8
Life after Death
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,…
—Hamlet, William Shakespeare
What happens when we die? The visible body disintegrates, this we know. But what of the innermost part of us, the mind, consciousness? Science says that since the mind is only a product of neurological and biological processes, consciousness is extinguished the moment those processes cease. But those who have been there tell a different story. They say that far from outward appearances, death is a transition, from our three-dimensional world to a vaster, timeless world of light. It may happen like this:
The victim of a serious accident is rushed to a hospital emergency room, and before his condition can be stabilized, his life forces flicker out. But at the moment of apparent death, he finds himself outside his body. From this new vantage point, he sees the attending medical personnel, their desperate attempts to revive a lifeless body, and recognizes the body as his own. He is at first startled by this strange state of affairs, but as he begins to come to terms with it, something stranger happens. The world of space around him collapses into a kind of tunnel through which he is drawn into another reality, a world of brilliant golden light.
Here, a being of light appears before him and fills him with feelings of love. The being communicates with him telepathically and asks him to evaluate his life; he is surprised that he sees a panorama of it laid out before him, and not just his entire past, but aspects of his future as well. At the same time, he notices he is taking all this in with a strange, new sense, which makes him feel somehow united or one with all of creation.
He is told it is not yet “his time,” and he must return to his life on Earth. He is reluctant to do so, as he has never experienced such feelings of peace and love, and he also senses that, in some way, this is his real home. But the next thing he knows, he is back in his physical body and recovers.
The experience continues to affect his life profoundly. Something has been awakened in him, something greater, something spiritual. And he will never again fear death, for he knows it is not the end. Yet when he tries to describe the episode to others, he cannot; there are no words to portray it—the experience is ineffable.
This is a model near-death experience (NDE), a composite of the main features found in thousands of such experiences reported worldwide (and these out of the many millions that may have actually occurred). Their number has increased dramatically in the last few decades as modern resuscitative techniques now almost routinely bring back accident and heart attack victims from the brink of death. In such numbers, they send a strong message. There is life after death, in the form of a shift to another, transcendental kind of consciousness and an entrance into another, higher realm of existence.
But this creates a problem. It is impossible under the current worldview, which acknowledges no such kind of consciousness or other realm of existence. Therefore, the near-death experience as described can't happen and skeptics say it doesn't. They attribute all near-death experiences to dreams, fantasies, wish-fulfillment of religious expectations, hallucinations, release of endorphins, sensory detachment, autoscopy (a condition where one sees another self), hypoxia (oxygen deprivation), limbic lobe seizures, the effects of anesthetics, and so on. But taken individually and collectively, these “normal” explanations don't measure up.
Even though no two near-death experiences are exactly alike, there is an uncanny similarity to them, whereas if they were dreams or fantasies, it would be just the opposite: there would be a bewildering assortment of visions. The general content of the experience is also the same for the devoutly religious (of all religions and cultures), agnostics, and even atheists, which negates any religious wish-fulfillment theory.
As for the other explanations—hallucinations, anesthetics, seizures, and the like—the psychological states these conditions give rise to are all categorized as distorted, unpleasant, and widely varied, nothing like the one state of clarity, peace, and joy consistently described by NDErs. Furthermore, those who have experienced any of these states, and an NDE at another time, say they were altogether different, and that they could clearly distinguish between the two.
In addition, NDErs have amazed their doctors by recounting exactly what was going on during their resuscitations, a period when they were unconscious and oftentimes clinically dead! They have accurately described medical procedures, clothing worn by those present, and even what was going on in other rooms of the hospital. Still there's the aspect of the phenomenon that many find the most compelling—the sheer “realness” of the experience to the NDErs. Honest and sincere people from all walks of life describe it as “realer than here,”1 or “as real as you and I are,”2 while others say:
No appeal to scientific validation or what is possible under the current worldview is needed for these people. They have been there, they have seen, they know what death is, and no longer fear it. “I saw the place you go when you die. I am not afraid of dying…[it] is hard to explain because it is very different from life in the world.”6 I saw the place you go when you die. I am not afraid of dying “After you've once had the experience that I had, you know in your heart that there's no such thing as death. You just graduate from one thing to another…”7 “The reason why I'm not afraid to die…is that I know where I'm going when I leave here…I've been there before.”8
Does a dream make a person lose all fear of death? A hallucination cause him to swear on a Bible that he was somewhere else? Can a lack of oxygen allow someone to see what is going on in other rooms of a hospital? Do anesthetics completely change people's outlooks on life and reality? Raymond A. Moody, Jr., the pioneer and unofficial dean of NDE research, says he has talked to almost every NDE researcher in the world, and most of them believe that NDEs are a true glimpse of life after life. They just can't scientifìcally prove it.9
Moody speculates that the real problem may be a “limitation of the currently accepted modes of scientific and logical thought.”10 Kenneth Ring, probably the most prominent NDE researcher, echoes this sentiment and calls for a paradigm shift, or an “openness to concepts that remain generally unacceptable to the scientific community.” He says: “It is my opinion that without such concepts the near-death experience cannot be understood.”11
Moody and Ring are right. The NDE, like all paranormal phenomena, doesn't work under the current scientific worldview or paradigm. But in an expanded framework of space, time, and consciousness, it not only works, it must be, for the most basic axiom of extra-dimensional theory is that we are all extra-dimensional beings, and the greater part of us, our higher selves and consciousness, exists in higher space. Or as Ouspensky says: “We are ourselves beings of four dimensions, and really live in a four-dimensional world but are conscious of ourselves only in a three-dimensional world.” The near-death experience is the beginning of the transition to that higher self and consciousness, a transition we will all someday make.
