Near Death Experiences

Mankind often asks why are we here? Why do the things that happen on this planet, happen? What's the purpose of life? Stories of Near
Death Experiences give us a glimpse into our transcendent nature; we are more than our bodies and egos; we are spiritual beings having
a human experience. Some of the stories cannot be explained away by science, as in the case of a blind woman being able to see what
was going on while floating out of her body during her surgery, and seeing her surgeon's gold pen rolling on the floor, and afterwards
describing it in detail to her astonished surgeon.

In most of the ADCS (after death communication) and Near Death Experiences the universal message is we are here to learn
unconditional love and to have different experiences in life; love one of the main purposes of our existence is the only thing we take with us
when we discard our physical bodies upon death. I find it fascinating that no matter what religious, spiritual or cultural path the NDE
experiencer is on, or whether the experiencer is an atheist, the universal  message of love is always the same.

I am sharing links  to  Near Death Experience stories from Kevin William's website.   He has a mission and passion in bringing awareness
to other's of the survival of the spirit and the message that Near Death Experience bring to all of us.

Death is not extinguishing the light;
it is putting out the lamp
because the dawn has come.

Rabindranath Tagore


Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is
necessary before you can meet again.

And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes,
is certain for those who are friends.

Richard Bach


“Life is a great sunrise.
I do not see why death
should not be an even greater one.”

Vladimir Nobokov


“Whoever brought me here
will have to take me home.”

Rumi
Near Death Awakening—Mellen-Thomas Benedict
                         Into the Light
I woke  up about 4:30 am and I knew that this was it. I was going to die.

I called a few friends and said good-bye. I woke up Anne and made  her
promise that my dead body would remain undisturbed for six hours, since I
had read that all kinds of interesting things happen when you die. I went
back to sleep. The next thing I remember, I was fully aware and standing
up. Yet my body was lying in the bed. I seemed to be surrounded by
darkness, yet I could see every room in the house, and the roof, and even
under the house.

A Light shone. I turned toward it, and was aware of its similarity to what
others have described in near-death experiences. It was magnificent and
tangible, alluring. I wanted to go towards that Light like I might want to go
into my ideal mother's or father's arms.

As I moved towards the Light, I knew that if I went into the Light, I would be
dead. So I said/felt, 'Please wait. I would like to talk to you before I go.'

The entire experience halted. I discovered that I was in control of the
experience. My request was honored. I had conversations with the Light.
That's the best way I can describe it. The Light changed into different
figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, archetypal images and signs. I asked in
a kind of telepathy, 'What is going on here?'

The information transmitted was that our beliefs shape the kind of feedback
we receive. If you are a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a
feedback loop of your own images. I became aware of a Higher Self matrix,
a conduit to the Source. We all have a Higher Self, or an oversoul part of
our being, a conduit. All Higher Selves are connected as one being. All
humans are connected as one being.

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was like all the love
you've ever wanted, and it was the kind of love that cures, heals,
regenerates. I was ready to go at that time. I said 'I am ready, take me.'
Then the Light turned into the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen: a
mandala of human souls on this planet. I saw that we are the most beautiful
creations—elegant, exotic...everything.

I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human
beings in an instant. I said/thought/felt, 'Oh, God, I didn't realize.' I was
astonished to find that there was no evil in any soul. People may do terrible
things out of ignorance and lack, but no soul is evil. 'What all people seek—
what sustains them—is love,' the Light told me. 'What distorts people is a
lack of love.'

The revelations went on and on. I asked, 'Does this mean that Humankind
will be saved?' Like a trumpet blast with a shower of spiraling lights, the
Light 'spoke,' saying, 'You save, redeem and heal yourself. You always have
and always will. You were created with the power to do so from before the
beginning of the world.' In that instant I realized that we have already been
saved.

I thanked the Light of God with all my heart. The best thing I could come
up with was: 'Oh dear God, dear Universe, dear Great Self, I love my Life.'
The Light seemed to breathe me in even more deeply, absorbing me. I
entered into another realm more profound than the last, and was aware of
an enormous stream of Light, vast and full, deep. I asked what it was. The
Light answered, 'This is the River of Life. Drink of this manna water to your
heart's content.' I drank deeply, in ecstasy.
                                 The Light of Love

    I was never told that I had to come back. I just knew that I would. It
    was only natural, from what I had seen. As I began my return to
    the life cycle, it never crossed my mind, nor was I told, that I
    would return to the same body. It did not matter. I had complete
    trust in the Light and the Life process.

    As the stream merged with the great Light, I asked never to forget
    the revelations and the feelings of what I had learned on the other
    side. I thought of myself as a human again and I was happy to be
    that. From what I have seen, I would be happy to be an atom in
    this universe. An atom. So to be the human part of God ...this is
    the most fantastic blessing. It is a blessing beyond our wildest
    imagination of what a blessing can be.

    For each and every one of us to be the human part of this
    experience is awesome, and magnificent. Each and every one of
    us, no matter where we are, screwed up or not, is a blessing to the
    planet, right where we are. So I went through the reincarnation
    process expecting to be a baby somewhere.

    But I reincarnated back into this body. I was so surprised when I
    opened my eyes, to be back in this body, back in my room with
    someone looking over me, crying her eyes out. It was Anne, my
    hospice caretaker. She had found me dead thirty minutes before.
    We do not know how long I was dead, only that she found me
    thirty minutes before. She had honored my wish to have my newly-
    dead body left alone. She can verify that I really was dead.

