects can later be shown to have existed in the form and location indicated by the patients' testimony. c. Hearing this testimony has a strong emotional and cognitive effect on the caregivers involved, either strengthening their pre-existing belief in the authenticity of NDE accounts or occasioning a kind of on-the-spot conversion.

Source: Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D. & Lawrence, Madeline, R.N., Ph.D. "Further evidence for veridical perception during near-death experiences", Journal of Near-Death Studies, 1993 11 (4)223-229.

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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Robert Pastorelli: "I was in excruciating pain. Then, in the next second, there was no pain. Suddenly I realized I was out of my body. I was floating above myself, looking down at my unconscious body lying in the hospital emergency room with my eyes closed. I could see tubes down my nose and throat. I knew I was dying and I thought, 'Well, this must be death.' I even saw a priest giving me the last rites. But it was the most peaceful feeling in the world. Then I saw my father starting to faint out of grief. Two nurses grabbed him and sat him down in a chair across the room. When I looked down and saw my father's pain it had an effect on me. I firmly believe that at that moment I made a decision to live, not die. The next thing I knew I was waking up back in my body. Later, in the recovery room, when I was fully conscious, I told my father what had happened, his fainting and all. He was astounded." (Robert Pastorelli)[/TD]
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In P.M.H. Atwater's book, Children of the New Millennium, an interesting case of verified out-of-body perception is documented about a woman named Lynn whose observations during her near-death experience were later proven to be true, including the black and Asian doctors on the operating team.

"The next thing I knew I was floating around the ceiling looking down on my body. My chest was open wide and I could see my internal organs. I remember thinking how odd it was that my organs were a beautiful pearl gray, not at all like the bright red chucks in the horror flicks I loved to watch. I also noticed there was a black doctor and an Oriental one on the operating team. The reason this stuck in my mind is that I was brought up in a very white middle-class neighborhood, and I had seen black schoolteachers but never a black doctor. I'd met the operating team the day before, but they were all white.Suddenly, I had to move on, so I floated into the waiting room, where my parents were. My father had his head buried in my mother's lap. He was kneeling at her feet, his arms wrapped around her waist, and he was sobbing. My mother was stroking his head, whispering to him. This scene shocked me, as my father was not prone to showing emotions. Once I realize they would be fine, I felt myself pulled into a horizontal tunnel." (Lynn)