In fact, all pathways to higher consciousness lead to this conclusion. Jesus said, “In truth, in very truth I tell you all, you shall see heaven wide open.”12 What could he have meant by this? As one who accessed that higher, extra-dimensional consciousness, he saw that a part of us will exist after death in a higher reality. Mohammed said: “And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt thereof until the Hour comes upon them unawares, or they come into the doom of a disastrous day.”13 What could he have meant by this? That even if someone did not acquire the higher sense, to see this larger world sooner, they'd see it later, when they died.
Those with complete possession of higher, extra-dimensional consciousness? “You yourself, will see the universe as I have seen it,”14 the aliens told one abductee, while Betty Andreasson was told that her real home was a world of light, where the “One” was, and that everyone would someday experience it (more on this later). Many abductees, their consciousness stimulated, in effect raised, by the aliens, have sensed this, as Mack observes: “A number of abductees with whom I have worked experience at certain points an opening up to the source of being in the cosmos, which they often call Home (a realm beyond, or not in, space/time as we know it), and from which they feel they have been brutally cut off in the course of becoming embodied as a human being.”15
These are different paths that will cross many times in this chapter but lead to the same place: our place of origin and our destination. We are indeed more than flesh and blood; we are extra-dimensional beings whose real home is in higher space, who enter this three-dimensional world as a point (birth), and exit as one (death).
The Out-of-Body Experience
The out-of-body experience (OBE) is not only the first step in the near-death experience, it is a distinct and well-documented psychic phenomenon in itself. There are millions of OBE reports from all over the world, just as with other kinds of psychic phenomena, and many of these experiences (probably more than half) occur independently of near-death situations. Furthermore, these spontaneous OBEs are virtually identical to those that initiate the near-death sequence of events. A person may be lying in bed, or in some other restful state, when suddenly he (or she) finds his conscious self outside of and above his body. “I was lying on my back, with the light out, when suddenly I found myself in mid-air, looking down at myself.”16
At first, the individual is surprised at this separation of consciousness and body, but finds that it quickly feels quite natural. He also finds that he is still aware of his surrounding environment and can see anything taking place there (in the case of NDErs, usually a lot). He fully realizes that what is happening is impossible in the world as he knows it, yet he knows that nevertheless it is happening; it is a real experience.
Spontaneous occurrences such as these and the OBE phase of the NDE are essentially the same up to this point. Indeed some near-death experiences consist of only this. But many NDErs progress to a next phase, they are drawn into another, higher reality, or as Ring says, “[They] go on to experience events outside of the time-space coordinates of ordinary sensory reality.”17
How can the out-of-body experience be understood? The key to understanding OBEs is the recognition that they are, like all examples of psi, lesser experiences of higher, extra-dimensional consciousness. Spontaneous OBEs are a dim “feel” of that consciousness but a unique one. Here, that dim feel allows normal self-consciousness, normally contained, as it were, in a point of space, to be temporarily freed where it can then wander in (but not beyond) three-dimensional space. That is, the effect is not so much the transcendence of self-consciousness or the apprehension of higher space, but the transcendence of self-consciousness's relation to its normal space. The person's consciousness may be expanded and, in fact, it usually is, but not to the level of the mystical experience or more complete near-death experience, both direct apprehensions of an extra dimension.
Spontaneous OBErs are in an in-between state in virtually every way. Mentally they are somewhat above self-consciousness; they may report great mental clarity (“my mind was clearer and more active than ever before”18) and occasionally even a vague sense of higher knowledge (“everything you could think you could get an answer”19), but they are nevertheless still below the threshold of extra-dimensional consciousness. In similar fashion, other aspects of the OBE fall along the spectrum between just above normal consciousness/space to just short of higher consciousness/space. OBErs may describe a mysterious illuminating light during the experience, but typically soft and diffuse, nothing like the brilliant, radiant light in mystical and (deeper) near-death experiences. One OBEr calls it a “curious grey radiance,”20 while another relates: “At some stage during the night, I was aware of myself being high up in the air, looking down at the room which was illuminated by a hazy light, and at my bed and something in it.”21
Also, some OBErs say that the physical world about them appeared normal, while others, evidently right at the (inside-out) threshold of extra-dimensional space, have described objects as “transparent,” that is, they were able to “see” through them. As one NDEr puts it, it was “as if I could, if I wanted to, see the inside as well as out.”22
The sign of extra-dimensional consciousness that is most often reported is a change in the time sense. OBErs may say that time seemed to pass more slowly than usual (“I was watching…and time seemed to pass very slowly”23) or even seemed to stand still (“I had no idea of time”24). But even so, one does not find, or at least not nearly to the same extent, the panoramic views of the past and precognitive visions of the future (laid out along higher space) as in the mystical experience and more complete NDEs. Also lacking is the sheer power of an extra-dimensional experience, which transforms the person for the rest of his life, and the unmistakable higher transfinite sense (one in all, all in One), which allows for the apprehension of that extra dimension in the first place.
