Sue D’s NDE describes an awareness of her Dad’s heart attack in the US during her NDE at age 18 while living in France:
I came out of my body. I could see the family around my bed crying. I was sucked into a tunnel that was incredibly noisy, and was shot out into the Light— the golden Light. Then somebody spoke to me in a loud voice. It was my Dad. He said I had to go back because ‘my mission wasn’t over yet.’ I fell back into my body in the bed with a great sadness… The next morning, I found out my Dad was in the ICU and had had a massive heart attack.25
#8: 360 Degree Vision
Gillian’s NDE: I recall no limits on perception—no binocular vision, but panoramic/spherical/360. It’s hard to describe.26
#9: Acute Vision
Marta G’s NDE: I saw detail I would never have seen in “real” life. I could go anywhere, even to the tops of trees, by simply intending to do so. I went out to the dock where the big kids dove off and was surprised to find it empty. I traveled around the lake to view people’s back yards, their pets, their sheds, lawn furniture, etc. Later, I walked around the lake into people’s back yards looking for specific unusual things I recalled and they were there! I also saw a woman with red hair sticking out from under her bathing cap with white daisies and yellow centers, wearing a black and white bathing suit with a large mole above the strap on her back resuscitating me. I later verified it was she who did so and that was what she was wearing. I was legally blind and for the first time saw leaves on trees, bird’s feathers, bird’s eyes, details on telephone poles and in people’s back yards that were far more acute than 20/20 vision.27
#10: Movement of Spiritual Self Caused by Thought
Jeff’s probable NDE: I became aware I could move around just by thinking about it.28
#11: Increased Intelligence
Barbara E’s NDE: As I settled into the love without condition, I realized more and more how utterly and absolutely intelligent Light was. The sheer level of creativity and intellect was emotionally and psychologically beyond comprehension. I knew that because Light was telepathically melded with me, allowing me to sense at least a minute degree of what was contained within. There was so much thought and information it felt as if zillions of scrolls of data about the true nature of reality just kept unraveling. I was lost and overwhelmed and had no comprehension of what it all meant. Yet, the central message came through loud and clear. Reality is SO much larger, multi-layered and multi-dimensional than we realize. Consciousness is able to experience so much more than what we commonly practice.29
Carmel B’s NDE: Knowledge came in suddenly, from everywhere. The easiest way again to explain is that I was a computer user going into the main frame. My thoughts were much faster and much clearer. My IQ would have been doubled I believe. So not only could I think faster and clearer, I could tolerate knowing more and being told more at the same time.30
#12: Telepathic Ability
One of the most common abilities described by the Dead Saints is telepathy:
Alan M’s NDE: I was met by a being of pure Light, not a human form, but pure point of Light, who communicated with me mind to mind, via some form of telepathy.31
Gillian’s NDE: Communication was non-verbal and instantaneous. It involved relaying entire occurrences, concepts, and events with associated emotions, not just words and sentences.32
Death Element #5: A Black Void or Dark Space
Henry Vaughan, a 17th Century Christian Poet in his Poem, The Night, describes finding darkness in God, “There is in God (some say) a deep, but dazzling darkness.”33 The Bible in Job 10:21 says of this darkness, “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.” Psalm 23:4 describes the darkness we may pass through when we die, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
There are hundreds of testimonials from the Dead Saints that describe this initial voyage into the Kingdom of Heaven:
Eben Alexander in his book, Proof of Heaven, describes the first phase of his death experience: Pitch black as it was, it was also brimming with Light.34
Other Dead Saints say the black void is comforting:
Sheila EP’s NDE: I clearly remember experiencing complete comfort; of being totally free from any sort of pain or feelings of bodily sensations at all. I’ve explained to people many times —that if you could think of your most enjoyable bodily sensation of any time; sex, massage, runner’s high, anything pleasurable that has ever been experienced from within your physical body, it could not compare to the experience of total comfort during that state of blackness.35
Other Dead Saints describe they were wrapped in a calming, peaceful velvet blanket, but more importantly, God was in the black void:
Priscilla O’s NDE: I knew right away I had died. It was pitch black, like a total void, and I felt wonderful. I felt so good, I had no pain. I felt light, and as if I had no body. I knew God, or some higher power was there.36
What is the void? It has been described as a “nilism” of black space (not really black, but appears that way) that separates our physical body on the Earth from the Realms of Light through a mechanism called the veil.
