In the winter of 1982, during my senior
year in college, I underwent surgery for injuries related to a car accident. Three days
after the surgery, I recalled an experience that occurred during the surgery. I
recalled a tense atmosphere in the surgery room just as I went unconscious
from anesthesia.
The doctor's last words echoed in my head, and the next
thing I knew I was sitting up in total darkness being greeted by a being whom I
had never before met. During the experience, I felt an exchange of incredible
love with the being. I felt completely at peace with this being and felt
none of the pain of my injuries. I was surprised to have the complete use of my
limbs, which were severely injured in the accident.
I walked down a long, dark hallway with
the being at my right side. During this walk down the hallway, I had the feeling of a
completion of my life. Everything felt right. It was the same feeling one has when
finishing a good book. In the process of reading a book, one is totally
immersed in the
individual pages being read. However, when one finishes the
book, one’s understanding broadens, giving one a sense of the entirety
of the book. I experienced that sense of entirety, although I did not
recall experiencing a life review. What I remember was a sense of completion.
At the end of the hallway, we came to a
great wall made of black and red bricks. Both of us stood before the wall and at that
moment, I was gripped with an uncomfortable feeling. I was told to touch
the wall. I did not respond. I was told to do so a second time and once more I
did not respond.
At the third request of the being, he picked up my arm and
hand and asked me to touch the wall. I replied, “If I do, will I die?” The
being then, to the best of my recollection, laughed and said, “You know that death
is just an illusion; life is eternal. Now, touch the wall, I cannot do it for
you.” At that moment, I perceived my paternal grandmother on the other side of the
wall telling me to
not touch the wall and to go back, that it was not time. I lifted
my arm and hand out of the being’s hand and said “no.”
Instantly, I felt a physical rushing of
my etheric body through empty space while being told I would completely heal. I opened my
eyes in the recovery room of the hospital. As foretold, my body did
fully heal. I was left bewildered by the experience. Slowly, a mild anxiety crept
over me. Had I
rejected an offer of heaven? If so, would I be re-admitted
later? It was at that point that I began a journey that has eliminated my fear of
death and has piqued my interest in near-death experiences while allowing me to incorporate it into my work
Human beings have always been
fascinated with death and the possibilities of what lies beyond it. It is currently not
possible for us to know what happens to the human soul beyond death, since one must
die and not return. Passing through the boundaries that separate the
living from the dead has been an activity relegated largely to spiritualists and
shamen. They have historically served as intermediaries between the world of
the living and dead helping us to handle our grief.
Many of us liken the process of dying
to process of going to sleep. We describe the corpse of an individual as appearing to be
sleeping. A terminally ill individual is said to be going to his or her final
resting-place. We even use a euphemism for euthanasia with our animals, “putting them
to sleep.” All of this implies a final and terminal extinguishing of
consciousness. As a society, to be realistic about death is to view it as an irreversible
final experience. It is the quintessential end of consciousness and self-awareness.
It is becoming more widely known that
there are ordinary people who may have journeyed very close to the boundary between life
and death and may have even glimpsed the potential for life beyond death.
People who are believed to have had a close brush with their own mortality
while perceiving
life beyond our own Earthly experience are said to have had
a near-death experience or an NDE.
The near-death experience is a
self-reported encounter with death. During the experience, such people claim to have traveled to
an apparent world beyond the one that we know of in this physical
reality. They often return with the belief that they had died and were returned
to this reality for
some reason that is not always clear to them. With the
advent of modern technology for saving lives so close to the brink of death,
reports of such incidents are on the rise.
People who have reported a near-death
experience often have been pronounced clinically dead for some period. During that
period, such individuals may have begun what could be considered the
journey to the realm of life after death. They might experience a
separation from their bodies, meeting with other beings, and a life review. These
individuals, however, perceive that they are not able to remain in that realm
and for various reasons will self-report an experience of being
called back into their body. For obvious reasons, we may never know with certainty
what takes place after death; however, those who say they have
undergone a near-death
experience may be able to tell us what happens at the border
of the frontier beyond this life.
Here is the interview I gave on the topic of NDE's on Compassionate Conversations