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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]David Goines: "I remember the fear of impact (getting hit), however, I have no recollection of the impact or having my body become totally integrated with the bicycle, nor hurtling over sixty feet through the air and landing in the canal. My next memory was quite a scene in the hospital emergency room. It was the most unique experience of my earthly life. Unique, because I was observing my own body in the emergency room and all the activity going on, except that I was not in my body. I was above it all - looking down. I was feeling no pain. Everyone was very busy. I knew by their activity that I was in serious trouble. There was much discussion about how to extract me from the tangled wreckage of my bike and/or whether they would need to leave me in it until I was stabilized enough to try. I could see and hear everything. It was gruesome. It was frightening. They finally decided they had me stable enough to get rid of the bike and they called for a welding specialist to bring a torch to help cut me out of the bike. Thank God my body seemed to be unconscious. All of this would have been quite enough for my young mind to endure - until one nurse, whom I knew, said to another, 'Well - it certainly makes you wonder if it is worth saving this mess.' She nearly scared me to death! At that moment, it was more than I could stand above and watch. I wanted to run away from this scene. I needed to escape. Quickly, I turned, took one step through the wall so to speak and found myself in total darkness." (David Goines)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]David Oakford: "I called out to my friends and nobody came. I tried to unplug the stereo but that did not work either. Every time I tried to touch the cord to unplug it I could not grasp it. It just kept on playing "LA Woman" and the sound rattled my very being. I ran all over the house calling for my friends, yelling repeatedly that the music was too loud but I was not heard. I pleaded for the music to be turned down. I tried to go outside but I could not feel the doorknob. I could see the daylight outside but could not go outside. I ended up hiding in the bathroom in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the noise. I looked in the mirror and could not see myself. That frightened me greatly. I went back into the family room and saw my body sitting in the chair. It looked like I was sleeping. I wondered how I could be looking at myself. I got a bit scared then because I could see me from outside of me, from all different angles except from the inside angle I was used to seeing myself. I was alone. I was confused and very scared. I tried to get back into my body but could not. I could not touch the ground either. I was floating. I rose up into a spot above my body and kind of just hung there. I could no longer move. I called out for help and nobody came. I tried to go out the door but like the stereo I could not touch the doorknob." (David Oakford)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Kimberly Clark Sharp: "I was going back. I knew it. I was already on the way. I was on a trajectory headed straight for my body. That's when I saw my body for the first time, and when I realized I was no longer a part of it. Until this moment, I'd only seen myself straight on, as we usually do, in mirrors and photographs. Now I was jolted by the strange sight of me in profile from four feet away. I looked at my body, the body I knew so well, and was surprised by my detachment. I felt the same sort of gratitude toward my body that I had for my old winter coat when I put it away in the spring. It had served me well, but I no longer needed it. I had absolutely no attachment to it. Whatever constituted the self I knew as me was no longer there. My essence, my consciousness, my memories, my personality were outside, not in, that prison of flesh." (Kimberly Clark Sharp)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Dr. Liz Dale's research subject: "Immediately after the impact from falling forward onto the metal grating, I felt myself floating up, out of my body, and hovering above my body and all the people who were watching it, and who seemed paralyzed by shock and horror at what had happened. I think they pretty much assumed that I was dead. I remember looking down and seeing my body three-dimensionally for the first time. And it was such a shock, because we never see ourselves except in a one-dimensional mirror reflection, or a photograph. But I felt no pain at all; I felt completely whole and free, and I thought, 'This is who I really am.' I saw my physical body, all crumpled and bloody and lifeless; and this enormous wave of compassion washed over me and I wanted to tell all of the bystanders that everything was going to be OK and not to be sad or alarmed. Then suddenly I felt myself being pulled, literally at the speed of light, farther from the physical Earth, and I saw all of the people on the planet simultaneously in that one moment. I saw people in China and Sweden and Uruguay; I saw people sleeping and dreaming; I saw people preparing food in their homes and in restaurants; people traveling in all manner of transportation, to and from work and school and appointments; I saw children playing together, and bankers and teachers and factory workers at their jobs. I saw mothers giving birth to children, which was especially beautiful and moving to me." (Dr. Liz Dale)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Rev. Howard Storm: "For a time there was a sense of being unconscious or asleep. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but I felt really strange, and I opened my eyes. To my surprise I was standing up next to the bed, and I was looking at my body laying in the bed.My first reaction was, 'This is crazy! I can't be standing here looking down at myself. That's not possible.' This wasn't what I expected, this wasn't right. Why was I still alive? I wanted oblivion. Yet I was looking at a thing that was my body, and it just didn't have that much meaning to me. Now knowing what was happening, I became upset. I started yelling and screaming at my wife, and she just sat there like a stone. She didn't look at me, she didn't move and I kept screaming profanities to get her to pay attention. Being confused, upset, and angry, I tried to get the attention of my room-mate, with the same result. He didn't react. I wanted this to be a dream, and I kept saying to myself, 'This has got to be a dream.' But I knew that it wasn't a dream. I became aware that strangely I felt more alert, more aware, more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life. All my senses were extremely acute. Everything felt tingly and alive. The floor was cool and my bare feet felt moist and clammy. This had to be real." (Rev. Howard Storm)[/TD]
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[TD="class: style46, align: center"] P.M.H. Atwater: "The pain ebbed by as I rose steadily upward, again stopping at the light fixture, only this time in the living room. I looked down, recognizing the body on the floor as mine. There was no confusion this time. My situation was clearly defined. Good God, I'm dead! Time and space ended for me after gazing for what seemed endless minutes at my body. It made no movement. There was no breathing. No response. When I was satisfied that it was dead, there came a joyous euphoria, like a prisoner being released from a long jail sentence. I danced and danced around the light bulb, singing like a child. It was finally over. I was free." (P.M.H. Atwater)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Grace Bubulka: "I was then looking down from above the left foot area of my bed. The distance from my bed was as though I was against the ceiling corner. I could see the backs of the staff to the left of my bed and the faces of my doctors and the Filipino nurse. I was exasperated with them and with my futile attempt to connect with them. I had no strong feelings about my body lying on the bed. It was almost unfamiliar to me." (Grace Bubulka)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Laurelynn Martin: "I awakened and found myself floating above my body, off to the right side, looking down, watching the attempts of the medical team trying to revive the lifeless form below. I viewed the scene with detachment. The surgical team was frantic. The color red was everywhere, splattered on their gowns, splattered on the floor, and a bright pool of a flowing red substance, in the now wide open abdominal cavity. At that moment, I didn't make the connection that the body being worked on was my own! It didn't matter anyway. I was in a state of floating freedom, experiencing no pain and having a great time. I wanted to shout to the distressed people below, "Hey, I'm okay. It's fantastic up here," but they were so intent on their work, I didn't want to interrupt their efforts. I had traveled to another realm of total and absolute peace. With no physical body my movement was unencumbered. Thought was the avenue for travel. I floated up through blackness where there was no fear, no pain, no misunderstandings, but instead a sense of well-being. I was enveloped by total bliss in an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance." (Laurelynn Martin)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Josiane Antonette: "Am I outside myself observing? I see my body and its pain. I look at my feet; they are pale and lifeless. My legs cannot move. My face is white and drawn ... Now I'm on the hospital room ceiling gazing down! Everything appears so small: I see my bed; my body looks small and colorless; the people around the bed are tiny. Overwhelming grief and sorrow fill the room, and yet I feel completely disconnected from the scene below me. I hover nearer and look at the strange form lying on the bed. I feel compassion beyond words. I understand everything, but I have no feeling of attachment to anyone. I look at each person standing at the bedside and feel tremendous love. I want to say to them, 'I'm all right. You don't have to worry. I'm all right. Look at me! I'm fine!'" (Josiane Antonette)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Rev. Kenneth Hagin: "My heart stopped beating. This numbness spread to my feet, my ankles, my knees, my hips, my stomach, my heart and I leaped out of my body. I did not lose consciousness; I leaped out of my body like a diver would leap off a diving board into a swimming pool. I knew I was outside my body. I could see my family in the room, but I couldn't contact them. I began to descend down, down, into a pit, like you'd go down into a well, cavern or cave ... Then, like a suction from above, I floated up, head first, through the darkness. Before I got to the top, I could see the light. I've been down in a well: it was like you were way down in a well and could see the light up above. I came up on the porch of my grandpa's house. Then I went through the wall not through the door, and not through the window through the wall, and seemed to leap inside my body like a man would slip his foot inside his boot in the morning time. Before I leaped inside my body, I could see my grandmother sitting on the edge of the bed holding me in her arms. When I got inside my body, I could communicate with her. 'I felt myself slipping,' I said, 'Granny, I'm going again. You've been a second mother to me when Momma was ill.' My heart stopped for a second time. I leaped out of my body and began to descend: down, down, down ... And then I was pulled up, head first. I could see the lights of the Earth above me before I came up out of the pit. The only difference this time was that I came up at the foot of the bed. For a second time I stood there. I could see my body lying there on the bed. I could see Grandma as she sat there holding me in her arms." [Here Hagin says goodbye to his family] "I left a word for each one of them, and my heart stopped the third time. I could feel the circulation as it cut off. Suddenly my toes went numb. Faster than you can snap your fingers, my toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips, stomach and heart went dead and I leaped out of my body and began to descend ..."" [Hagin then enters his body again and recovers from his illness.] (Rev. Kenneth Hagin)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Ricky Randolph: "I felt myself leaving my body. I was floating a few feet in the air above the river. I looked on my body with mixed feelings. I was bleeding from my mouth, nose, ears, and saw a trickle of blood underneath me on the boulder. As I was reflecting on the state of my body, I felt a pulling and began to rise very fast. I was traveling at a high rate of speed upwards through the atmosphere." (Ricky Randolph)[/TD]
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Rexella Van Impe: The wife of television evangelist Dr. Jack Van Impe, Rexella, was injured in a car accident in Brussels in 1982. She discovered herself outside of her body watching her husband crying as he held her in his arms. The experience was told in their video, "Heaven: An Out-of-Body Adventure?" [This videotape, produced in 1992, is available through JVI Ministries, POB 7004, Troy, MI, USA 48007.][/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Chris Taylor: "On September 1993, I was at Papworth Hospital having my aortic valve replaced. I left my body and watched the surgeon operating on me. He was a bit of a maverick and had a red and white check head cover. He was listening to Meat Loaf's 'Bat out of hell' and invisible drumming to it. He splashed some blood on one of the nurses. She got angry. I asked him about this and he confirmed it by stating that I could not have seen this due to the screen around my face. On November 2001, I rushed back to Papworth with a dissecting aorta which is usually fatal. My son had seen me have the attack and my profound pain. He was scared and had tears streaming down his face. He made me promise that I would not die. I promised him. I underwent 10 hours of emergency surgery at the end of which my heart failed to spontaneously restart. The surgeon manually manipulated my heart for 26 minutes. At some stage in the procedure I left my body with a whooshing sound. I then was floating toward a bright light. All around me was a gray cloud-type thick fog. It had texture. The closer I approached the light I became aware of a fundamental sense of purity. I could feel my pain falling away. I became aware of PURE LOVE, peace, tranquility. I could hear voices that were welcoming me without speaking specific words; but, I understood that this was natural and normal. I also knew that I was leaving the two people I love the most - my wife and son. I was then aware of my son to my left sitting on a chair and sobbing into his hands. My wife walked up to him to comfort him. He said he was scared and my wife assured him I was strong and would live. He calmly said, 'I'm not scared of Dad dying. I know he will not die. He promised me and DAD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES. I then painfully zipped back into my body. Imagine being cold and wet, longing for a warm shower. Imagine taking off those cold wet clothes and getting into the shower. Now imagine getting back into the clothes. Got the message? When I came to, 28 hours later, my wife was told I was in a coma and brain dead. I was so angry for days. I was angry I had lived. That may sound weird but that is, in brief, my story. Two things: This experience has left me feeling over powered spiritually. Secondly, I am a Police Inspector and not prone to flights of fancy." (Chris Taylor)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Nadia McCaffrey: "I was out of my body. I floated there for awhile, and looked down at lifeless body on the gurney. However, the real me had become a comfortable glowing shape. For a while, I watched on as the nurses and doctors worked quickly to revive me. Then, I lost interest and my attention turned towards a long dark tunnel." (Nadia McCaffrey)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Beverly Brodsky: "I found myself floating on the ceiling over the bed looking down at my unconscious body. I barely had time to realize the glorious strangeness of the situation - that I was me but not in my body - when I was joined by a radiant being bathed in a shimmering white glow." (Beverly Brodsky) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Jan Price: "I remember being surprised as I observed the full heart arrest taking place. I suppose we never really think of ourselves as dying, but obviously I had died because I wasn't in my body anymore. (Jan Price) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Norman Paulsen: "There is my body lying at the foot of the telephone pole, covered with blankets. Without sensation, I enter it again. My eyes open to see concerned faces looking down upon me." (Norman Paulsen) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Valvita Jones: "Feeling so peaceful and free, I started moving upward. I realized my body was below me, and I vaguely remember observing efforts by the medical team to revive it. My main interest was that I was above the room. I was not even in the room but in the first sky. I say first sky in the heavens, because it seemed as though there were three heavens that I passed through." (Valvita Jones) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Laura: "After this infinite moment had passed, there began a battle for my life between the angels in heaven and the doctors on Earth. Every time the doctors pounded on my chest, my spirit was sucked into my body for a split second, only to be pulled back again by the angels. They held me by my feet, struggling to keep me from coming back. Finally, the doctors pounded one last time. I heard an angel say, "They're stronger than we are," and I was sucked back into my body, sat up, screamed, and passed out." (Laura) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Caroline Sharp: "It is now almost 34 years ago, but with amazing clarity, I can remember the emotions I went through as I hovered above my body. It was a total euphoric happiness. Feeling totally unconcerned and faintly amused, I watched the two nurses and doctor working to resuscitate my lifeless body. I could relate with extreme clarity the actions they took in this procedure." (Caroline Sharp) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Mrs. Walters: "When I had my first child I had the experience of being out of my body and hovering above it attached to a thick cord. I could see myself on the bed and the doctor who was in a panic. I could also see the nurse and the instruments on a trolley in the corner of the room. The only way I could have seen the instrument was from the angle I was in. I would not have been able to see them from the bed. I remember thinking it was wonderful to be free of that cumbersome body and not really caring what happened to it." (Mrs. Walters) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Randy Gehling: "I didn't really know what had hit me. I just seemed to go flying through the air. And then a really funny thing happened. A part of me - I guess my soul - just kept flying, and I saw my body smash into the ground. I knew it had to hurt to land that hard, so I was happy that I was where I was - wherever that was. When I got a little higher, I saw that it had been Kurt's car that had hit me. I always told him that he drove too fast in the neighborhood." (Randy Gehling) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Jeanie Dicus: "I was floating above my body. I saw green shower caps. The people in the room all wore those stupid caps. There were five or six caps and they were panicky. Their fear was so thick I could feel it. I kept thinking, "Hey, I'm okay, don't worry," but they didn't get my message. This was a little frustrating. I found myself in the right-hand corner of the room. I lifted my arm and stretched. I had been immobile for so long. It felt like I had taken off a body girdle, and it was so delicious to get out of that cramped body." (Jeanie Dicus) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Peter Sellers: "Well, I felt myself leave my body. I just floated out of my physical form and I saw them cart my body away to the hospital. I went with it. (Peter Sellers) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Elaine Durham: "When I got to the hospital, it was not as if I was on the gurney look up, but I was moving, not necessarily walking, but I was at eye level along the right side of the gurney. And there was my body on it, but I did not have any relationship at all to that body." (Elaine Durham) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]An accountant: "The next thing I remember was looking down on my body in the intensive care unit. I don't know how I got in there, but they were working on me. There was this young doctor in a white coat and two nurses and a black fellow in a white uniform and he was doing most of the work on me. This black fellow was shoving down on my chest and someone else was breathing for me and they were yelling to get this and that!' I learned later that this black fellow was a male nurse on the ward. I had never seen him before. I even remember the black bow tie he was wearing. Next thing I remember was going through this dark passage." (An accountant) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Helen: "I remember clearly floating up above myself, and looking down on my body. It was connected to numerous machines. I could see the drip and the oxygen mask. I could see the doctors working to restart my heart with electronic pads. I could see that my parents were there. It felt very peaceful, much better than where I had been before. I was bathed in warmth and light, and the calm was almost tangible. I felt it was up to me to decide where I wanted to be, up there or back in my body, but the peace was so overwhelming that I knew I wanted to stay." (Helen) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Carter Mills: A massive load of compressed cardboard Carter Mills was loading, slipped out of control, slamming him against a steel pole. He remembers a sharp pain, collapsing, being in a black void, then finding himself floating in a prone position twelve feet above his crumpled body. He saw and heard people running around, yelling for an ambulance and saying, "Don't touch him, give him air." His body went from white to blue; there was no breath. The sight filled him with awe. "I'm here, my body is there. How did this happen?" Not understanding how he could suddenly be airborne, Carter attempted to reenter his body. Crawling downward in swim-like strokes, he had almost reached his goal when a gentle but firm hand tugged his right arm. When he looked up, there were two angels replete with robes, wings, bare feet, and streaming hair - no color but opaque white - and no particular gender. (Carter Mills) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]John Star: "Suddenly the world was calm and clear. I could see the shoreline, still in the distance and noticed the sun shining overhead. It seemed brighter than usual. When I looked down I got the surprise of my life. There was my body, still swimming toward shore, moving as straight and smooth as a motor boat. I watched for a while, indifferent to the plight of my body. I was far more concerned with trying to figure out where I was." (John Star) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Michael: "And then something exited my chest. Its hard to describe exactly what it was or what it felt like but it was a real presence, a definite feeling. Perhaps terms like "life force" or "energy" come closest to trying to describe what it was, but it seemed to contain my personality as well. Again, its extremely difficult to describe except that it was a real sensation of something immaterial leaving my physical body. This "force", for lack of a better word, then positioned itself in the corner of the bathroom ceiling (the bathroom was in darkness) and I stared down on my own motionless body, skinny and frail and apparently lifeless. This force which seemed to contain something of me certainly an awareness that "I" was no longer in my body, then moved at an amazing speed through somewhere black, like space in its vastness." (Michael) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Ida Acosta: "I was drifting in and out of my body, from darkness into light, simultaneously. There were sounds demanding that I leave my wonderful bliss to come back to life. Doctors calling my name. I looked upon it all with a strange indifference. And I could see myself. I could hear a machine beeping. People were slapping me, shaking me, tossing me around, sticking things into me, and I just didn't care. I was in bliss and I really just wanted to die, because at that moment I realized there was no death. It was exactly like drifting into the best sleep ever." (Ida Acosta) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Rose A.: "On this one day I found that part of me had separated from my physical body and had risen above my body to the ceiling. From above, I saw myself lying face down on the carpeting. Everything was so clear mentally and there was no pain; I sensed that the physical body was that which felt pain, that which would also hamper one's clarity of thinking. This other part of me, a spiritual me or a soul me, was so much more at peace being outside of the physical me. I knew that if my mother had entered the bedroom at that point, she would not have gotten a response from my physical body, but I would want her to know that everything was all right with me." (Rose A.) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Karen Floyd: "At this time, I had floated out of my body. I was floating just below the ceiling of the car looking down at myself on the seat of the car. I remember thinking how strange it was that I was up here when my body was still on the car seat! I could see my friend driving and looking back and talking to me. I also noticed that I didn't feel bad anymore." (Karen Floyd) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Sharon: "Sometime during the night I 'woke up' to find myself against the ceiling. I was literally floating and I could see myself from the chest up. I remember feeling no discomfort, such as heat or cold, just a nice peaceful feeling. While I was wondering why I was able to float against the ceiling, I looked down and saw myself sleeping on my back. This was strange enough, but the strangest part was how I thought of myself on the bed. I thought of myself in the third-person. I remember distinctly thinking, 'She is running out of air' and 'There is no oxygen in this room.' I did not think this in a state of panic, more like a peaceful concern for the body. The next thing I knew, I was hurling toward my body." (Sharon) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Jerriann Massey: "Three times she fought her way through the murky water and surfaced to suck air, she said. "The third time back under, I was out of my body. It was like when you are wearing pants way too tight and you take them off. Now, you can relax and breathe. That's what it felt like." (Jerriann Massey) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Alise: "At the height of the pain I left my body. I saw my body on the bed and tried to communicate to those tending to it but finally gave up and left out the roof of the hospital. I felt like a traitor as they were working very hard on my body but I did not want it any more. I did not want to go back. So I left very quickly and what was foremost in my mind was that I knew exactly where to go. There was no tunnel or light or anything, I just knew where to go and went. Like going 'home'. Getting 'out' of my body was like going through a magnetic field. Each magnet was attracted to the other and then to another and another until the first was attracted to the last and then I was free. I knew I had just gone through the elements of the Earth that made up my physical body. This registered in my brain as pain but it wasn't pain exactly but the process of going through the elements and overcoming gravity." (Alise) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Martha A. St. Claire: As she began to drown, Martha remembers entering into a kind of dream-like state she feels was the beginning of her near-death experience. She states, "All of a sudden, I was out of my body watching myself being pulled along and thinking, 'This is really incredible. This is really quite amazing.'" (Martha A. St. Claire) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Mr. Thermal: "Before we got into the cars we had there, the lightening bolt came through a board in the side of the barn and got me. I felt myself falling but it didn't hurt. Then I noticed I was above myself looking down at me. My body was actually smoking. I watched one guy jump from the wagon he was on, to the ground. On his way over to me, it seemed like it took him 10 minutes to land. Everyone was moving so slow. I was speaking out loud. I could hear myself, but it seemed the others couldn't. I saw them gathering around me trying to wake me up, but I was awake. I was above them. I tried to look at my hands but couldn't see them. I knew they were there. I could feel them move. And I could feel my feet too, but again, my body was on the ground right beneath me." (Mr. Thermal) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Elizabeth: "His smile was wide and bright, as he took hold of my left arm, and we began to drift downward. It was comforting and safe to be with him, as we passed by stars in the night sky, drifting through clouds. I eventually could see my town and the top of my house. We drifted through the roof, entering my bedroom. At the ceiling, I noticed my daughter, still sleeping soundly. But then I noticed something else; I noticed another body next to hers. When we reach the floor, I realized it was my own. I was completely confused. He gently lifted me, placing me back into my body. I immediately jumped out of bed reaching for him. But by now, his light was escaping through the window, until finally completely gone. I sat on the edge of my bed, still engulfed with such joy. I took hold of my head, saying over and over again in my mind, I will not forget, I will not forget." (Elizabeth) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]John Powell: "He then brought me again to this Earth. When I saw my body lying on the bed I did not want to enter it again for I felt so happy out of it that I could not bear the thought of entering it again, but he said, 'Enter,' and I had to obey." (John Powell) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Sherry Gideon: "The last thing that happened was when I watched my spirit descend back into my body. I could suddenly see myself lying on my bed. I could feel a light coming through the window that was so powerful beyond words. As I watched my spirit return to this body on the bed. I could hear the last words spoken to me: "You must help the world to understand that they must give of themselves freely without expecting and love is all there is!" (Sherry Gideon) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"]Bruce Budden: "I could see my body lying on the lawn and a few cars and people around the scene ... The next thing I recall is almost like energizing over top of my physical body. I moved closer and was hovering a foot or so over my body. I then slowly turned over and then started sinking down into my body. The electrical energy of my spirit started flowing back into my physical body. As I was doing this, this almost sense of transformation, the feeling of being in the pure spirit form started changing to the feelings of the earthly realm. There was a great sense of heaviness, I felt the physical emotions starting to return, along with the emotions of the human animal. The next thing I recall is opening my eyes and seeing the lights of the cars around me and I looked around to find the light I was just in front of but I couldn't find it. Then it hit me, damn, I'm back. At that point I passed out." (Bruce Budden) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"] Vicki Moyer: "During my experience, I was standing in a beautiful garden and saw Jesus. He was sitting on a stone bench. We both were dressed in biblical gown and wore sandals. Jesus let me see through a dimension to where my body being operated on in surgery. I could see it. I remember how I felt. I felt like my body was only a shell and that it was not the true me. I felt like this was me, my soul. I remember him letting me hear my friends and love ones pray for me." (Vicki Moyer) [/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style42, bgcolor: #FFFFE8, align: center"] Dr. Habermas and Moreland's research: Dr. Gary Habermas and J.P. Moreland documented two cases of veridical perception in their book, Immortality, The Other Side of Death. The first case was a young girl named Katie who nearly drowned in a pool. After being resuscitated in the emergency room, a CAT scan showed she had massive brain swelling. She was attached to an artificial lung to keep her breathing and given a ten percent chance of survival. Three days later, she completely recovered and told a remarkable story. Though she had been profoundly comatose, with her eyes closed throughout her entire treatment, she gave exact details regarding the physical features of her doctors, the hospital rooms in which she had been treated, and the medical procedures her doctors employed to save her. Amazingly, she was also able to describe, in minute detail, what her family was doing at home, awaiting news of her status, while she lie in the hospital! Then, Katie said she met Jesus and the heavenly Father. Their second case involves a five-year-old boy named Rick who suffered from meningitis. As Rick was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, he decided to stay behind. He later reported seeing his father crying in the car while he drove the family to the hospital. Rick then rushed to the hospital arriving before the ambulance. He saw hospital orderlies move a young girl out of the room he would be occupying. Rick's memories were corroborated by his family, and were particularly amazing due to the fact that he was comatose before he was taken in the ambulance and for several days afterward. (Habermas and Moreland)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style47, bgcolor: #F2FFF2, align: center"]Guenter Wagner: "Suddenly it dawned on me that I was out of my body. It must have happened the moment this oozing stopped. I saw a body lying on the floor, which could only belong to me. I was shivering and I quickly wanted to return to my body and its warmth when I heard someone say, 'Stop! Before going back, see what it is like outside!'However, I did not pay any attention to the voice. Although I could not see any physical body but my own, this voice was quite near. Then I heard it again, this time it was begging me very earnestly, 'Please, do not go back, I beseech you. Why do you not want to discover your new faculties first? You may still go back if you do not like them.' I hesitated. After all, this voice was right. Why shouldn't I give it a try? On that the voice said quickly, 'Test your mind! If you do you will discover that you can think in a way you have never experienced before.' The voice was right again. I could think very lucidly indeed, and I was able to understand very quickly with a directness that did not leave a trace of doubt. Then I heard the voice again, 'If you are willing to stay outside of your body, you will make a wonderful journey and you will see many interesting things. However, you must decide quickly! So hurry up!' Eventually I began to consider the whole situation. It was really up to me whether I wanted to return to my body and live the life on Earth with all its limitations and with all its joy or to stay outside in this condition of clear thinking. The voice again urged me to hurry up and to tell him whether I had made up my mind. I gave in. I decided to stay outside and I instantly realized that my body had to die, meaning total destruction by decay. I thought to myself, "How sad for my mother!' As for me, I did not feel any regrets, because my body was now only a wrapper to me, a burden of which I freed myself the moment I had decided to stay outside. Presently I realized that I was able to move freely about in a way I had never experienced before. I was floating right through the walls of our house (I saw my mother in front of the kitchen stove cooking a meal) and up into the sky. In the distance, I saw a great shining ball, which was the sun. I felt irresistibly attracted to it by its brightness and I wanted to go right into it. No sooner had I thought this when I hit something that catapulted me far out into blackness. I tried once more, but it all happened again. I quickly learned that there had to be an invisible barrier that I could only approach but not overcome. Then the Being of Light was gone. One of the other beings brought me back to Earth. I do not know how. I only heard, while being tucked back into my body, a snapping sound like the sound that can be heard when you put the lid on top of a mess tin securing it with the catch." (Guenter Wagner)[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style33, bgcolor: #F4F4FF, align: center"]5. The Out-of-Body Phenomenon of Consciousness Expansion[/TD]
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[TD="class: style136, align: center"]Many NDE testimonies involve the experiencer describing how their consciousness expanded until it fills the entire universe - even beyond.
This phenomenon has been described as literally becoming the universe by near-death experiencers.