Death Element #6: Encountering a Veil
What is the veil? The veil appears to be a thin bubble-thin-like partition separating the physical realm of Earth from the Realms of Light and darkness we know as—Heaven. Sometimes the veil is seen as a tear in the fabric of the black void. Evidently, spirits in Heaven can see through the veil and observe events on the Earth, but we cannot see through it and see events happening in Heaven.37
Reina Ji observed: I see a line of people going through a dark tear in the fabric of the void and a man stares at me. In fact, there are other people milling about on the “floor” who have very puzzled looks on their faces, which are slightly blurred to me. I am puzzled too. I want to go where the other people are going, but again, I am told it is not my time.38
Terry sees the veil as a layer similar to a two-way mirror: Where I was, it was dark. I was aware there was a layer between me and the scene below, like a two-way mirror, and another opaque layer about ten feet or so above me. Everything between these two layers seemed infinite.39
Barbara describes the veil to be made of a gray semi-sheer twinkling, sparkling illuminated foreign material:
After what seemed to be only a few minutes, an unseen force pulled me from the waiting room into the main part of the tunnel. The main tunnel wasn’t as dark as the waiting room and I could see a shimmering shiny veil, which separated me from a boy on one side and an elderly man on the other. The veil was made out of a gray semi sheer twinkling, sparkling illuminated foreign material. My attention was drawn to this veil for most of my journey through this tunnel. I felt mesmerized by it.40
Dying Element # 7: Traveling through a Tunnel
A NDERF survey asked, “Did you pass into or through a tunnel or enclosure?” Of NDERs surveyed, 33.8 percent answered “Yes.”41 In the next phase of dying, the Dead Saint must pass through a tunnel. Not all Saints experience a tunnel. Hindus and Thai Saints, who often, instead, describe bridges or rivers as they cross into the Light, rarely report tunnels.
However, Western Dead Saint testimonials, overwhelmingly describe high-speed transportation through a tunnel before reaching a brilliant Light. The tunnel experience usually follows in sequence when Saints finds themselves out-of-body, or in the Black Void. Their description of the tunnel is remarkably similar to the imaginative wormholes created in the television series Stargate and Contact. The wormhole is not a transportation method between stars, but a spiritual highway between inter-dimensional realms of the Black Void and the Realms of Light and Heaven.
The interior of the tunnel is described in various colors, lengths, widths, and geometries, but often begins as the Dead Saint departs out
of the Black Void. Sometimes, as the Saints would begin the high speed journey through the tunnel, they would experience the lower tunnel realms as “dark and grey,” where spirits of the Dead gather in a holding room, preparing to move on to their next destination through the tunnel.
Above the holding room, the Dead Saints from time to time, will pass through a grey zone, a realm of lost souls, who might distract the speeding spirit passing through at light speed. Invisible and Light Beings, or deceased relatives, often referred to as “soul gatherers,” assist the dying person as they pass through the tunnel, warning them to keep their eyes straight ahead, and focus on reaching the Light.
Occasionally, the Dead Saint sees images on the walls of the tunnel, beginning to play out his Life Review before reaching the Light at the end of the tunnel. Alan describes a tunnel with two ends—one end leading to Light and the other end terminating in the black void:
I was told one end of this tunnel led to the Light and the other into the dark void. It was explained to me, by this Being of Light, this tunnel had two ends; one into the glorious Light of God, and the other into the darkness of the void.42
According to Isabelle, there are rules to traveling through the tunnel:
Then, I was in a dark tunnel. The now “proverbial” Light was at the end of the tunnel, and I was moving toward it. I sensed beings in the darkness surrounding the tunnel. They were crying out to me in anguish. I recognized two of them. They were begging me to help them. I felt so powerful, invincible, that I moved toward them to grab their hands and bring them out of the dark and into the tunnel. A voice told me sternly not to do that. He said, (yes, it was a “he”) ‘There were rules, and I didn’t know them.’
I could not take people out of the darkness, but they could drag me into it. He said to keep going straight ahead and that I knew nothing about anything, and shouldn’t presume I did or I could get into trouble. I reached the precipice at the end of the tunnel. There were spherical lights as far as I could see. Inside the spheres were searing bright white lines that reminded me of the filaments of an electric light bulb. I remember distinctly thinking I had to find something earthly to compare the insides of the spheres to in case I ever had the chance to tell anyone, and I settled on the filaments inside a light bulb.43
Malla sees multiple tunnels as transition ports for birth and death:
For a moment, with my perception enhanced, I was able to view a large part of the European continent all at once. I noticed that there were portals all across the Earth. They were shaped like large transparent circles and they were popping up all over. I knew that these portals were here to let people travel from the physical life to the spirit life and from the spirit life, back to Earth. I knew that when we go through the transition of death that we go through these portals. When we are about to be born to the Earth, these portals are the gates to new life.44
We learn more and more about the details of the Afterlife by piecing together each Dead Saint experience concerning the process of passing over. In this case, Terri describes two tunnels, one blue for two-way traffic between Heaven and Earth and a white tunnel, for one-way traffic to Heaven. Here deceased friends and counselors help them through to their next experience, or if it was not yet their time to die, redirect them back towards Earth:
I found myself in a blue tunnel...Eventually, I could see in the distance a point that was a hive of tremendous activity. At this point, the blue tunnel turned into the white tunnel, a very clear line of transition. It was impossible to see into the white tunnel, as there was so much Light pouring out from it. There was also a tremendous feeling of love emanating from this source, and a kind of instant knowledge. You just knew it. The blue tunnel could accommodate two-way traffic, whereas the white tunnel was one way for souls leaving the Earth plane. Once you crossed over into the white tunnel, there was no going back.