The near-death OBE is basically the same. The person is outside of his body; his thinking is acute; time slows down or seems to stop; there is a mysterious light source (“Everything seemed to be lighter and brighter”25); and he may have other faint signs of extra-dimensional consciousness, such as being telepathically aware of what others around him are thinking (“You understand them without them having to say words…like reading their minds”26). At first perplexed by the experience, he knows that it is real. At the same time, there is a sense of peace and well-being, and a feeling that all this is perfectly natural, that somehow, everything is happening as it is meant to: “It seemed perfectly right. Everything about it seemed right”27 “It was part of what you were supposed to do…very natural.”28
The OBE is the beginning of movement toward that person's higher self and consciousness in extra-dimensional space. It's reasonable, or natural, that this transition would begin with a loosening of all one's bonds to normal space and consciousness. But as said, many neardeath experiences go no further than the OBE, and some only a little further—the transition is apparently terminated. Why? Simply because the person did not actually die or stay “dead” long enough. As Moody notes: “In general, persons who were ‘dead’ seem to report more florid, complete experiences than those who only came close to death, and those who were ‘dead’ for a longer period go deeper than those who were ‘dead’ for a shorter time.”29
Those who go deeper progress to the next profound stage of the NDE where one's consciousness undergoes a dramatic transformation and the action shifts from our normal three-dimensional world into another reality. Ring calls this next stage the “core experience,” while Michael Sabom, an Atlanta cardiologist and highly respected NDE researcher, calls it the “transcendental NDE,” because “it contains descriptions of objects and events that transcend or surpass our earthly limits.” For example, this includes the “passage of consciousness into a foreign region or dimension quite apart from the earthly surroundings of the physical body.”30 This passage, we'll see, can be into only one kind of region or dimension—an extra dimension, as portrayed by extra-dimensional theory.
The Tunnel
The direction to higher space is inside-out. Try to imagine traveling this route or being turned inside-out. What would it feel like? “Contracting and expanding at the same time.” “Everything folding inside itself—and then you're somewhere else.” This is how abductees have described it. Mystics call it an involution or passing through oneself. Imagine this happening slowly, as time itself is slowing down and as part of a transition from our world to an extra-dimensional one. What might this be like?
The space around you would probably appear to slowly close in, contract, and collapse, which, coupled with the sensation of your own movement, could create the impression that you were beginning to move “through” something. What if, at the same time this was happening, your normal senses and consciousness were fading out to be replaced by a new sense and consciousness as an accompanying part of the transition? Everything may temporarily seem to go black and this movement would then be through a strange, dark void—a tunnel—as these statements suggest:
The NDEr is making the transition to higher space and consciousness. Not through an actual tunnel, for there is none, but through the semblance of one, with the effect created by a gradual change in these two factors of reality: (1) his subjective interpretation of inside-out movement, which transforms collapsing space-time parameters into a sort of personalized “black hole”; and (2) a shift in consciousness from the slightly elevated state of the OBE to the higher consciousness that will soon realize an extra-dimensional reality.
The World of Light and Higher Space—Home
“At the end of that tunnel was a glowing light…That's what it looked like at the end of that tunnel.”34 “And then before you is this…the most magnificent, just gorgeous, beautiful, bright, white or bluewhite light. It is so bright, it is brighter than a light that would immediately blind you, but this absolutely does not hurt your eyes at all.”35
This is where it all happens. The most powerful and profound elements of the NDE come together here, and more and less at once! For in emerging into this other reality, in the very process of apprehending it, the person has shifted to a new state of consciousness, one with a new sense of time, one where everything that has happened, is happening, or will happen does so simultaneously. He is immersed in a world of brilliant light, the radiance and glory of which surpass anything he could ever imagine; the light embraces him, nourishes him, surrounds him with feelings of peace, love, and joy. He senses that everything in the universe is vibrant, alive, all connected, and part of one order, one plan; he begins to realize—All is One.
At just this point, he becomes aware of a presence before him, a magnificent being of light, who somehow knows him completely, every facet of him and everything about his life, down to the most intimate detail. Feelings of deep and unconditional love pour into him from this being, and he is completely overwhelmed by its affection for him. The being mentally communicates, and thoughts beyond all normal human comprehension flood into his mind.
All at once he understands the meaning and purpose of the universe, has knowledge of all things in it, sees the past and future of his life, the past and future of the human race, of all Creation. It all pulses in, around, and through him as if he were the universe and it him. “Of course,” he thinks. “It's so incredibly simple. Everything makes sense; everything is connected; everything is everything else. Of course!”