This concept of a universal and transcendental consciousness agrees with the metaphysical notion of how the universe exerts an influence upon us astrologically.
I have found several NDEs on my website that provide evidence of veridical consciousness expansion.

What is interesting is how this phenomenon supports a current theory of consciousness held by a prominent consciousness researcher which will be explained after presenting these excerpts from NDE testimony of how consciousness expands after death and allows for veridical observation outside of the body to take place.[/TD]
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[TD="class: auto-style36, bgcolor: #FDEDD9, align: center"]a. Near-Death Experiencers on Consciousness Expansion[/TD]
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"Suddenly I seemed to be rocketing away from the planet on this stream of life. I saw the Earth fly away. The solar system, in all its splendor, whizzed by and disappeared. At faster than light speed, I flew through the center of the galaxy, absorbing more knowledge as I went. I learned that this galaxy, and all of the Universe, is bursting with many different varieties of LIFE. I saw many worlds. The good news is that we are not alone in this Universe! As I rode this stream of consciousness through the center of the galaxy, the stream was expanding in awesome fractal waves of energy. The super clusters of galaxies with all their ancient wisdom flew by. At first I thought I was going somewhere; actually traveling. But then I realized that, as the stream was expanding, my own consciousness was also expanding to take in everything in the Universe!" (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

"The stars seemed to fly past me so rapidly that they formed a tunnel around me. I began to sense awareness, knowledge. The farther forward I was propelled the more knowledge I received. My mind felt like a sponge, growing and expanding in size with each addition. The knowledge came in single words and in whole idea blocks. I just seemed to be able to understand everything as it was being soaked up or absorbed. I could feel my mind expanding and absorbing and each new piece of information somehow seemed to belong. It was as if I had known already but forgotten or mislaid it, as if it were waiting here for me to pick it up on my way by." (Virginia Rivers)

"And in your life review you'll be the universe and experience yourself in what you call your lifetime and how it affects the universe." (Thomas Sawyer)

"I was involved in this tremendous pouring forth of gratitude and joy and as that was going inside me, this white light began to infiltrate my consciousness. It came into me. It seemed I went out into it. I expanded into it as it came into my field of consciousness." (Jayne Smith)

"My presence fills the room. And now I feel my presence in every room in the hospital. Even the tiniest space in the hospital is filled with this presence that is me. I sense myself beyond the hospital, above the city, even encompassing Earth. I am melting into the universe. I am everywhere at once." (Josiane Antonette)

"Stage by stage we expand into the planetary spheres, like light that has been contained within a darkened glass, when finally uncovered and released goes out into the boundless universe. The moral disposition we carry over with us allows or prevents us from moving on in a conscious manner. Seeing how we expand toward the stars and planets after death, it's no wonder we look at the night sky in awe with feelings of reverence and maybe even memories." (Rudolf Steiner)

"I felt caught up in all of this to the very depths of my being. I felt myself expanding and expanding until I thought, "I'm going to burst!" The moment I thought, "I'm going to burst!", I suddenly found myself alone, back where this being had met me, and he had gone." (Margaret Tweddell)

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[TD="class: auto-style36, bgcolor: #FDEDD9, align: center"]b. Researchers on NDE Consciousness Expansion[/TD]
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Dr. Stanislav Grof's research: "I had my training as a psychiatrist, a physician and then as a Freudian analyst. When I became interested in non-ordinary states and started serving powerful mystical experiences, also having some myself, my first idea was that it (consciousness) has to be hard-wired in the brain. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how something like that is possible. Today, I came to the conclusion that [consciousness] is not coming from the brain. In that sense, it supports what Aldous Huxley believed after he had some powerful psychedelic experiences and was trying to link them to the brain. He came to the conclusion that maybe the brain acts as a kind of reducing valve that actually protects us from too much cosmic input. "So, I don't see, for example, that experiences of archetypal realms, heavens, paradises, experiences of archetypal beings, such as deities, demons from different cultures, that people typically have in these states that they can be somehow explained as something that comes from the brain. I don't think you can locate the source of consciousness. I am quite sure it is not in the brain not inside of the skull. It actually, according to my experience, would lie beyond time and space, so it is not localizable. You actually come to the source of consciousness when you dissolve any categories that imply separation, individuality, time, space and so on. You just experience it as a presence. People who have these experiences can either perceive that source or they can actually become the source, completely dissolved and experience that source. But such categories as time and space, localization coordinates, are not relevant for that experience. You actually have a sense that the concepts of time and space come from that place. They are generated by that place; but, the cosmic source itself, the cosmic consciousness cannot be located certainly not in the material world." (Dr. Stanislav Grof, from the NDE video, Life After Death, Episode 8, Wellspring Media)

Dr. Peter Fenwick's NDE research: Fenwick is a neuropsychiatrist and the leading authority in Britain on NDEs who has described how the NDEs are unique to any other state of consciousness. In the documentary, "Into the Unknown: Strange But True," Dr. Fenwick explains: "In the NDE, you are unconscious. One of the things we know about brain function in unconsciousness, is that you cannot create images and if you do, you cannot remember them ... The brain isn't functioning. It's not there. It's destroyed. It's abnormal. But, yet, it can produce these very clear experiences [NDEs] ... an unconscious state is when the brain ceases to function. For example, if you faint, you fall to the floor, you don't know what's happening and the brain isn't working. The memory systems are particularly sensitive to unconsciousness. So, you won't remember anything. But, yet, after one of these experiences [NDEs], you come out with clear, lucid memories ... This is a real puzzle for science. I have not yet seen any good scientific explanation which can explain that fact." (Dr. Peter Fenwick)

Dr. Timothy Leary's Psychedelic research: "You must be ready to accept the possibility that there is a limitless range of awareness for which we now have no words; that awareness can expand beyond the range of your ego, your self, your familiar identity, beyond everything you have learned, beyond your notions of space and time, beyond the differences which usually separate people from each other and from the world around them." (Dr. Timothy Leary)

Dr. Susan Blackmore: After hovering around New York, Susan Blackmore floated back to her room in Oxford where she became very small and entered her body's toes. Then she grew very big, as big as a planet at first, and then she filled the solar system and finally she became as large as the universe. Susan Blackmore believes that consciousness and NDEs are only secretions of the brain - much like a hallucination. If she is correct, then NDEs are nothing more than a mass hallucinations. The problem with this idea is that unconscious brains do not hallucinate. And even if unconscious brains could hallucinate, they would not be able to retain unconscious memories. (Dr. Susan Blackmore)

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"What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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​

 

[apemon]

Yeah, I was in the hospital for almost a month straight and about half of that was in my room with the lights off. I've mentioned it openly on here once or twice I think so it isn't a big secret or anything.

Sorry I was unaware. Kinda like life before, ya know? Started noticing a while back but wasn't sure enough to say anything, or maybe there was no need. Not sure if there is anything to it at all. Have you seen the series of books by 'Jed McKenna'? There is some speculation as to whether he exists or not, but a lot of what's in those resonates with what is going on with me. Interesting read as well. I found them for download in .pdf. Lemme guess it was about two years of crapola for you then?

 

[apemon]

Can you all do me a favor. Your discussions center on continued existence. Cwn you figure out a way someone can cease to exist permanently for all time in your search? I dislike the idea of reincarnation. I dislike the idea of living when I choose not to.

I think I ran across somewhere after "enlightenment" one can choose whether to be incarnate or not. Not sure. Most doctrine has become pretty unstable if not downright ridiculous.

 

[Skarekrow]

To Heaven and Back!




Sony Pictures Greg Kinnear as Todd Burpo and Connor Corum as his son Colton in Heaven Is for Real, the film adaptation of Burpo’s memoir about his son’s near-death experience
​

I’ve never had a near-death experience and don’t know anyone who has, but according to a poll that’s quoted throughout the NDE literature, at least 5 percent of Americans have returned from one and told the tale. That may be a small percentage, but it’s a lot of people–given today’s population, over 15,000,000. Other estimates are lower, but they’re still huge. And most of these people seem to be writing books.

The current front-runner is the omnipresent Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo “with” Lynn Vincent–and don’t underestimate that “with”: Lynn Vincent has been, among other things, the ghostwriter for Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue, and she knows what she’s doing. (I imagine that after dealing with Palin, dealing with Colton Burpo–who, before he turned four, almost died of a ruptured appendix, went to heaven, and came back with a detailed report–must have been a piece of cake.) Actually, she’s not little Colton’s collaborator, she’s his dad’s: it’s Todd, Colton’s father, who tells the story.

Todd Burpo is the pastor of the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska, population approximately two thousand. He also owns a company that installs garage doors, and is a wrestling coach for junior high and high school students and a volunteer with the Imperial fire department. His wife, Sonja, works as an office manager, has a master’s in library and information science, and is a certified teacher. When Colton, their second child, suffers his burst appendix–his condition had been misdiagnosed–the family undergoes an agonizing period of suspense during the time he’s close to death before making a full recovery. Lynn Vincent jerks every tear in recounting this frightening story–“Daddy! Don’t let them take meeee!”–but has room for touches of humor, too. At a crucial moment: “That night might be the only time in recorded history that eighty people [Todd’s parishioners] gathered and prayed for someone to pass gas!” (“Within an hour, the…prayer was answered!”)

Colton’s remarkable story is really two stories. One is his account of what he sees when, under anesthesia, he looks down from the hospital room ceiling and observes the doctors working on his body, his Mommy praying and talking on the telephone in one room, and his Daddy praying in another. When, days later, he casually mentions this to his father, “Colton’s words rocked me to the core…. How could he have known?” Actually, this kind of out-of-body experience–in which the presumably unconscious person still has the faculties of sight, hearing, and memory–turns out to be a fairly common phenomenon.

The other story is what Colton experienced in heaven while he was being operated on, a story that emerges only four months later when, under Todd’s gentle questioning, Colton’s parents learn that their boy had met “nice” John the Baptist and the angel Gabriel, who’s also nice. And because “a lot of our Catholic friends have asked whether Colton saw Mary, the mother of Jesus,” the answer is yes. “He saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times, standing beside Jesus. ‘She still loves him like a mom,’” Colton reports. What’s more, Colton sat in Jesus’s lap observing his clothes (white with a purple sash) and his “markers”–Colton’s term for the stigmata. Everyone but Jesus had wings: “Jesus just went up and down like an elevator.”