    It was not a near-death experience. I believe I probably
    experienced death itself for at least an hour and a half. When I
    awakened and saw the light outside, confused, I tried to get up to
    go to it, but I fell out of the bed. She heard a loud 'clunk', ran in,
    and found me on the floor. When I recovered, I was surprised and
    awed about what had happened. I had no memory at first of the
    experience. I kept slipping out of this world and kept asking, 'Am I
    alive?' This world seemed more like a dream than that one.

    Within three days, I was feeling normal again, clearer, yet
    different than ever before. My memories of the journey came back
    later. But from my return I could find nothing wrong with any
    human being I had ever seen. Previous to my death I was
    judgmental, believing that people were really screwed up.
    Everyone but me.

    About three months later a friend said I should get tested for the
    cancer. So I got the scans and so forth. I felt healthy. I still
    remember the doctor at the clinic looking at the 'before' and
    'after'scans. He said, 'I can find no sign of cancer now.' 'A
    miracle?' I asked. 'No,' he answered. 'These things happen...
    spontaneous remission.' He seemed unimpressed. But I was
    impressed. I knew it was a miracle.
              Lessons Learned

I  asked God: 'What is the best religion on the planet? Which one is right?' God said
with great love: 'It doesn't matter.' What an incredible grace. It does not matter what
religion we are. Religions come and they go. They change. Buddhism has not been
here forever, Catholicism has not been here forever, and they are all about to become
more enlightened. More light is coming into all systems now. Many will resist and fight
about it, one religion against the next, believing that only they are right.

When God said, 'It doesn't matter,' I understood that it is for us to care about, because
we are the caring beings. The Source does not care if you are Protestant, Buddhist, or
Jew. Each is a reflection, a facet of the whole. I wish that all religions would realize it
and let each other be. It is not the end of separate religions, but live and let live. Each
has a different view, and it all adds up to the big picture.

I went over to the other side with a lot of fears about toxic waste, nuclear missiles, the
population explosion, the rain forest. I came back loving every single problem. I love
nuclear waste. I love the mushroom cloud; this is the holiest mandala that we have
manifested to date, as an archetype. More than any religion or philosophy on Earth,
that terrible, wonderful cloud brought us together all of a sudden, to a new level of
consciousness.
    Knowing that maybe we can blow up the planet fifty times, or 500 times, we finally realize that maybe we are all here together now.
    For a period they had to keep setting off more bombs to get it into us. Then we started saying, 'we do not need this any more.' Now
    we are actually in a safer world than we have ever been in, and it is going to get safer.

    So I came back loving toxic waste, because it brought us together. These things are so big. Clearing of the rain forest will slow
    down, and in fifty years there will be more trees on the planet than in a long time. If you are into ecology, go for it; you are that part of
    the system that is becoming aware. Go for it with all your might, but do not be depressed or disheartened. Earth is in the process of
    domesticating itself, and we are cells on that Body. Population increase is getting very close to the optimal range of energy to cause
    a shift in consciousness. That shift in consciousness will change politics, money, energy.

    The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The Universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our
    hearts are the wiser part of ourselves. Since my return I have experienced the Light spontaneously. I have learned how to get to that
    space almost any time in my meditation. You can also do this. You don't have to die first. You are wired for it already. The body is the
    most magnificent Light being there is. The body is a universe of incredible Light. We don't need to commune with God; God is
    already communing with us in every moment!

    Click for Mellen-Thomas Benedict's personal website:   www.mellen-thomas.com
           The Road to Death

In 1982, I died from terminal cancer. My condition was
non-operable. I chose not to have chemotherapy. I was
given six to eight months to live. Before this time, I had
become increasingly despondent over the nuclear
crisis, the ecology crisis, and so forth. I came to believe
that nature had made a mistake—that we were
probably a cancerous organism on the planet. And that
is what eventually killed me.

Before my near-death experience, I tried all sorts of
alternative healing methods. None helped. So I
determined that this was between me and God. I had
never really considered God. Neither was I into any
kind of spirituality. But my approaching death sent me
on a quest for more information about spirituality and
alternative healing. I read various religions and
philosophies. They gave hope that there was
something on the other side.

I had no medical insurance, so my life savings went
overnight on tests. Unwilling to drag my family into this,
I determined to handle this myself. I ended up in
hospice care and was blessed with an angel for my
hospice caretaker, whom I will call 'Anne.' She stayed
with me through all that was to follow
     The Void of Nothingness

    Suddenly I seemed to be rocketing away from the planet on
    this stream of Life. I saw the earth fly away. The solar system
    whizzed by and disappeared. I flew through the center of the
    galaxy, absorbing more knowledge as I went.

    I learned that this galaxy—and the entire Universe—is bursting
    with many different varieties of life. I saw many worlds.

    We are not alone in this Universe. It seemed as if all the
    creations in the Universe soared past me and vanished in a
    speck of Light.

    Then a second Light appeared. As I passed into the second
    Light, I could perceive forever, beyond Infinity. I was in the Void,
    pre-Creation, the beginning of time.

    I rested in the Eye of Creation and it seemed that I touched the
    Face of God. It was not a religious feeling. I was simply at One
    with Absolute Life and Consciousness.

    I rode the stream directly into the center of the Light. I felt
    embraced by the Light as it took me in with its breath again.
    And the truth was obvious that there is no death; that nothing is born and nothing dies; that we are immortal beings, part of a natural
    living system that recycles itself endlessly.

    It would take me years to assimilate the Void experience. It was less than nothing, yet greater than anything. Creation is God
    exploring God's Self through every way imaginable. Through every piece of hair on your head, through every leaf on every tree,
    through every atom. God is exploring God's Self. I saw everything as the Self of all. God is here. That's what it is all about. Everything
    is made of light; everything is alive.