At the same time, he is aware of another curious sensation, the feeling that he has always known this but somehow has forgotten it. The being seems familiar too; it's almost as if he should know it. He is irresistibly drawn to this being, taken by it, and despite the awe it inspires in him, he is perfectly at ease.
Who is this being? It is his own higher self!
The NDEr does not recognize it. Though right in front of him, and even though it seems familiar, he does not make the connection. Strange, yes, but under extra-dimensional theory it is predictable. For the NDEr is just beginning the transition to his higher self and consciousness. As such, he has the first glimpse of the faculty, not the whole thing, and not enough possession of it to recognize himself. If this sounds odd, consider the fact that it works much the same way in the transition from simple to self-consciousness; that is, it takes not just temporary possession of the faculty but a certain degree of acquaintance with it to realize that what is in front of one is actually oneself.
Take an animal with simple consciousness, say the dog Samson, and place him in front of a mirror. He does not recognize the image; this would take conceptual thought. The same holds true for an infant who has not yet acquired self-consciousness. Place him in front of a mirror and he does not recognize the image, does not realize that it is himself. This recognition will come later, at about the age of three, when he begins to acquire self-consciousness. But even then, during the transition, his first few flashes of higher consciousness will not immediately lead to the right conclusion.
The child, who has just begun (only moments ago) to sense his own self, will see an image in the mirror, and perhaps even realize it is a “being,” but he will not make the connection between that being and himself. At least not right away. More experience with the faculty is needed, more time to acquaint himself with its higher form of conception, its higher, expanded sense of consciousness and self. Shouldn't it work the same way with a still higher, more expanded consciousness and self?
The NDEr, though directly in front of his higher self, in direct contact with it, and sampling its higher consciousness, does not realize who that being is. He does not make the connection. If the near-death experience is a link or bridge between self-consciousness and higher, extradimensional consciousness, then the NDEr is not far enough along, or will not be there long enough, for the concept of a higher self to dawn upon him.
Besides, the being of light is so beautiful, so magnificent, that the person cannot conceive of it as related to his earthly self. NDErs invariably think of it as something completely distinct and supernatural such as a divine presence, a spirit guide, or God Himself. This is significant, and in fact predictable. It is not just the case with NDErs! Virtually everyone who has experienced flashes of the same higher, extra-dimensional consciousness have interpreted the “source” of it the same way.
The mystical experience is the dawning of a higher evolutionary faculty that apprehends an extra dimension, but this faculty is at the same time accessing one's own higher self and consciousness in extradimensional Space. And just as with NDErs, mystics sense an identity—a completely separate and divine one—associated with this consciousness.
Mohammed saw the heavens open up and a radiant being appear before him. At first terrified by this higher presence for fear it would possess him, he came to accept it as the Archangel Gabriel, a messenger sent by God. He could never have imagined that the beatific visions and thoughts this archangel imparted to him were coming from a higher aspect of himself.
Jesus saw the heavens rent asunder and a “Spirit” descend to speak to him. Greatly alarmed at first, he retreated into solitude to reflect on the experience and the possibility that it was some kind of impending madness. In the end the realness of the experience was inescapable; he emerged from the desert convinced it was his destiny to teach what was revealed to him. He would later call this Spirit “the Father,” a higher presence that glorified him and provided him with his teachings, clearly distinguishing it from God. “Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God, he has seen the Father.”36 In other words, only those who could apprehend the vaster (extra-dimensional) Kingdom of God would be able to see this presence.
In similar fashion, mystics through the ages have attributed their experiences of enlightenment to visits from a higher and informing “Other.” Paul called it the “Christ,” Socrates his “daemon,” and Dante “Beatrice.” Like NDErs, they were never aware that this Other was their own higher self, and that the consciousness that proceeded from it was their own higher consciousness. They, too, thought of it as a separate being and generally interpreted it according to cultural and religious expectations. NDErs do exactly the same. In fact, the only real difference in interpretation of the near-death experience is the interpretation of the being of light. Some may call it God or Jesus, others Allah or Vishnu. Is it not reasonable that there is only one kind of being behind these various interpretations? That it is the same presence encountered in both the mystical and near-death experience?
Ring, a brilliant theorist, has made some tantalizing speculations in this regard. He conjectured that the being of light in NDEs may be one's more “complete or higher self.”37 He recognized that the near-death experience is just one of several pathways to a remarkably similar type of higher consciousness, and he surmised that these experiences are related in such a way that there cannot just be an explanation for the NDE alone: there must be one comprehensive explanation that includes all of them. “Any interpretation that purports to explain NDEs must also be capable of accounting for the general family of transcendental experiences—and their aftereffects—of which the classic NDE is but one member.38
This is the point of extra-dimensional theory. The near-death phenomenon, like the UFO phenomenon, psychic phenomena, and the mystical experience, cannot be understood separately. In each type there are connections, associations, and implications for the others. They must be understood together as the assorted but intimately related workings of an extra-dimensional reality of space, time, and consciousness. As Bucke first realized that all mystical experiences were of the same higher consciousness, we must now realize that all near-death experiences are too, and moreover, that all of both types—and abduction experiences as well—are experiences of that same, higher consciousness.