What most startled the Burpos was Colton’s suddenly saying, “Mommy, I have two sisters.” There’s not only his older sister, Cassie, but “You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?” As Vincent puts it, “At that moment, time stopped in the Burpo household, and Sonja’s eyes grew wide.” Sonja: “Who told you I had a baby die in my tummy?” “She did, Mommy. She said she had died in your tummy.” “Emotions rioted across Sonja’s face.” “It’s okay, Mommy. She’s okay. God adopted her.” “Don’t you mean Jesus adopted her?” “No, Mommy. His Dad did!” Before returning to earth, Colton also witnessed the battle of Armageddon and saw Jesus victorious and Satan defeated and thrown into hell. His entire trip to heaven, he reports, took place in three minutes.

The tale of Colton Burpo, so slickly told and efficiently exploited, poses an immediate question, of course: Are the Burpos sincere, or is this a fraud? Despite all the commercialization, I believe that they believe; that little Colton said things he thought to be true and that were shaped into this artful narrative by an astute collaborator.
With eight million copies sold since its publication in 2010, Heaven Is for Realwas number one on the trade nonfiction best-seller list for well over a year and recently opened successfully as a movie, starring Greg Kinnear as Todd Burpo. The movie is pretty, pious, and at times plausible–not as an account of a trip to a greeting-card pastel heaven but as an account of parents dealing with their faith, their child, and their bank account. (One of the themes of both the book and the movie is the Burpos’ constant struggle with bills.) The film benefits from restrained performances, Kinnear never seeming embarrassed by what he’s been given to do and the little boy who plays Colton not only an amazing look-alike for the real Colton but simple and unaffected. You believe the actor if not his story.

The most interesting thing about the movie is how Hollywood has modeled it after a familiar genre that has nothing to do with the book: the ordinary good guy who stands up for what he believes against the naysayers. The church elders, who have been close friends and devoted supporters of the Burpos, suddenly, without our being prepared, decide they may have to replace Todd, since all the fuss about Colton is making their church too much of a roadshow attraction. But Todd is allowed to give one last sermon to set things straight, which he proceeds to do in a montage of spoken clichés so confused and banal that it’s almost impossible to follow them. No matter: the genuine all-American guy of high intentions is instantly a hero again. Mr. Deeds has come to town, Mr. Smith has come to Washington–it’s Capracorn at its most virulent. And indeed there’s a final image of Kinnear hugging his family while everyone brims with good will that’s a direct steal from the famous shot of Jimmy Stewart at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. What’s odd is that none of this dramatic conflict is in the book. When the chips are down, Hollywood relies on itself, not Revelation.

Near-death experiences became a subject of wide-ranging public discussion and dispute in 1975, when a doctor named Raymond Moody Jr. published Life After Life–a book that in the subsequent literature on the phenomenon more or less holds the place of the Bible, its authority constantly cited and Moody’s imprimatur constantly sought. Its hold on the reading public is also remarkable: 13,000,000 copies have been sold. But when we consider its sensational effect, the book itself is painstakingly unsensational. It’s a circumspect report on what the young doctor had been hearing from some of his patients–and then from others whom he sought out, more than a thousand in all–about experiences they had when near death. In fact, it was Moody who coined the phrase “near-death experience.”

What his book did was validate the subject. As he wrote in a recent memoir,Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife, “People no longer had to keep it in the closet or worry about people thinking they were crazy. It gave us legitimate consolation.” But in a revised edition of his Life After Life published in 2001, he writes:

Sadly, the avalanche of books on the subject includes many that, to my personal knowledge, have been fabricated by unscrupulous self-promoters cynically seeking notoriety or financial gain rather than true advancement in knowledge.

​

If Raymond Moody is the godfather of the near-death movement, the godmother–or grandmother–was Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who demands attention because of On Death and Dying (1969), her influential book on the five stages of grief. In a later book, On Life After Death, she turns to more speculative matters, speaking with absolute (and unsupported) authority: “What the church tells little children about guardian angels is based on fact. There is proof that every human being, from his birth until his death, is guided by a spirit entity.” Among her other pronouncements: “it is a blessing to have cancer” and “a minimum of 30 percent of our population” have been sexually abused in their childhood.
When she herself emerged from a self-induced out-of-body experience, “my bowel obstruction was healed, and I was literally able to lift a hundred-pound sugar bag from the floor without any discomfort or pain. I was told that I radiated, that I looked twenty years younger.” Why am I not surprised that her early ambition was to be a doctor in India the way Albert Schweitzer was in Africa, and that Mother Teresa “is one of my saints”? But she found even more important work to do than healing. “My real job,” she explains, “is to tell people that death does not exist. It is very important that mankind knows this, for we are at the beginning of a very difficult time. Not only for this country, but for the whole planet earth.”

What exactly constitutes a near-death experience? Jeffrey Long, in Evidence of the Afterlife, sums up:

Researchers have concluded that NDEs may include some or all of the following twelve elements:​

1. Out-of-body experience (OBE): Separation of consciousness from the physical body​

2. Heightened senses​

3. Intense and generally positive emotions or feelings​

4. Passing into or through a tunnel​

5. Encountering a mystical or brilliant light​

6. Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends​

7. A sense of alteration of time or space​

8. Life review​

9. Encountering unworldly (“heavenly”) realms​

10. Encountering or learning special knowledge​

11. Encountering a boundary or barrier​

12. A return to the body, either voluntary or involuntary

​

And indeed, as you trawl through the personal narratives of those who report theirNDEs, these are the notes that are sounded again and again.
Such experiences are hardly new–there are many examples of them, or something similar to them, throughout history. Like many others, Moody cites the story of Er, as told in The Republic (Plato “was one of the greatest thinkers of all time”). Er (an ancient Greek cousin to Lazarus) was a warrior who rose from his funeral pyre and described what he had experienced while “dead.” It does sound as if Er had undergone a genuine NDE, but because the NDE vocabulary is so fluid, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish one particular experience from other, related ones–visions, hallucinations, dreams.

A very detailed report of an NDE was left us in a memoir by General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who, when a young man, was seized by a sudden fever and in just a few hours


Dante and Beatrice gazing at Heaven; engraving by Gustave Doré

was brought to the very brink of death…. A strange faintness seized me. I lost consciousness. My next sensation was altogether beyond description. It was the thrill of a new and celestial existence. I was in heaven.

​

Many of today’s familiar tropes are present: the flashback through his past life, the angelic spirits, the glorious music. Jesus appears to Booth, a radiant yet stern presence, and speaks:

Go back to earth. I will give thee another opportunity. Prove thyself worthy of My name. Show to the world that thou possessest My spirit by doing My works, and becoming, on My behalf, a savior of men. Thou shalt return hither when thou hast finished the battle, and I will give thee a place in My conquering train, and a share in My glory.

​

And so the Salvation Army.
Many other great names are cited throughout the literature: Plotinus, Meister Eckhart, Blake, Swedenborg, Dostoevsky. Did they have visions? Out-of-body experiences? NDEs? More recent witnesses include Carl Jung, who in his Memories, Dreams, Reflections reports what was clearly an NDE. At the age of sixty-eight, while suffering a long, life-threatening illness, he found himself floating in space, which was “bathed in a gloriously blue light.” And then his physician, “or, rather, his likeness”–“in his primal form”–floated up from Europe, where Jung’s physical body lay. “He had been delegated by the earth to deliver a message to me, to tell me that there was a protest against my going away. I had no right to leave the earth and must return”–proof of, if nothing else, Jung’s monumental ego. His visions and experiences, he reports, “were utterly real; there was nothing subjective about them; they all had a quality of absolute objectivity.”

And would Elizabeth Taylor lie? After the death of her husband Mike Todd, she “went to that tunnel, saw the white light, and Mike. I said, ‘Oh Mike, you’re where I want to be.’ And he said, ‘No, Baby. You have to turn around and go back because there is something very important for you to do.’” No doubt he was thinking of the important things she would go on to achieve for AIDS relief and other causes, not the making of Cleopatra. Among the other stars who have reported NDEs are Peter Sellers, Donald Sutherland, Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, and Lou Gossett Jr., who has had five of them. (He also recalls a previous incarnation as a pirate with a harem off the coast of Morocco.)

The number-two book in the heaven genre, as I write, is considerably more sophisticated, tendentious, and disagreeable than Heaven Is for Real. It’s Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, the work of a doctor who tells us that his “conclusions are based on a medical analysis of my experience, and on my familiarity with the most advanced concepts in brain studies and consciousness studies.” In other words, he’s his own expert witness. What happened to Dr. Alexander? One night when he was fifty-four, he reports, “a rare illness” threw him into a seven-day coma, during which time “my entire neocortex–the outer surface of the brain, the part that makes us human–was shut down.” His twenty-year-old son “was looking at what he knew was, essentially, a corpse. My physical body was there in front of him, but the dad he knew was gone.”

Gone, but not gone. That dad was undergoing a rich yet not atypical NDEexperience:

I was flying, passing over trees and fields, streams and waterfalls, and here and there, people. There were children, too, laughing and playing. The people sang and danced around in circles, and sometimes I’d see a dog, running and jumping among them, as full of joy as the people were.

​

There’s a beautiful girl: “Golden-brown tresses framed her lovely face.” There are millions of butterflies all around. He reaches the Core, where everything “came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave…in a way that bypassed language.” “I understood that I was part of the Divine and that nothing–absolutely nothing–could ever take that away,” and so “was granted full access to the cosmic being I really am (and we all are).”

In heaven Alexander learned that we are eternal. And he brings back important tidings: “Each and every one of us is deeply known and cared for by a Creator who cherishes us beyond any ability we have to comprehend. That knowledge must no longer remain a secret.” And:

I see it as my duty–both as a scientist and hence a seeker of truth, and as a doctor devoted to helping people–to make known to as many people as I can that what I underwent is true, and real, and of stunning importance. Not just to me, but to all of us.

​

He’s a prophet as well as a surgeon.
He’s also a man who’s had a troubled life, tormented by the knowledge that he’d been adopted as an infant, giving way to profound depression, alcoholism, despair. Only when he eventually meets the teenage couple who had had to give him away, and discovers that he had been loved by them, does he recover from the feeling that “subconsciously, I had believed that I didn’t deserve to be loved, or even to exist.” No wonder the crucial message he receives in heaven is “You are loved and cherished.” And no wonder he encountered that golden-brown-tressed girl: a snapshot proves that she’s a birth sister who had died before he was reunited with his birth family.

On first reading this narrative I was struck by both its grandiosity and its obvious elements of wish fulfillment, but I took for granted the lofty medical credentials Alexander stresses. However, as a lethal exposé by Luke Dittrich in Esquire recently revealed, Alexander’s successful career has been stained by an extraordinary chain of unpleasant departures from prestigious institutions, by malpractice suits (five in one ten-year stretch–all settled out of court), and by loss of surgical privileges–he’s been without official credentials since 2007. (The Virginian Board of Medicine once ordered him to take continuing education classes in ethics and professionalism.) None of this, needless to say, is alluded to in Proof of Heaven.

Dittrich also raises questions about Alexander’s veracity. Most damning are the tempered remarks he quotes from Dr. Laura Potter, who was on duty in the ER the night Alexander was brought in. Alexander tells us that his coma was caused by a case of E. coli bacterial meningitis, neglecting to mention that the coma was actually induced by Dr. Potter, in order to keep him alive until he was in a condition to be treated. Through the seven days of coma, whenever they tried to wake him, he was, Potter reports, in an agitated state–“just thrashing, trying to scream, and grabbing at his tube.” At those moments, she says, he was delirious but conscious. (A central point in Alexander’s argument is that throughout this entire week, his brain was incapable of creating a hallucinatory conscious experience.) When Alexander showed Dr. Potter the passages in his manuscript referring to her, she told him that they didn’t reflect her recollection. He then said to her, as she reported to Dittrich, that it was a matter of “artistic license,” and added that parts of his book were “dramatized, so it may not be exactly how it went, but it’s supposed to be interesting for readers.”

Certainly, readers have found it so. Last year alone, almost 950,000 copies of Proof of Heaven were sold. A movie is coming, a follow-up book is on the way, and according to Dittrich, “Anyone can pay sixty dollars to access his webinar guided-meditation series, ‘Discover Your Own Proof of Heaven.’” What’s more, you can pay to join the doctor on a “healing journey” through Greece. As for Dittrich’s revelations, Alexander told him, “I just think that you’re doing a grave disservice to your readers to lead them down a pathway of thinking that any of that is, is relevant.” All that should matter is the message he returned with from heaven.

(In an official, if unspecific response to Dittrich, Dr. Alexander proclaims that theEsquire article “is a textbook example of how unsupported assertions and cherry-picked information can be assembled at the expense of the truth.”)

It’s up to us to decide for ourselves whether Alexander is dishonest, delusional, a fantasist–or even telling the truth, at least as he sees it. Dittrich takes the long view: “Dr. Eben Alexander looks less like a messenger from heaven and more like a true son of America, a country where men have always found ways to escape the rubble of their old lives through audacious acts of reinvention.”