The Light from this tunnel was so bright that under normal circumstances it would have been blinding, but here it was warm, safe and full of love. As I got closer to the transition point between the blue and white tunnels, the activity became clearer. I could clearly see many, many souls on both sides of the transition point. There were quite a few souls, like myself, coming from the Earth plane. All of these souls were being met by groups of souls who had come from the white tunnel. It was like each soul had its own entourage of souls from the other side to meet them. Some were being welcomed with open arms and carefully guided through the transition point and into the wonderful Light of the white tunnel; some were being greeted with discussions, and some were being turned back toward the Earth plane.45
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Rhea describes arriving at the proverbial Light at the end of the tunnel:
In an instant, I was in a tunnel with a bright Light at the end. I distinctly remember I wasn’t moving my feet and wondering how I could be advancing through the tunnel. When I got to the end of the tunnel there was a man in an all-white tunic awaiting me. He never had to speak physically, but I could hear Him and He could hear me he took me by the hand and we walked. I knew Him although I had never seen Him. He loved me, I loved Him and I felt safe with Him.46
Death Element #8: The Grand Central Station of Death
The transition to the Afterlife often happens so quickly the soul is often unaware of the change from the physical dimension to another spiritual dimension—primarily because the Body of Light has all of the acute subtler senses you had on Earth—in essence you feel the same…but different. Some souls are conscious of the transition, while many others are not. Some cross over awake and aware of the change in dimension, while others “sleep in the blackness,” waiting to be awakened, and yet others outright reject they are even dead. George Ritchie, an army private who had a remarkable NDE in 1943, comments:
One of the places we observed deep within this realm seemed to be a receiving station. Beings would arrive here oftentimes in a deep hypnotic sleep. I call it hypnotic because I realized they had put themselves in this state by their beliefs.47
You get the sense from some of the commentary given by the Dead Saints that the recently deceased go through a spiritual processing center with counselors and angels to guide souls through the next realm in Heaven, much like one would find at Grand Central Station in New York City. It is a busy place with lots of commotion and many people— where the crowds of dead humanity are processed like any port entrance to a foreign country. Those who are unwilling to accept their death receive counseling. Some are sent back to Earth because it is not their time. The Grand Central Station observed by Jill is managed by a hotel concierge, a sort of a “passport” control who directs the deceased through to the next realm of Heaven:
I was floating down a large hallway, maybe 20x20. There were people there, but I didn’t recognize anyone, fading in and out of the cloud walls. I seemed to be floating over the heads of a LOT of people on a level right below me. They were all in white and seemed to be content—I think these were Mormons. As I floated along, I remember one man in particular who was standing off to the left in a bend in the hallway. I asked him where was I? And he kind of chuckled and said, ‘Just keep going. Go on down to the front.’
So I did. When I got to the end of the hallway, I met a guy that looked like a concierge in a hotel, working behind a desk. He looked up at me with a rather perturbed expression on his face, and he thought, ‘What are you doing here?’
I said, ‘I don’t know; I’m just here. This is where the people back there, pointing over my shoulder to those hanging out, told me to come.’
He shrugged, furrowed his brow, and thought, ‘Well, wait a minute. Let me check something.’
While he was checking, I looked behind him and realized we weren’t in a tunnel at all; we were in a cave and he was at the entrance. Behind him was a beautiful landscape, a hillside with sparkling trees and flowers and a brook-the most beautiful, peaceful place I had ever
seen.
…And the next thing I knew I was back outside the gold tunnel. As I was being repelled from the cloud, I could hear the “clerk” say, ‘Don’t worry.’ I hoped he meant, ‘Don’t worry. You can come back.’48
Catholic theologians in the Middle-Ages referred to this “place of rest before Heaven” as Purgatory. Their doctrine holds that unbaptized but innocent souls, such as those of infants, virtuous individuals who lived before Jesus Christ was born on Earth, or those who die before baptism, must wait before going to Heaven. They are not subjected to any punishment because they are not guilty of any personal sin. Although they have not received baptism, they still bear original sin. In other Christian denominations, it has been described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion and neglect. Catholics believe all who die in God’s grace, while unpurified, are assured of eternal salvation, but after death undergo purification, to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven. The tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a “cleansing fire” although it is not always called Purgatory.
Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to this belief. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in an intermediate state between death and the rebirth of the dead and in the possibility of “continuing to grow in holiness there,” but Methodism does not officially affirm this belief and denies the possibility of help by prayer for any who may be in that state.
From my research, there appears to be a cleansing from all that is impure after we are processed through a Purgatorial in-between state that I refer to as the Grand Central Station of Death. The cleansing of impurities, sins and habits we gained from our Earth University experience occur when we don the Body of Light (See chapter 16) created for us by God so we can move forward onto Heaven. This place of waiting or rest is certainly verified by the Dead Saints, however, the place is not devoid of Christians, but is a processing center for all who have just died.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 20