Here are four accounts of contact with higher consciousness, two arrived at by the NDE pathway, one the mystical, one the abduction. Can you tell which is which?
Are not these interchangeable? Is there any doubt that these experiences are of the same kind of consciousness? Can it be any other kind than the next level of consciousness under extra-dimensional theory? The transfinite perception of the whole contained in each and every part (all in one, one in all), and that they are all connected by a medium that connects everything in our three-dimensional world? This transfinite apprehension is the root of extra-dimensional consciousness and must be present in all experiences of that consciousness, just as the sense of Self, the root of self-consciousness must be present in all experiences of self-consciousness.
Thus in the previous quotes a mystic describes the higher sense as “a feeling of all in each and of each in all”; an NDEr as “simultaneously comprehending the whole and every part”; and an abductee as “it's like you become on the one hand, part of everything, and everything becomes part of you.” Each of these could just as easily be the other. They embody the same sense, the same consciousness, the same transfinite root.
And the same reality, too: “I was free in a time dimension of space,”43 said one NDEr, an explanation given him by a higher presence he called his “mentor.” He is indeed in a time dimension of space, or more precisely, in a dimension of space that was previously included in his idea of time. It is an extra dimension, the same one the mystic mentally extracts from time, and the same dimension or other, yet equally real reality that abductees are taken into. NDErs know they are somewhere else, somewhere beyond the normal world of space-time:
Gallup's 1982 study showed the most commonly reported sensation was that of “being in an entirely different world.” Further, by virtue of now apprehending this extra dimension (extracted from time), the NDEr perceives the past, present, and future laid out before him; he is in what appears to be a “vast timeless realm.” Compare the NDEr's perception of time in this realm to the mystical (or abduction) accounts we've already seen. “There was no time.”47 “It was timeless.”48 “It seemed like time had no meaning.”49 “Time there isn't like time here.”50 “I realized that time as we see it on the clock isn't how time really is.”51 “Everything that [normally] happens in time had been brought together into a concrete whole.”52
How about this NDE transfinite description of time: “You could say it lasted one second or that it lasted ten thousand years and it wouldn't make any difference how you put it.”53 Compare to Peter's New Testament description: “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Are not mystical and all these NDE accounts of time interchangeable as well? Is it not reasonable that these are descriptions of one timeless realm seen from different vantage points? They show the same transfinite consciousness, the same expanded sense of time, the same apprehension of another reality. All the main features of any one type of experience are the same main features of the others, and they show the last unmistakable hallmark of higher space: the Light. NDErs describe a realm of brilliant, radiant light, so powerful that it should hurt their eyes but doesn't. “Like a golden sun…magnificent,”54 or as a glorious sun now seen through a “veil which had suddenly been opened.”55
Compare these with what we've seen in the mystical experience. The Upanishads say, “Thou art the fire, Thou art the sun.” The Bhagavad-Gita: “brilliant like the sun, like fire, blazing, boundless.” Can it be anything but the same world of Light entered by different pathways? A world illuminated by faster-than-light particles like the proposed tachyon? It is the world of higher space that the abductee, inside an alien ship, does not normally get to see. But Betty Andreassson was given an extraordinary initiation into it. The aliens induced an out-of-body experience in her, then ushered her through a “door” into a “world of light” where she experienced an overwhelming and ineffable sense of joy and “Oneness” They told her that this was her real “home” where the “One was,”56 and that everyone would experience this for themselves someday.
Fowler comments on the larger meaning of this in The Watchers:
Betty's visit to what “The Watchers” referred to as “home” implies that this indescribable “world of light” was the place of her origin. That she could not enter it in her “physical” body obviously tells us that “home” exists on another plane of existence. Betty was told that “home” was going to be experienced by everybody…“The Watchers” seem to be telling us that Man's true essence can coexist in more than one plane, not only in this life but the next. Their message also implies that Man, in some form, may have preexisted in the “world of light” prior to being born into the plane of existence which we call “Life.” The place called “home” is both the origin and destination of Man's true essence: “Man is not made of just flesh and blood!”57
Here we come to a profound implication for life after death under extra-dimensional theory: it is really a matter of life before and after death. For we are more than just our three-dimensional physical bodies; we are in the most real sense higher and ageless beings, whose nature we, in our current state, are either scarcely aware of or oblivious to. That is, we exist in this three-dimensional world with only one aspect of our being, just one of our sides. Only this small part of us lives and changes in time, while the larger part exists in a timeless state in higher space. Like a three-dimensional body passing through a plane world, we enter this world as a point, grow or expand (mature), recede or shrink (age), and exit again as a point (death). Our point of origin and point of destination are the same, and our real home is in an extra-dimensional world of light.