Todd Burpo and Eben Alexander couldn’t be more different, but the message they, and all the others, deliver is the same one, a message mankind has always been happy to receive: you can go on living after you die–in the short run, by returning from death or near-death; in the long run, up in heaven. In fact, once you get to heaven it’s so wonderful there you don’t want to return. In account after account the narrator begs to be allowed to stay on, but someone on high–Jesus, God, Saint Patrick, an angel–insists that he go back to earth. (“Mark! You must go back!” “Go back? No! No! I can’t go back!”…“You must return; I have given you [a] task, you have not finished.” “No, no, please God, no! Let me stay.”) They all obey, however, and so we get Heaven Is for Real, Proof of Heaven, To Heaven and Back, Nine Days in Heaven, 90 Minutes in Heaven, A Glimpse of Heaven, My Time in Heaven, When Will the Heaven Begin?, Waking Up in Heaven, AfterLife: What You Really Want to Know About Heaven and the Hereafter, A Vision from Heaven, My Journey to Heaven, Flight to Heaven, Appointments with Heaven, Hello from Heaven!, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, Revealing Heaven, plus others whose titles don’t include the H word–I Saw the Light, Saved by the Light, Embraced by the Light.

But if these books all take us to heaven and back, they’re by no means all alike. Some are just risible. Mary Stephens Landoll had A Vision from Heaven while in bed with a bad chest cold. In her vision, she was dressed in “a white satin (huge puffed up shoulders) file gown with chip diamond sparkles all over it….” As for Jesus, he “certainly looked Jewish…. His neck was real muscular and wide like a calf–strong as an animal. He was not a wimp. He was healthy.” Kat Kerr, in Revealing Heaven, not only sees John, her late husband, playing golf with Jesus but watches a heavenly movie with John Wayne.


Edward Gorey Charitable Trust Drawing by Edward Gorey

Most of these narratives, however, despite details that may strike one as bizarre or just plain silly, are clearly sincere, and a number of them are cogent and convincing. That is, the reader–or at least this reader–is convinced that they represent a reality the author experienced and remembered. The range of backgrounds is very wide, the life stories and lifestyles dramatically divergent, and the tone of most of them generally unruffled and confident. And though accounts of heaven tend to pall after one has read thirty or so of them, the real-life stories of the narrators are frequently absorbing and often moving.

Don Piper, whose 90 Minutes in Heaven is one of the most widely read of these books, “died” in a car crash; had a typical near-death experience of heaven; was in the hospital for 105 days; lay in bed at home for thirteen months; and “endured thirty-four surgeries.” What he most wants to convey is that he survived because so many people prayed for him: “You prayed; I’m here.”

Crystal McVea–sexually abused at the age of three; a violent stepfather; bulimia and abortion in high school; suicide attempts–nevertheless survived and flourished. We feel she’s telling the truth in her memoir, Waking Up in Heaven,when she writes that, after her NDE, she “really missed God. I longed to be with Him again…. I mean, it wasn’t like I had met the president or a celebrity or something. This was the Creator of the universe! The Lord God of Israel!”
Betty J. Eadie, author of the extremely successful Embraced by the Light, speaks of

The unconditional love of God, beyond any earthly love, radiating from him to all his children…. But above all, I saw Christ, the Creator and Savior of the earth, my friend, and the closest friend any of us can have. I seemed to melt with joy as I was held in his arms and comforted–home at last. I would give all in my power, all that I ever was, to be filled with that love again–to be embraced in the arms of his eternal light.

​

Uniquely, she reports on “the Lord’s sense of humor, which was so delightful and quick as any here–far more so. Nobody could outdo his humor.”
Particularly moving is the account of Jeff Olsen in I Knew Their Hearts. He was driving, nodded off, and when his car plunged off the road, his wife and baby son were killed and seven-year-old Spencer was trapped but saved. Olsen’s account of his almost four months in the hospital, eighteen major surgeries, one leg lost, right arm almost gone, skin grafts–and of his guilt and remorse–is direct, modest, and sensible.

He doesn’t go to heaven, but on the first night, in terrible pain, he floats through the hospital and wanders down the halls, coming upon his own broken body. Because of Spencer he rejects the idea of suicide: “Having a child is like having your heart leave your body and walk around in the world…. I just didn’t know how to be there for him with my own heart still broken in so many ways.” In a dream God says to him, “Choose joy,” and eventually he repairs himself emotionally, becomes a successful advertising director, remarries, adopts two sons, lives a life. His book inspires, not through the God part but through his strength and fortitude as a man.

Because aspects of the more artless NDE narratives are so available to ridicule, it’s hard to remember that even some of the seemingly absurd byways of the literature can be genuine reflections of serious concerns. Gary Kurz, a fundamentalist Christian who is a strict Biblicist–that is, he believes that every word of the Bible must be taken literally–has devoted three books to the place of pets in the afterlife:Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates, Wagging Tails in Heaven, and Furry Friends Forevermore. They repeat themselves, but they’re good-natured, even funny, and from a Biblicist point of view, they have a certain logic to them.

Kurz is anti-evolution. (“I am not a mammal. I am not an animal. I am a man.”) He dismisses the idea of departed pets coming back to visit, and he’s adamant that animals will not be included in the final Rapture. He’s also fierce on the subject of the heaven narrative: “As a Christian and Biblicist, I reject erroneous claims about Heaven, the ‘I visited there myself’ claim in particular. The Bible teaches clearly, that short of the rapture [which would mean the return of Jesus to earth], the only way to get to Heaven is to die.” In fact, when Kurz comes upon certain descriptions of heaven: “Pleeeeeeease! When I hear something like that I repeat what I have said so many times before. ‘Pass the bread, the baloney has already been around.’”

On the other hand, Kurz wonders whether “animals aren’t just another order of angels or perhaps directed by angels to serve and protect humankind.” And indeed reports bear out that animals can come to our rescue in much the way guardian angels do. USA Today, for instance, published an account of Gary, from Columbus, Ohio, who trained his cat, Tommy, to use the telephone. Sure enough, when Gary fell out of his wheelchair and his osteoporosis and mini-strokes kept him from getting up, Tommy dialed 911 for help. “The cat was lying by a telephone on the living room floor when the officer went in. Tommy saved Gary’s life!” There’s a considerable library of books that provide scores–hundreds–of comparable stories about angels, including a particularly engaging one about a bank employee who helps a man retrieve his lost Filofax and whose name turns out to be…Dawn Angel!

Anecdotes like these are the bread and butter of the tabloids, of course, and they have their entertainment value. Their absurdities, however, reflect the naive but potent hunger for the kind of reassurance that the more substantial NDE narratives also provide. Yes, these scenarios of visits to heaven may seem preposterous to the skeptical reader (like myself). And yes, the comforting messages brought back from heaven have often been delivered before–but through prophecy, revelation, the Word. The recent spate of NDE books offers something more concrete: contemporary first-person reportage. If their authors are not liars, something happened to these people. But what? Can what they report, however unlikely it sounds, be reconciled with science, so that we can respect the phenomenon while rejecting its literal manifestations?

These are questions for a second article.

 

[sprinkles]

Sorry I was unaware. Kinda like life before, ya know? Started noticing a while back but wasn't sure enough to say anything, or maybe there was no need. Not sure if there is anything to it at all. Have you seen the series of books by 'Jed McKenna'? There is some speculation as to whether he exists or not, but a lot of what's in those resonates with what is going on with me. Interesting read as well. I found them for download in .pdf. Lemme guess it was about two years of crapola for you then?

My entire 20's was pretty much one long mental breakdown. I had a rough life that I don't talk about in full very much. It's not a good place and it is distracting and gets in my way. Plus I don't want any pity or for people to think I'm making excuses for anything at all.

 

[Skarekrow]