NDErs often have a strange feeling that this Light world is their real home, that they have in some way been reacquainted with their true nature during the experience. Ring relates that one NDEr said, “when he experienced the higher knowledge, it was not that he acquired it but that he remembered it.”58 Another said that when the being of light imparted the knowledge to him, he felt “it was something that I had always known and somehow I'd forgotten it until he'd reminded me of it.”59 One described the being of light as inspiring tremendous awe, but at the same time seeming familiar. “I felt I knew this being extremely well.”60 Still others: “It's like I was always there and I will always be there, and my existence on earth was just a brief instant.”61 “Peace. Homecoming. It's strange, because I never verbalized that before. It was really like a homecoming…”62
This is not a place where we have never been. The higher part of us has been there all along! Bucke, as well as others, apparently sensed this when he said that eternal life is not something one will have, but something one “has already.” This might seem to cinch the case—everlasting life for all. But does it?
Eternal Life?
When you're in love everything's wonderful. Intoxicated by that potent elixir, one sees the positive everywhere; birds sing, faces smile back at you, and it's hard to imagine that anything, anywhere, could ever be wrong again. All is right with the world, and this is how it will be forever.
Yet there is a state of intoxication far beyond this, one beyond all normal human conception. One where mind, heart, and soul are swept up into a seeming eternity of breathless and unutterable rapture. Mystics call it ecstasy, a state so blissful that a person, having once experienced it, will devote the rest of his life to training and techniques to return to it. NDErs who have encountered it say that at that moment they would gladly and without hesitation give up all they have known and loved in Earth life for it. Surely this is how wonderful the higher life will be forever, they think. Surely everyone else will experience it just as I have.
But is the NDEr (and the mystic), in proclaiming eternal, joyous life for all, like the lover in allowing the euphoria of the experience to color his perceptions, to confuse any and all calculations of what lies ahead? Is he seeing the world through rose-colored glasses?
Under extra-dimensional theory, everyone and everything in our world has extension in an extra dimension, and so must have existence in higher space beyond and after this world. Existence: This is not what we normally have in mind when we think of life after death. We think of a continuation of ourselves, retaining a sense of personal identity, remembering all that has gone before. Will we have this? The NDEr is not there long enough to find out. He is, after all, just beginning the transition to his higher self and consciousness. Or put yet another way, he is beginning what must be an eventual merging with that higher self and consciousness, to be reclaimed—absorbed?—by it. What will be left of his old self and consciousness when this transition is complete?
We humans like to think we're the crowning glory of consciousness in the universe, and if there is life after death it is reserved for only us as “higher” consciousness (lower forms of life do not qualify). What if this is correct, that only higher consciousness will have life after death, but we're off by one level? That is, only that part of us that has in some way touched upon or gained some familiarity with that higher state of being will survive the transitional merging intact and so retain an independent awareness of Self.
There is reason to think this may be the case. Most mystical traditions maintain that we have a divine aspect in a higher reality; and our purpose in life is to rediscover that divine nature and work towards unification with it. They also stress that herein lies the key to immortality, for this higher awareness is all we can take with us at death. Thus, all human beings will not automatically have life after death; each individual must by his own efforts in this lifetime earn it. The Bhagavad-Gita states:
At the hour of death, when a man leaves his body, he must depart with his consciousness absorbed in me. Then he will be united with me…Whatever a man remembers at the last, when he is leaving the body, will be realized by him in the hereafter; because that will be what his mind has most certainly dwelt on, during this life.
Therefore you must remember me at all times, and do your duty. If your mind and heart are set upon me constantly, you will come to me. Never doubt this.63
Lama Govinda says:
Man is mortal as long as he tries to hang on to his present state of mind and body, as long as he does not endeavor to rise above his present condition, i.e., the state of his present ignorance, his contentment with the irrelevant and partial phenomena of his existence. Immortality is not a gift of nature or of a god: it has to be acquired.64
Yet just as in acquiring the mystical experience, there is no reason why mystical training should be required here. Plotinus pointed out that the higher sense can be cultivated in any way that elevates the mind or spirit, whether prayer, science, philosophy, or just plain love, the choice simply depending on one's particular turn of mind. The important thing is that we must do something.
NDErs sense this. They come away from the experience with a feeling that we do have a purpose here on Earth, that the normal pursuit of the sensual and material must give way to “something else,” a more spiritual way of life for a more significant eventual reward. Ring describes a man whose life was transformed from seeking material wealth to following a new, deeper purpose and direction, one of spiritual understanding, with an overpowering conviction that there would be a reward at the end of his life similar to “a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”65 Another came to understand: “We have a more important mission in our lives than just the material end of it…It showed me the spiritual side is important…That's all I can say.”66
Indeed, NDErs are left with an understanding that the only thing we can take with us when we die is the higher part of us; moreover, they understand that it can be cultivated in the simplest of ways, by learning and loving, pursuits obviously within the reach of all. Sounds easy, but there's another side to it. Also found in mystical teachings is the admonition that for those who have not sought out and developed their higher sense, the transition into this world of fiery light will be anything but blissful.
Mohammed said: “And as for those who do evil, their retreat is the fire…Unto them it is said: ‘Taste the torment of the Fire which ye used to deny.’” Jesus spoke of how the righteous will have eternal life in the Kingdom but those who have rejected the higher way will be separated from God's essence and suffer forever in the “everlasting fire.”67 Paul preached, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but according to the spirit, you will live,”68 and that in the end “the fire will assay the quality of everyone's work.”69 It is the same world of light, but one that some will find heavenly, others downright hellish. What do we make of this?
Forget about the wrath of God; in an extra-dimensional universe, it may simply be the survival of the fittest. For without the refinement of the higher sense necessary to adapt to life in a new world, one where this sense is the operative, native faculty, the transition could well be a calamitous one. In fact, the transition to higher consciousness is not without peril in our world.
Gopi Krishna says that the onset of the mystical experience through kundalini can be unimaginably frightening and disorientating, to the point of actually causing madness in some. (This, he relates, almost happened to him; also, remember Jesus' and Mohammed's initial trepidations.) Krishna also maintains that as psychic ability and genius are lower, though positive, by-products of the energy of kundalini, so many mental illnesses are negative ones to those who cannot handle or balance this tremendous force.
In addition, Aldous Huxley in Heaven and Hell points out the haunting parallel between the gloriously radiant world of the mystic and the “infernally glaring” one of the schizophrenic, citing how in France that world of madness has been called “le Pays d'Eclairement”70—the country of lit-upness. Most mystical disciplines indeed stress that the arduous training mystical trainees undertake is for the purpose of fortifying the mind against the (possible) sudden and sometimes terrifying awakening of kundalini.
How does this bode for us at death? It depends. There are several possibilities in what is admittedly the most speculative area of extradimensional theory. To begin with, although virtually all NDEs are overwhelmingly positive, those who report them (not everyone at death does) seem to have a distinct advantage going into death. For Ring's Omega study showed that those who do have had since childhood “an extended range of human perception beyond normally recognized limits.”71 In other words, they have some development of or at least heightened capacity for higher consciousness. And if this is the determining factor, then the transition should be smooth and pleasant, and strongly suggest a continuation of life and identity. “It's just going to be another life somewhere else. Maybe in a different form, but I'll still have my soul.”72
Still, there is a point in the experience called the “life review” that no NDEr goes past. And after this, in real death, must come a final stage of the transition, when the person's self-consciousness is assimilated into the higher Self and consciousness. But if the capacity for higher consciousness is the determining factor, the NDEr's “self” should survive. Let's assume it does, more or less (this I'll return to shortly), and that it works like this: By virtue of incorporating that higher aspect into his self-consciousness during earthly life, his self-consciousness is in turn incorporated into it so a sense of (the old) self will remain after the transition is complete.
On the other hand, what of those who are just as close to death and do not report an NDE? One possibility is that these people (or some of them) simply were not close enough to death or “dead enough” at least for them, for the transition to begin. Another is the view, held by many researchers, that everyone at the threshold of death has an NDE, some just don't remember it. The question then is why not?
One reason may be that anesthetics, far from being the cause of a NDE, may actually inhibit its recall, essentially erasing it from the person's memory. This almost surely accounts for some. Moody, for example, relates the case of a woman who “died” twice, once without any drugs and with a deep NDE, and once accompanied by anesthetics with no NDE; he states that in general those who have had the least amount of anesthetic seem to have the most powerful NDE experiences.
So far, so good. But another explanation could be that, though everyone has an experience, it is recalled only by those with a heightened capacity for higher consciousness. This leads us into other, less comforting possibilities.
What if those without that capacity (or enough of it) indeed had an “experience” but one they would rather not remember? Gallup (and others) have come across some who came just as close to death as the NDErs and reported only vague recollections of “fear, discomfort, and confusion.”73 If these individuals had the same difficulty in balancing the energy of kundalini that Gopi Krishna described, it's understandable how the experience could be a negative and deeply disturbing one; the person may subconsciously suppress as much of it as possible. Projecting this into a real death situation, if the person is unable to adapt during the course of the transition, any negative feelings could intensify, or along with what remains of the old self, fade into a state of insentient existence.
If everyone at death has an NDE (minus the return), then the sensations one receives during the experience may depend entirely on what capacity for higher consciousness that person had beforehand. If he had none, then in a situation where his customary sensory and mental functions were completely inoperative, he may experience what other NDErs do, but be oblivious to it from the start. Such a person could hardly be expected to retain a sense of self through the transition.
Yet even so, this would not really be death. For remember that in an extra-dimensional reality, everything is “alive.” Everyone must have eternal existence and eternal life but not necessarily awareness of it. It just may be that, for those without the requisite development of the higher sense, one may have existence and life in an extra-dimensional reality but lack the awareness of it (of the old, three-dimensional self) in the same way that a dog with only simple (two-dimensional) consciousness has existence and life in our three-dimensional world but likewise lacks an awareness of self.