Time and the Near-Death Experience What is time? Is it the movement of the sun across the sky? Is it a ratio of numbers on a clock that represents change from one state to another? Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity proved that time is subjective to a person's own relative position. Einstein's theory even allows for time travel which is an aspect to many reported near-death experiences. The following is a brief introduction of all the insights concerning time from near-death experiencers profiled on this website. 1. An Introduction To Time After Death After death when we enter the spirit realm, it feels as though we were there just a moment ago. Our time on Earth seems like only a brief instance. Time in the spirit realm does not exist. By getting rid of the illusion of time from our minds, we have the power to expand our consciousness. We will realize that we are already living in timelessness right now. This means a person can remain in heaven for eternity if they desire before deciding whether to return for another Earth life. In the spirit realm, if we desire, we can travel instantaneously from the beginning of Earth history to the end. We have the power to grow forever. We are powerful spiritual beings. 2. Time As Experienced By Those Having a NDE "When you die, the fixed measurement of Earth time becomes soft and flexible. It stretches and shrinks like a rubber band. Entering the spirit realm feels like you were there just a few moments ago. Your time on Earth seems like only a brief instance. You can examine the events of your past with great clarity and detail than you ever could in life. You can linger in your past for what seems like hours. When you are done, it seems like no time at all went by. Time can contract and centuries can condense into seconds. Millenniums can shrink into moments and the entire history of civilization can pass by in the blink of an eye. Time and space is no obstacle. You can go in and out of worlds and stay there for as long as you desire. You feel eternal once again. There is no way to tell whether minutes, hours or years go by. Existence is the only reality and it is inseparable from the eternal now." (John Star) "The fact of a pre-Earth life crystallized in my mind, and I saw that death was actually a "rebirth" into a greater life ... that stretched forward and backward through time." (Betty Eadie) "It does not matter that we leave family and friends behind because time becomes irrelevant. It is certain that once we enter the spirit realm, it will be just a blink of the eye before they join us." (Mac Wright) "Before we're born, we have to take an oath that we will pretend time and space are real so we can come here and advance our spirit. If you don't promise, you can't be born." (Jeanie Dicus) "Space and time are illusions that hold us to the physical realm; in the spirit realm, all is present simultaneously." (Beverly Brodsky) "Time did not make any sense. Time did not seem to apply. It seemed irrelevant. It was unattached to anything, the way I was. Time is only relevant when it is relative to the normal orderly sequential aspects of life. So I was there for a moment or for eternity. I cannot say but it felt like a very long time to me." (Grace Bubulka) "During a NDE, you can't tell if you were in that light for a minute of a day or a hundred years." (Jayne Smith) "Earthly time has no meaning in the spirit realm. There is no concept of before or after. Everything - past, present, future - exists simultaneously." (Kimberly Clark Sharp) "From the onset of this rather superconscious state of the darkness of the tunnel, there was something that was totally missing, and that was what we call time. There's no such thing as time in heaven! As I thought of and formulated a desire or a question, it would already have been recognized, acknowledged, and therefore answered. And the dialogue that took place, took place in no time. It didn't require a fifteen-minute duration in time; it simply happened." (Thomas Sawyer) 3. NDE References To Time Travel Albert Einstein's theory of relativity allows for the possibility of time travel. During a NDE, some people have reported traveling back in time and some have reported traveling into the future. Don Brubaker's Time Travel Near-Death Experience: Christ says to Don Brubaker, "Don, do you want to stay or go back?" "I want to go back," I answered immediately, knowing I made the right choice. Jesus smiles. "You have chosen well. Go. I am with you," Jesus says gently. Everything changes again, as if someone has turned a page in a book. I see myself in the midst of a huge crowd. It's not a modern crowd. They are dressed in the clothes of Bible times. I look down at myself. So am I. The crowd seems to be jeering at me. Why? Then I see more: I help a man, someone who has been brutally whipped and abused. The crowd is upset because I am offering assistance. But the beaten man has eyes that burn with love and compassion. How could anyone want to hurt this man? I lift the man off of the dusty road to his feet. The man turns, and from somewhere he lifts a huge wooden cross to his back. The man begins moving toward a hill. The hill is called Golgotha. With each new moment, I realize more and more clearly what I am seeing. These people are going to crucify Christ. I follow, stunned, I watch in horror as Jesus is nailed to the cross, the spikes pounded through his wrists and the sensitive insteps of his feet. I watch helpless as the cross is propped up and dropped into position with an ugly thud. I cover my face with my hands. If only others could see what I've seen. The world would get on its knees ... The world would be at peace. (Don Brubaker) "Everything in this experience merged together, so it is difficult for me to put an exact sequence to events. Time as I had known it came to a halt; past, present, and future were somehow fused together for me in the timeless unity of life ... I could be anywhere instantly, really there ... I felt it necessary to learn about the Bible and philosophy. You want, you receive. Think and it comes to you. So I participated, I went back and lived in the minds of Jesus and his disciples. I heard their conversations, experienced eating, passing wine, smells, tastes - yet I had no body. I was pure consciousness. If I didn't understand what was happening, an explanation would come. But no teacher spoke. I explored the Roman Empire, Babylon, the times of Noah and Abraham. Any era you can name, I went there." (Dr. George Rodonaia) The light replied, "Let us go back in time, as far back as possible, and tell me how far back we should go". I was thinking for some time. Eventually I blurted out, "Stone Age?" I did not have much time to think about all this, because, all of a sudden, I saw human beings back on Earth. I was looking down on a group of people, men and women, who were dressed in furs, sitting around campfire. (Guenter Wagner) "The box opened to reveal what appeared to be a tiny television picture of a world event that was yet to happen. As I watched, I felt myself drawn right into the picture, where I was able to live the event. This happened twelve times, and twelve times I stood in the midst of many events that would shake the world in the future." (Dannion Brinkley) 4. More NDE References To Time Going through the tunnel during a NDE means traveling through the various afterlife realms. One of the realms that you can see on either side of the tunnel, is an outline of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless. As you travel further up the tunnel, you can see more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. (Edgar Cayce) (Webmaster's note: Cayce didn't mention it, but the motionless realm he saw, I believe, is the physical realm. If it is, then it shows how time stands still in the physical realm when entering the spirit realm.) "An expansion of consciousness can be achieved through meditation. With this expansion comes the realization that we are in eternity now." (Edgar Cayce) "There is no time and space in the spiritual world. If one is in the highest realms, love reigns. And where there is love, there is happiness. Where there is happiness, there is no awareness of time. Therefore, there is no time as we know it there. In the lower realms, because people are very unhappy, time seems to drag forever. There is space, but it is a reflection of the qualities of the people who live there. Where love reigns, there is no distance between people." (Nora Spurgin) "The occupants in outer darkness are there for various lengths of time. It is peculiar to discuss length of residence by a measure which does not exist in that dimension. For most of us it is very difficult to relate to a timeless condition, so the use of finite terms helps us to better understand. Some residents feel they have been in outer darkness for weeks or months, others for eons. No doubt all are correct in their assessment of length of time spent in this realm. In a reality of pain and torment, even a moment can seem like an eternity and there is no way to judge length of stay until after one has long departed. Some souls have occupied outer darkness for what we would measure as hundreds, even thousands of years. But it is more likely that most stay for a considerably shorter period. It is not possible for souls to be forever confined to outer darkness, since in such a case there would be no hope of redemption." (Harvey Green) "In the void during a NDE, there is a profound stillness, beyond all silence. You can see or perceive FOREVER, beyond Infinity, in pre-creation, before the Big Bang, in the Eye of Creation. It is like toughing the Face of God and being at one with Absolute Life and Consciousness. You can experience all of creation generating itself. It is without beginning and without end. You realize the Big Bang is only one of an infinite number of Big Bangs creating Universes endlessly and simultaneously. The only images that even come close in human terms would be those created by supercomputers using fractal geometry equations. You learn that you are an immortal being and a part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly." (Mellen-Thomas Benedict) "Time and space exists only in the physical realm. When you leave the physical realm, you leave such constraints. Existence there is never ending and ongoing, forever and ever eternal. The only true movement is without the distortion of time and space. It is expansion and contraction, as if the existence that exists were capable of breathing. What appears as a progression, a time-line of starts and stops and ever-changing variations, is but an overleaf, an illusion, that helps us to focus on whatever realm we currently inhabit so that we will accomplish what we set out to do (or at least have an opportunity to), and not be distracted by The Truth that under-girds reality. Using radio as an analogy, dying to this physical realm and entering a spirit realm is comparable to having lived all your life at a certain radio frequency when all of a sudden someone or something comes along and flips the dial. That flip shifts you to different frequency. The original frequency where you once existed is still there. It did not change. Everything is still just the same as it was. Only you changed, only you speeded up to allow entry into the next radio frequency on the dial. You then fit into your particular spot on the dial by your speed of vibration. You cannot coexist forever where you do not belong. (P.M.H. Atwater) "When you die, you enter eternity. It feels like you were always there, and you will always be there. You realize that existence on Earth is only just a brief instant." (Dr. Kenneth Ring) "After death, you can literally travel at the speed of light and see all of the people on Earth simultaneously in one moment. You can see people in all manner of activity instantaneously. You can see people praying in mosques and temples, synagogues, and churches. You can see people individually expressing their own silent prayers. You can see indigenous tribes in all different parts of the world drumming and chanting. You can see God sending multitudes of angels to Earth to assist in answering all of the countless, millions of prayers being offered up at that single moment." (Dr. Liz Dale) "When you die, everything stops and you enter eternity. It is like finally getting to the nanosecond, where time stops. Like a watch, our body stops at that time. Yet our spirit and consciousness continue to live on in a dimension beyond sequential time. We go beyond nanoseconds into a space-time measurement we cannot know here on Earth. It is the eternal now where past, present, and future are all merged into one. Eternity is the present, the now that never ends." (Dr. Gerard Landry) "After death, you can go through the end of time all the way back through the beginning of time, then back into the present time where you started. It lasted forever, and was over in an instant. It is a paradox." (Dee Rohe) "After death, you can view one afterlife realm as if it was first grade. People stay there until they were ready to go to the next afterlife realm. This is the eternal progression, from one realm to the next." (Cecil) "The sense of timelessness after death makes you feel unaware of how long things last, but it can feel like a long time - maybe days or maybe weeks." (Rev. Howard Storm) "Everything in the spirit realm is kept in place by an all pervading Master-Vibration which prevents aging. Things don't get dirty or wear out. Everything looks so bright and new. You can then understand how heaven is eternal." (Arthur Yensen) "In the spirit realm, travel takes no time at all. Any experience can seem like eons. But that same experience also seems like seconds." (Dr. George Ritchie) "In the spirit realm, It can take eons of time as we understand it before some people go into the light. It depends on the person. You're in control. You hold the reins. Those who've come through those darker levels have said that they've had to face themselves and realize that if they don't shape up, in other words, learn more about themselves, they're not getting anywhere." (George Anderson) "Space and time are illusions that hold us to this physical realm. In the spirit realm, all is present simultaneously." (Beverly Brodsky) "After death, each person shapes their own eternity to correspond with their real inner nature. Some are taught by their friends about the state of eternal life." (Emanuel Swedenborg) "One experience in the spirit realm can feel like forever. Time no longer seems to apply and seems irrelevant. Time is only relevant when it is relative to the normal orderly sequential aspects of life. The experience can feel like a moment and an eternity. You realize that you are eternal and indestructible. You realize that you have always been, that you always will be, and there was no way you could ever be lost. It is impossible to fall into a crack in the universe somewhere and never be heard from again. You are utterly safe and always have been forever and ever." (Jayne Smith) "Life is about having experiences forever and ever and ever. As we bring this awareness permanently into our consciousness, our connection with God will be there and not somewhere in our unconscious. We will be consciously aware of who we are all the time." (Jayne Smith) "The experience lasted for hours or eons and now it seems that eons passed in only moments." (Virginia Rivers) "We wandered in this beautiful place for what seemed an eternity." (Karen Schaeffer) "The experience was a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity." (Rev. Kenneth Hagin) "In the spirit realm, time and space becomes nothing more than attenuated wisps of human invention. Both were webs of light created in my consciousness." (Lynnclaire Dennis) "The human spirit is eternal and we are not alone in the cosmic scheme of things." (Brad Steiger) "In the spirit realm, people don't talk about time. They talk about opportunity. People don't think about time because it is not measured off in days and nights and months and years." (Margaret Tweddell) "Our souls are immortal and eternal." (Sandra Rogers) "Many events of eternity can pass through you. You can bathe in them and become them. They can be infused into your soul." (RaNelle Wallace) "We are intricately connected to all that exists throughout eternity." (Jan Price) "On the other side, one event follows another just like on Earth. But looking at it another way, time on the other side doesn't pass at all because there is not enough change to make the passage of time evident. From another viewpoint, time in the afterlife stands still because it is always now. The past and future are of equal length because there never was a beginning and never can be an end. This flexibility of time on the other side can be compared to the Earth experience when a person is enjoying themselves and time just seems to fly by. But another person having the same experience but who is absolutely miserable, time can seem to last forever. As Einstein discovered, time is a factor that is relative to a person's own experience." (Kevin Williams) "I glanced at my wrist to note the time, since there was no sun in the sky. My wrist had no watch on it, nor was there any telltale evidence of a watchband ... A strange sense of timelessness gripped me. It was simply awesome! ... We exist here in that timelessness, the eternity of God, the kind of life that does not perish! It is our gift of love, eternal life!" (Dr. Richard Eby) "There is an overall awareness of the Earth's future as it will be in six weeks, six months, or perhaps two years ahead. It is like being in an airplane looking down, and you can get a prevision of what is going to happen, due to being able to see things in broader perspective. However, there is not a complete vision of the entire future of Earth. But there are souls in the spirit realm who, through much tribulation and service, have been permitted to see the Earth's future in a more extended way." (Margaret Tweddell) "Time is not linear. Energy moves in a continuum and if we would consider the past as a time passed we would release pain from the body. We get stuck because we stay in the past, instead of realizing that we have passed!" (Lynnclaire Dennis) "Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live." - Albert Einstein

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=youtube_share;OkycNvrpjCs]http://youtu.be/OkycNvrpjCs[/video]

The Wow Signal, 72 sec, at 1420.4556 MHz, New View! Aug 1977


The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected by Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977, while he was working on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope of The Ohio State University, then located at Ohio Wesleyan University's Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio.[1] The signal bore the expected hallmarks of non-terrestrial and non-Solar System origin. It lasted for the full 72-second window that Big Ear was able to observe it, but has not been detected again.​

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=youtube;7dxQFYuu5bU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7dxQFYuu5bU[/video]

Only explores the mainstream science version.

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=youtube;58lXoDK1e6w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=58lXoDK1e6w[/video]

 

[Skarekrow]

Very interesting…I saw the spot she was burned at the stake in Rouen France a few years back when I travelled through…still powerful even today.

Did Joan of Ark see Fairies?


​

Anyone who has ever read a book on Joan of Ark will know that the English-hater was supposed to have had some kind of relations with fairies. But what exactly were those relations?

The trial at which Joan battled for her life in 1431 included a long list of charges against the Maid.
Some of these charges were based on her scandalous actions since joining war with the Burgundians and their English allies, e.g. her wearing of men’s clothes, a tic that was bound to worry the gender conscious Middle Ages.

However, others were based on rumours about Joan’s adolescence.
Rather than quote the trial records (though the relevant passages are cut and paste below) Beach has decided to bring together the accusations and then Joan’s rebuttal (at least as recorded by an unsympathetic secretary).

1) Joan claimed that fairies were not evil.

2) Joan had some of her visions of St Margaret and St Catherine near a fairy tree and a fairy fountain, the implication being that they were fairies i.e. demons.

3) Jean danced around said tree and left garlands of flowers there as sacrifices to the fairies.

4) Her godmother was a fairy seer who had traffic with the fairies and who had taught Joan some of her witchcraft.

What were Joan’s answers to these charges?
As to point (1) Joan herself walked into a simple trap set by the lynch mob of priests and bishops before her, saying she didn’t know whether fairies were evil.

True, there was a common European idea that fairies were, like many of us, caught between heaven and hell, an idea that continued into the nineteenth century.
But would you really admit this to a panel of clergymen?!

Joan had courage (so much courage), but she lacked theological smarts.
It is telling that when she was accused of not denying the evil natures of fairies she did not seem to understand the accusation.

Elsewhere she says that those who went out on Thursdays to consort with the fairies (what vanished marvellous worlds!) were guilty of witchcraft, but this was left to one side in the digest and summary.

(2) There was a fairy tree (a beech, not an oak as in the picture from Andrew Lang’s children’s book above) and a fairy well (where the sick drank) in the environs of Domrémy.

The locals claimed, according to Joan’s brother, that Joan had had her visions there.
Re the appearance of St Catherine and St Margaret at the tree, she replied ‘I don’t know’.

Given Joan’s understandable evasions, ‘I don’t know’ normally means one of two things in the trial records. ‘I can’t remember’, or ‘Yes, but I’m not foolish enough to admit it to you.’
Beach would guess the second in this instance.

Joan did, in any case, admit that she saw saints (plural) at the fountain.
She must have been aware that she was being set up and that the saints she saw were being cast as fairies and, therefore, demons.
Incredibly she did not protect herself more forcefully saying only that ‘As far as she knew… she never saw the fairies at the tree.’

3) Is the easiest to deal with. Jean admitted to sometimes dancing there as a child, and even to making garlands, but not to consorting with the fairies.
She said that she made the garlands for the Madonna.

The confusion of Mary and fairy is an old one.
At Lourdes and Fatima it carried on into modern times.

4) Her godmother Jeanne was the wife of the mayor.
Joan said that this woman was ‘held and reputed to be an honest woman, and not a witch or sorceress’: yes, her godmother claimed to have seen fairies, ‘but [Joan] herself doesn’t know whether it is true or not’.

Joan knew she was likely to die and was not going to criticize a loved one?
Without wishing to heap more ignominy on Joan surely we can venture the following.

Joan grew up in a world where fairies mattered.
Her visions took place, at least in part, near a fairy spot.

Her judges saw a hole in her armour and started shooting arrows: but anyone interested in medieval fairy belief must admit that the hole was there.

Did Joan give a Christian nationalist spin to a change encounter with a fifteenth-century French Tinkerbell?
Here are most of the relevant records from the trial as they may be of interest.

Jeanne in her youth was not taught or instructed in the belief and principles of the faith, but was lessoned and initiated by certain old women in the use of spells, divinations, and other superstitious works or magic arts.

Many inhabitants of these villages are known from olden times to have practiced these evil arts, and from certain of them, and especially from her godmother, Jeanne declares she has often heard talk of visions or apparitions of fairies or fairy spirits, and from others also she has been taught and filled with these evil and pernicious errors about the spirits, so much so that she confessed to you, in judgment, that until this day she knew not whether these fairies were evil spirits.

To this article Jeanne replied that she allowed the first part, namely, about her father and mother and the place of her birth; but as for fairies, she did not understand.

As for her instruction, she learned to believe and was well and duly taught how to behave as a good child should.
For her godmother she referred to what she had stated elsewhere.

Philibert, lord bishop of Coutances As far as I have been able to gather from these articles, this woman affirms that St. Michael and St. Gabriel with a host of angels, and St. Catherine and St. Margaret, appeared to her, sometimes near a fairy tree: that she bodily touched these saints who comforted her, and promised them, to keep her virginity.

Then she was questioned about a certain tree growing near her village.
To which she answered that, fairly near Domrémy, there was a certain tree called the Ladies’ Tree, and others called it the Fairies’ Tree; and near by is a fountain.

And she has heard that people sick of the fever drink of this fountain and seek its water to restore their health; that, she has seen herself; but she does not know whether they are cured or not.

She said she has heard that the sick, when they can rise, go to the tree and walk about it.
It is a big tree, a beech, from which they get the fair May, in French le beau may; and it belongs, it is said, to Pierre de Bourlemont, knight.

She said sometimes she would go playing with the other young girls, making garlands for Our Lady of Domrémy there; and often she had heard the old folk say (not those of her family) that the fairies frequented it.

And she heard a certain Jeanne, the wife of mayor Aubery of Domrémy, her godmother, say that she had seen the fairies; but she herself doesn’t know whether it is true or not.. Asked if she saw them elsewhere, she does not know at all.

She had seen the young girls putting garlands on the branches of the tree, and she herself sometimes hung them there with the other girls; sometimes they took them away, and sometimes they left them there.

She said that since she learned that she must come to France, she had taken as little part as possible in games or dancing; and did not know whether she had danced near the tree since she had grown to understanding.

Although on occasions she may well have danced there with the children, she more often sang than danced.
There is also a wood, called the oak-wood, in French le Bois-chesnu, which can be seen from her father’s door; not more than half a league away.

She does not know, nor has she ever heard, that the fairies repair there; but she has heard from her brother that in the country around it is said she received her message at the tree; but she says she did not, and she told him quite the contrary.

Further, she says, when she came to the king, several people asked her if there were not in her part of the country a wood called the oak-wood; for there was a prophecy which said that out of this wood would come a maid who should work miracles; but Jeanne said that she put no faith in that.

Asked if her godmother, who saw the fairies, was held to be a wise woman, she answered that she was held and reputed to be an honest woman, and not a witch or sorceress…. Asked if she did not believe heretofore that the fairies were evil spirits, she answered she knew nothing of that.

Asked if she knew anything of those who consort with fairies, she answered that she was never there nor knew anything of it, but she had heard talk of them, how they went on Thursdays; but she did not believe in it and thought it was witchcraft.

“Near the village of Domrémy stands a certain large and ancient tree, commonly called ”l’arbre charmine faée de Bourlemont,” and near the tree is a fountain.

It is said that round about live evil spirits, called fairies, with whom those who practice spells are wont to dance at night, wandering about the tree and the fountain.”

To this fifth article, touching the tree and the fountain, Jeanne refers to another answer she has given: the rest she denies.

On Saturday the 24th day of February, she answered that not far from Domrémy there is a tree called the Ladies’ Tree which some call the Fairies’ Tree, and near it is a fountain.

She has heard that the sick drink of this fountain (she herself has drunk of it) and seek from its waters the restoration of their health; but she does not know whether they are cured or not.

On Thursday, March 1st asked if St. Catherine and St. Margaret spoke to her under the tree, she answered: “I do not know.”
And asked once more if the saints spoke to her at the fountain, she answered that they did, that she heard them there; but what they said to her then, she no longer knew.

Asked, on the same day, what the saints promised her, there or elsewhere, she replied that they made no promise to her, but by God’s permission.

On Saturday, March 17th, asked if her godmother who saw the fairies is accounted a wise woman, she answered that she is held and accounted a good honest woman, and not a witch or sorceress.

The same day, asked if she had not heretofore believed the fairies to be evil spirits, she answered that she did not know.
And the same day, when asked if she knew anything of those who consort with the fairies, she answered that she never went and never knew aught of that, but she had heard that some went on Thursdays.

She does not believe in it, and holds it to be witchcraft.

“The said Jeanne was wont to frequent the fountain and the tree, mostly at night, sometimes during the day; particularly, so as to be alone, at hours when in church the divine office was being celebrated.

When dancing she would turn around the tree and the fountain, then would hang on the boughs garlands of different herbs and flowers, made by her own hand, dancing and singing the while, before and after, certain songs and verses and invocations, spells and evil arts.

And the next morning the chaplets of flowers would no longer be found there.”

To this sixth article, on this 27th day of March, she answers that she refers to another reply that she has made.
The remainder of the article she denies.

On Saturday, the 24th of February, she said that she heard how that the sick, when they can get up, go to the tree to walk about; it is a huge tree, a beech, from which ‘le beau may’ comes; and it belonged, so it was said, to Pierre de Bourlemont.

Sometimes she went playing with the other girls, in summer, and made garlands for Our Lady of Domrémy there.
Often she had heard old people tell, not those of her family, that the fairies frequented it.

She has heard Jeanne, the wife of mayor Aubrey of Domrémy, her godmother, say that she had seen the fairies, but she herself does not know if it is true.

She never, as far as she knew, saw the fairies, and she does not know if she saw any elsewhere.
She has seen the maidens putting chaplets of flowers on the boughs of the tree, and she herself has hung them with the others, sometimes carrying them away, sometimes leaving them there.

She adds that ever since she knew she must come to France she had taken little part in games or dancing, as little as possible.
She does not know whether she has danced near the tree since she had grown to understanding; and though on occasions she may well have danced there with the children, she more often sang than danced there.

There is also a wood, called the Oak wood, which can be seen from her father’s door, not more than half a league away.
She does not know, nor has she ever heard, that the fairies repair there, but she has heard from her brothers that after she had left the country it was said that she received her message at the Fairies’ Tree.

She says she did not and she told her brother so.
Further, she says that when she came to her king, several people asked her if there was not in her part of the country a wood called the Oak wood; for there were prophecies saying that out of the Oak wood should come a maid who should work miracles; but she said she put no faith therein.

Digest: ‘And firstly this woman says and affirms that in the thirteenth year of her age, or thereabouts, she saw with her bodily eyes St. Michael, who would console her, and at times St. Gabriel, and they appeared to her in bodily form.

Sometimes also she saw a great host of angels; and since then, St. Catherine and St. Margaret have appeared to the said woman who saw them in the flesh.

And every day she sees them and hears their speech; and, when she embraces and kisses them, she touches them and feels them physically.
She has seen, not only the heads of the said angels and the saints, but other parts of their bodies, whereof she has not chosen to speak.

And the said St. Catherine and St. Margaret spoke to her at times by a certain fountain, near a great tree, commonly called ‘The Fairies’ Tree’; in the matter of the fountain and of the tree, the common report is that it is the frequent resort of witches, that many sick of the fever go to this fountain and tree to recover their health, although these are situated in an unhallowed spot.

There, and elsewhere, on several occasions, she has adored them and done them reverence.

 

[Skarekrow]

Just a note…I am neither endorsing nor am I telling anyone that they shouldn’t try various types of psychedelics.
The posting of such stories is not to promote any illegal activity…but to get you to re-think things we have been told our whole lives will “make us go insane”.
You should also be aware that it is your consciousness and only yours and no one can tell you what you can or can’t do with your own mind.
Enjoy.

Humans Are Biologically Wired for the Magic Mushroom Experience –
Roland Griffiths Ted Talk
(Video)


[video=youtube;LKm_mnbN9JY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LKm_mnbN9JY[/video]

Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

His principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories has been on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs.

​

Roland Griffiths took 36 healthy volunteers who have never had a psychedelic experience.
After 2 months of having their first Psilocybin experience the volunteers were given various questionnaires to gauge the effect of the psychedelic experience.

70 percent of people were saying. “This is among the 5 most personally meaningful experiences of my life.”
I would ask people, what does that mean?
Tell me about that.

“When my first child was born that changed my life forever.
Recently my father passed away, its kinda like that.”

80 percent of the volunteers said that the experience increased their sense of well-being and life satisfaction.
No one said it decreased it.


​

Magic Mushrooms have been around far longer than our civilization. It’s thrilling that science is finally discovering the magic in mushrooms!​

 

[Skarekrow]

The Psychedelic Origin of Christianity Part 1
​

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970) is a book by the British archaeologist John Marco Allegro. His early career focused on studying the earliest manuscripts of the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls. With this book, however, many say that it ruined his career, although others say it gave him the fame that he deserved.

The basic idea behind the book is that primitive religions were based on fertility rites (rituals that recreate the reproductive processes of nature either symbolically or through sex). Allegro believed that fertility cults like this used the hallucinogenic mushroom,Amanita muscaria (red mushroom with white spots). He also said that these mushrooms are at the root of many religions, including early Christianity. Christianity was essentially the product of a sex-and-mushroom cult, and the mushroom was seen as the gateway to understanding God. Through this understanding it was believed that fertility would also be promoted.


Allegro argued that the mushroom and its powers were a secret, so they had to be written down in the form of codes hidden in mythical stories. In his own words: “This is the basic origin of the stories of the New Testament. They were a literary device to spread the rites of mushroom worship to the faithful.” Jesus in the Gospels was code for the Amanita mushroom according to Allegro. All major scholars rejected Allegro's ideas, including his academic mentor. Even his publisher regretted publishing the book.


Allegro drew on some strange evidence to support his theory. He argues that the fresco in the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] Century chapel of Plaincourault in France clearly shows Adam and Eve next to a tree made of large Amanita muscaria mushrooms. The serpent can be seen coiling around the tree. It seems strange that this mushroom would be depicted in arguably the most famous story in the Bible.

Terence McKenna in Food of the Gods also claims that the fruit which Adam and Eve ate from was a symbol for a psychedelic mushroom, since it gave them “knowledge” (e.g. that they were naked) which they didn't previously have.

In October 2008 Jan Irvin published The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity which was the first book to present texts which supported Allegro's theory. For example, a 16[SUP]th[/SUP] Century Christian text called The Epistle to the Renegade Bishops explicitly mentions and discusses “the holy mushroom”. Irvin provides dozens of Christian images to support Allegro's ideas — images that weren't available when The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross was originally published in 1970. The front cover of Irvin's book includes one of these images — some mushrooms can be seen. Some say that in these kinds of images, it is not the Amanita mushroom that is shown, but the more common types of psychedelic mushrooms, such as the ones shown next to it.

















More examples of mushrooms in Christian art:

 

[Skarekrow]

The Psychedelic Origin of Christianity Part 2

​

Allegro asserts that it's not such a controversial idea that religions could be based on the use of psychedelic plants. It's been said that other ancient cultures might have used psychedelic plants as well in their religious rituals. In Book 9 of the classic Hindu text, the Rig Veda, a “pressed juice” called Soma is mentioned as something drunk by priests. Some sort of visionary state is reported: "Make me immortal in that realm where happiness and transports, where joys and felicities combine, and longing wishes are fulfilled."


Some say that Soma could have been a psychedelic mushroom, maybe the Amanitamushroom - R. Gordon Wasson held this opinion. Terence Mckenna in Food of the Gods says that a more likely candidate for Soma, due to its better efficacy at inducing psychedelic states, is the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom. This mushroom can grow in cow dung in certain climates, which may explain why the cow has gained such a sacred status in the Hindu tradition. Although other academics claim that Soma was cannabis. In addition, the blue lotus flower was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians and it is now know to have some psychoactive properties.



The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone in ancient Greece. A drink called kykeon was consumed which the Illiad says was made up of barley, water, herbs and goats cheese. In theOdyssey, however, the character Circe adds a magic potion to it. Some speculate that the barley used in this drink was parasitized by ergot (a fungus), and that the psychoactive properties of the fungus were responsible for the intense experiences that people reported at Eleusis. Ergot contains ergotamine, a precursor to LSD – this is why Albert Hoffman used ergot to synthesise LSD.


'Mushroom cults' in Mesoamerica date back to at least 1,000 BC, indicated by mushroom stone effigies found in the Guatemalan highlands. In addition, frescoes from central Mexico dated to 300 AD show signs of mushroom worship. 'Sacred mushrooms' feature in Aztec texts as well - the Codex Vindobonensis, for example, visually depicts the ceremonial use of psychedelic mushrooms. The aztecs called these mushrooms teonanactl which literally means “flesh of the gods”. (For further information on ancient mushroom use). Allegro argues that Christianity is just one more example of a religion which at its core involves the use of psychedelic plants as a way to access the 'divine'.






Mushroom statues suggest the presence of 'mushroom cults' in ancient Mesoamerica.


Note: Allegro's views don't necessarily reflect my own. Just because mushrooms have been depicted in Christian art, it does not follow that Christianity is based on the use of magic mushrooms. Allegro might even be guilty of confirmation bias: drawing on evidence to support his hypothesis, but ignoring the evidence which contradicts it. Some say that by doing this he has created an over-sensationalised hypothesis about the origins of Christianity. It is difficult to say how early Christianity originated, but in all likelihood it probably arose due to a variety of factors. It is possible that magic mushrooms were one of these factors (maybe even a driving force), but this idea is still within the realm of speculation.

 

[Skarekrow]

An interesting take on the story...

Gnosis - Secret Gate to Garden of Eden.

[video=youtube;-TndLzFZI9A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-TndLzFZI9A[/video]

​

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=youtube;8li-3pRrA5Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8li-3pRrA5Y[/video]

A Brief History Of Melancholy​

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=youtube;NNnIGh9g6fA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NNnIGh9g6fA[/video]


Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky gave the opening lecture of the course entitled Human Behavioral Biology and explains the basic premise of the course and how he aims to avoid categorical thinking.​

 

[Skarekrow]

I had a dream last night where I was quite adamant that we (the group I was with), travel through the mountains to our destination because apparently it would take an extra three days to travel by whale.

 

[Skarekrow]

THE (NEAR-) DEATH DECODED by DRS. MAUREEN VENSELAAR © Original Dutch title: De (bijna-)dood ontrafeld

THE FIVE PHASES THEORY ©

This article describes a complete new and astonishing theory about the near-death experience - based on astrophysics - which includes ten new features.

In our quest to find answers about the cause, features and supposed differences of the near-death experience (= NDE), the scientific community has found so far two - mainstream - explanations.

The first one is that the NDE is a neurological phenomenon.
And features as the life review, the notion of being out of the body and seeing strange (supernatural) things, are caused - for example - by the lack of oxygen, by electric stimuli, by stress, medication or hallucinations. This neurological explanation considers the brain as the producer of (features of) the NDE and of consciousness.