So far, we've looked at these situations strictly in a pass/fail context. But with the NDEr, there may be more to it. Why do these people consistently stress the importance of developing the higher side if just survival is the end in itself? They feel strongly they will survive. Could it be that the degree of spiritual development we take with us into our higher life is consequential in determining the degree of awareness, individuality, and perhaps even autonomy that the old self will have in relation to the higher Self? Or that its development and capacity for still further development is more the end in itself, as part of a process of spiritual growth that continues in the afterlife?
NDErs seem to sense it is; one advises: “No matter how old you are, don't stop learning. For this is a process that goes on for eternity.”74 And why not? We've seen the inexorable evolution of life and consciousness in our world—its benefits, beauty, and ceaseless striving to transcend itself. Isn't it reasonable that life and consciousness continue to evolve in a higher world?
This is the most speculative area of extra-dimensional theory, yet one thing remains certain, and another reasonably so. Everyone at death will make that transition to their higher self and consciousness in extra-dimensional space, and what happens then may depend to a large degree on what we do now. We have a higher side that we must recognize and develop. The rest will follow. This is what mystics tell us. This is what NDErs tell us. It is the Perennial Philosophy. The aliens who live in this larger world tell us we're part of something greater, something higher, that we should “seek it out and develop it.” Our very survival as a race depends on it, in accordance with a universal law. Shouldn't this law, whether it's purposeful evolution or a higher form of natural selection, apply on an individual basis as well?
The Return from the NDE
When the NDEr says he sees a tunnel, at the end of which was a glowing light, he has just arrived. All that has happened has been in the blink of an eye, or an eternity. Such is the nature of time in the higher realm. As he views his entire life laid out at once along an extra dimension, the being of light communicates one last thought to him: it is not yet his time. The NDEr returns to normal reality, sometimes traveling back through the tunnel, sometimes just finding himself back in his physical body.
Yet as with all apprehensions of higher, extra-dimensional consciousness, the NDEr loses his grasp of it when he descends back to his normal conscious state. Here, the transitional link between him and his higher Self and consciousness is severed; or as one NDEr lamented, he felt his “mind splitting into two parts, with the part that understood everything left behind.”75 The NDEr then finds, as all those who've experienced that same higher consciousness have found, that the higher conception cannot be adequately represented in conceptual terms. “There are not words…It can't (be conveyed). And it cannot be fully understood,”76 or “I could never explain it in a million years.”77 The experience is ineffable.
Nevertheless, the nature and realness of what the NDEr has experienced will remain etched into him; and it will change him completely. Like anyone who has apprehended the transfinite order of “one in all, all in One,” he will forevermore have a special understanding that all living things are on some level connected and a part of one another. How can he not now have a deeper appreciation for all life, more compassion and empathy for it? I earlier postulated that this moral sense is a lower abstraction of the transfinite sense. The connection should be apparent here, as the essence of the person's moral sense is raised to another level by just a momentary tie-in with that higher faculty.
The NDEr's heightened awareness leads to other realizations. He sees that true spirituality is not to be found in any church or creed but only within, and he realizes the importance of developing it. His priorities change; the old, materialistic goals in life are gone, replaced by the pursuit of knowledge and spirituality, and with a sense that there is a reason for it. “[I developed an]…awareness that something more was going on in life than just the physical part of it…There's more than just consuming life.”78 “I think that my greatest desire is to develop cosmic consciousness, greater awareness…And I feel that I'm being drawn closer to something meaningful…I feel that I'm going somewhere. I feel that I'm reaching something…”79
The NDEr's transformation centers on a moral and spiritual awakening, but there are other aspects to it, many of which are paranormal. His consciousness now elevated near the threshold of the higher faculty, he begins to exhibit additional signs of it, as psychic phenomena. We've seen how these work as fragments of extra-dimensional consciousness filtering down into one's normal state. We've also seen how when one's consciousness is raised closer to higher consciousness, his capacity, or penchant for them, is markedly increased. It is the same with NDErs.
After their experience, they consistently report classic psi intuitions, i.e., telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition; also electrical disturbances, and other minor poltergeist activity. Some have been spontaneously healed of their infirmities, while others feel they have increased intelligence, sometimes extending into areas they had no prior interest in or aptitude for. Dr. Melvin Morse documents all these changes (psychic, moral, spiritual, and more) in his 1992 Transformed by the Light, a comprehensive work on the aftereffects of NDEs; Ring's The Omega Project shows basically the same results in NDErs and abductees.
All these aftereffects demonstrate once again, and yet in still another way, that it is one and the same consciousness encountered in NDEs, abductions, and mystical experiences. Must not these same effects, virtually identical from one phenomenon to another, spring from a common cause? In fact, taken together with psi, these phenomena complement one another, and their inherent associations strengthen the case for an extra-dimensional reality of space, time, and consciousness. How can there not be striking similarities and endless parallels among them?
Still, those who have experienced these phenomena will share one last thing in common. Their accounts will be dismissed by mainstream science. These things cannot happen in reality as we know it—therefore, they don't happen, even though these reports come from millions upon millions of normal, competent observers whose testimonies would be unquestionably accepted in a court of law, if it were on any other matter. How strange it should be so. In the next chapter, we'll see that the observations of normal, competent observers are an inseparable component of reality.