The second explanation of the NDE is the supernatural one[1].
In this theory the brain is considered to be only a receiver of a presumably large and endless cosmic consciousness. When people experience a NDE, they are therefore connected with (part of) that special cosmic consciousness. This supernatural theory explains features like - for example - the life review, the idea of travelling (fast) and the feeling of being out of one's body.

However, both theories do not take into consideration that there is a link between severe trauma/sickness on the one hand, and the start of (features of) a NDE, on the other hand. Moreover: they do not accept the idea that the NDE becomes more profound and more complete while as the trauma/sickness gets more life-threatening. This is however not in accordance with the opinion of Atwater, Moody, Morse and Sabom (amongst other).

Furthermore, both theories do not take into consideration that the NDE has successive phases (this is, again, not in accordance with the opinion of, for instance, Atwater, Fontana, Miner Holden, Moody, Ring). And above all: both theories do not explain all features of the NDE, as we know it.

Because of the above, and challenged to discover new features and to develop a new coherent (all-inclusive) theory, I have analysed hundreds of NDEs. And after more than ten years of study, I am convinced that there is another - third - explanation possible, which does connect severe trauma/sickness to the appearance of a NDE and which includes all known features. And, even more, my theory describes ten new features.

Next to this, I consider the NDE as the first part of the final total event that happens to all of us (with no exception) after we die (this link isn't strange at all: NDE-people say without the shadow of a doubt that they were physically dead and that they have seen a glimpse of a life after this life).

A preview of this new theory:

When we approach the (near) end of life, our sensorial observation decreases, our awareness changes, and deep down in our physical body (in the atoms) a fundamental process starts which releases an 'exotic energy' (= light energy/photons). This special 'exotic energy' is the foundation of an other new pure and perfect 'body', and another kind of consciousness/awareness. With this new body (of exotic energy/photons) we can travel through the barrier of space and time. The (near-)death experience is without a doubt a real voyage. And this voyage is maybe to the edge of our universe...

Source: NASA

Successive phases based on NDEs:

• The separation from the physical body;
• A journey (through a tunnel) to a heavenly light;
• Being in the presence of the light, nearby a border;
• The return (through a tunnel) to the physical body (only for NDE-people. Dead people do not return: they cross-over);
• Unification with the physical body.

Notification:

• This article is just a summary, so it is impossible to explain all features and every single scientific theory.
• At this moment the Dutch book 'De (bijna-)dood ontrafeld' has not yet been translated into English (it is however the intention to do so in the future. We'll keep you updated). Nevertheless, this article mentions all features (including ten new features of the NDE) in one consistent coherent theory based on astrophysical phenomena (the ten new features and the new theory are protected by copyright © December 2006, Maureen Venselaar, The Netherlands; and also: copyright © October 2011 publishing firm: Akasha, Eeserveen, The Netherlands).
• Some features appear at the same time.
• All (known and yet unknown new) features are affirmed in the book 'De (bijna-)dood ontrafeld' by hundreds of quoted near-death experiences.
• The book does not extensively describe the life-changing aspects of the NDE. That is why these aspects will not be mentioned in this article.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIVE PHASES THEORY


PHASE 1: THE SEPARATION

Experiences:

When people are severely traumatized (for example: due to an accident or sickness) they lose consciousness. They also hear a strange noise and feel vibrations and many small explosions deep down in their physical body. Near death-people receive another consciousness and a different body, almost instantly and they see their own physical body (autoscopy) while standing - for example - next to it. This is the begin of the out of body experience, and near-death people realize that they have a 'ghostly' body of light energy which is a copy of their physical body. Sometimes they already see other 'beings of light'. They are their guides to heaven. Near-death people do not feel any change in their personality and they do not feel the pain of their physical body anymore. They are happy, in peace. They can hear and see, in a different way, but they cannot communicate with people (for example: with doctors/nurses who are giving medical care to the physical body of the near-death person). Sometimes near-death people hear doctors pronounce a dead-declaration.

Scientific research:

• in and nearby the physical body of near-death people, experts (like Atwater, Chawla, Greene) have established that the electromagnetic values change;
• when atoms of our physical body get damaged or are dying, they release exotic light energy, in the form of countless photons (Gurwitch, Nobelpricewinner Popp);
• photons can be consciousness (Popp) and can contain information (Laszlo, Schwarz). Besides that: they are indestructible (Hawking);
• the whole universe is created out of photons (Laszlo, Cox);
• there are more types of photons/light (for example: with mass, without mass; or: visible or not visible). If something (like our physical body) is 'matter', scientist Bohm says: it is condensed frozen light.

Bystanders:

They sometimes see a foggy light leaving the physical body of the near-death people (as established by researcher Crookall).

Cautious conclusion of 'The (near-)death decoded' related to the NDE:

We will have a life after this life - as beings of light - due to the fact that damaged or dying atoms of our physical body release countless photons (= light energy). These exotic photons can have consciousness (so: at this particular moment, our daily consciousness - which is connected to the brain under normal circumstances - will be changed/transformed into another broader transcendent consciousness); These photons are also indestructible (so the next life can be an 'eternal' life). And lastly: these photons are capable to 'carry' information (= the information about who we were and are. Therefore, our new exotic photon body is more or less the same as our physical body).

PHASE 2: THE JOURNEY THROUGH A TUNNEL

Experiences:

As the trauma gets more severe (or is: very severe) near-death people (as beings of pure light) are getting more distance from their physical body. They see, for example, the roof of the hospital. After a while they are surrounded by a dark space (and they see sometimes grey/dark beings). And (almost) at the same time, they see the earth, moon, stars, the milky way like astronauts do (= relativity of space). But they also realize that they are getting as small as a 'sand of grain' (with their body of light).
A tunnel opens. Near-death people travels through/turn into this tunnel, with - or faster than - the speed of light (due to the attraction of a huge 'magnet') (in) to the beautiful heavenly light (that gets bigger and bigger) at the end of this tunnel. They experience all kinds of sounds and colours.

Scientific research:

• Photons can be non-local (Grinberg);
• magnetism and light are two aspects of the same substance (Maxwell);
• light can be influenced by, among other things, attraction and gravity (Cox, Mc. Donald);
• the effect of gravity (collapse) is the contraction of a substance;
• strong contraction of a substance (for example: the dust and energy of stars/galaxies) can lead to a black hole;
• a black hole is a real hole in the fabric of space. Black holes can be a part of wormholes. A wormhole is a tunnel through our space (due to this tunnel 'time' can become relative). Such a wormhole (through this universe) is called an intra-universe wormhole. Photons can travel through black holes and also (probably through wormholes without getting destructed (Hawking);
• very small/tiny wormholes are plausible (Cox, Rujula, CERN).

Cautious conclusion:

The more we reach the end of this life (due to trauma/sickness) the more photons are released by our atoms of our physical body. The more photons: the more compact our new/other body eventually gets (due to magnetism, gravity (collapse)). And the more compact we'll get: the more the NDE will be complete and profound (related to all features and phases).

As beings of light our 'ghostly body of light' will thus be reduced to a small tiny dot. This seems strange, but, related to the endlessness of our universe, it is absolutely not important whether we are 1.75m tall or as small as a sand of grain.

Next: a tunnel opens, we will travel (as dots of lights) through this tunnel (= a tiny intra-universe wormhole) faster and faster, and in the end: faster than the speed of light (= relativity of time). We approach the most beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. This light is like a huge 'magnet' to us.

PHASE 3: FINAL DESTINATION (FOR THE TIME BEING): THE LIGHT.

Experiences:

Near-death people are slowing down (as beings of photons) nearby a heavenly light/ another beautiful 'world'. They experience however a border and realize: this border cannot be crossed. Only 'dead people' (as beings of photons) cross the 'border' and enter the beautiful and lovely eternal light/this other world.

Over there, nearby the light, near-death people will have a life review (sometimes a life prospect). They'll meet other beings of light and also a higher spiritual being of light. Communication is instantly. There is also a moment of judgement, but that moment is full of grace and love.

The reason seems to be, according to near-death people: light = love = knowledge/information. Besides these experiences, near-death people know all the answers to all the questions of mankind.

Moreover: there is not only a beautiful light; near-death people see also two whirl-tornadoes, like an immense 'sand-glass': they tell that the upper tornado is spinning clockwise and outwards, the lower tornado is spinning not clockwise and inwards.

Scientific research:

• nearby a black hole there is a border (= an event horizon); photons can stay there for a while (Ferguson);
• gravity and gravity collapse isn't everywhere the same;
• a black hole is not completely black: it is surrounded by light, very much light (Hamilton);
• a theoretical astrophysical model of our universe and another universe is a 'sand-glass' (Hawking). This 'sand-glass-model' has an upper 'tornado' and a lower 'tornado': the upper tornado is spinning clockwise and outwards, the lower tornado is spinning in the opposite direction; Both universes can be connected and separated by a huge inter-universe wormhole (Poplawski). This wormhole is in both ways a black hole (which is surrounded with light) and a white hole. And the wormhole is probably a never ending 'big bang' or collision of universes;
• Light can 'contain' information (Laszlo).

Cautious conclusions:

As near-death people (as beings of light) we are capable to travel - without a doubt - in
space-time, through a small tunnel (= intra-universe wormhole) to the edge of our universe.

The image of a 'sandglass' is formed by two tornadoes.
These are two different universes: one of them is our own universe, the other one is an astral universe, that consists of subtle vibrations of light.

Over there - in the middle of these universes, nearby the event-horizon of an immense black hole of an inter-universe wormhole (= 'door' to another astral universe) - we'll stay for a while. This black hole is surrounded with light (and this is a real/concrete magnetic force for us). We have a ghostly body, as a copy of our physical body (due to changes in gravity/gravity collapse). We'll meet deceased beloved ones, because they also have received an indestructible photon body after they died on earth. The communication is almost immediately and seems to be telepathic (informed photons will be exchanged, almost instantly). The life review (or prospect) is due to the possibility of photons to 'carry' information and due to holographic phenomena. The fact that light = information, explains why we know everything over there (in the light): We know all answers to all questions of mankind. Besides that, we will definitely experience a 'border'. This is thus a 'door' to another much bigger 'astral' universe (so there is probably a very small and very large universe = Superstring theory). Near-death people do not enter that other universe. Dead people do. Over there we'll start our eternal life (but that eternal life isn't endless).

PHASE 4: THE RETURN

Experiences:

Near-death people can (sometimes) choose between a blue/green beam of light or a red/pink beam.
They know for sure: the blue beam means continuing the life on earth; the red beam means the end of life on earth (but receiving an eternal life, behind the door, in another universe).

Near-death people return, sometimes against their will, again through a - still open - tunnel (and also as a dot/ a sand of grain/a ball) to their physical body. For the second time they see stars and planets, just like astronauts do.

Scientific research:

• small tiny intra-universe wormholes probably exist (Cox, Rujula, CERN);
• intra-universe wormholes can make space and time relative (Davies, Mallett);
• the Doppler effect creates blue/green light due to stars/matter/stardust which come closer, and creates red/pink light due to stars/matter/stardust which goes farther away from us (Doppler; Hawking).

Cautious Conclusions:

We will return as dots through this tiny personal intra-universe wormhole/tunnel in space.

The red and blue colours we'll see, is supposedly based on the Doppler effect: when we approach the beautiful lovely light, we'll see that matter is coming towards us (out of the source of everything (which is - as said before - like an everlasting big bang/a whirlpool of energy that creates everything we know in this universe). Therefore this matter looks blue/green and means 'life on earth'. The colour red/pink is created by matter (and so on) which travels (further) away from us.

Therefore: the colour red/pink is associated with going farther away into space, closer to the black hole (= door) and the light (and the other universe) but farther away from earth and farther from the physical body. In short: red/pink means: death on earth, but eternal life in another universe, on the other side of the 'door'. In short: beams of light, in combination with our thoughts (and/or the thoughts of the higher spiritual being of light) determine our destiny.

Overall: thoughts are very important and crucial, not only during our life (review), but also to set our goal (destiny) at this point.

PHASE 5: UNIFICATION

Experiences:

Near-death people enter their physical bodies as a ball/a dot, and they feel they expand/swell to get a full connection with their earthly body. They experience again a kind of vibrations during the realization of this connection, and again all the pain of their physical body.
They have forgotten all the wisdom they knew, when they were nearby the heavenly light. This feature of forgetting is also typical for the NDE and it is probably the reason why lots of near-death people do not know anything of their out of body experience and their journey to the edge of our universe and to the edge of heaven. Sometimes near-death people wish to return to the heavenly light.

Scientific research:

• gravity is nowhere exactly the same: not on earth, not in the universe. So the attraction between objects/stars/stardust and so on, is everywhere different. Due to (the absence of) gravity objects/stars/stardust can cluster (or not).
• gravity exists on an astrophysical scale (concerning the universe) and on a physical scale (concerning particles/quanta) (Cox).

Cautious conclusion:

As near-death people, we return to earth with our compact out-of-body essence (during our journey through the tunnel/the private intra-universe wormhole). After this journey we will unfold nearby/in our physical body due to the reduction of the force of gravity. All the light-energy flows back into (the atoms of) the physical body and connect with it. Electromagnetic values changes probably again. And after a while - if the trauma doesn't get worse - we will regain our daily consciousness...

For now, only available in Dutch, by Akasha publisher, Eeserveen, The Netherlands. Emailadress: info@uitgeverijakasha.nl Website: www.debijnadoodontrafeld.nl

Maureen Venselaar © 2011, The Netherlands

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[1] Supernatural means in this case: concerning the (yet) unknown world/reality. Compare with: the spiritual immaterial world. Therefore, in the supernatural theory the NDE is not 'unreal' or 'magic', but a 'fact of life'.