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Mellen-Thomas
Benedict's near-death experience
Mellen-Thomas Benedict
is an artist who survived a near-death
experience in 1982. He was dead for over an
hour and a half after dying of cancer. At the
time of his death, he rose up out of his body
and went into the light. Curious about the
universe, he was taken far into the remote
depths of existence, and even beyond, into the
energetic void of nothingness behind the Big
Bang. During his experience, he was able to
learn a great deal of information concerning
reincarnation. Because of his near-death
experience, he was able to bring back
scientific discoveries. Mr. Benedict has been
closely involved in the mechanics of cellular
communication and research dealing with the
relationship of light to life called Quantum
Biology. This research is providing dramatic
new perspectives on how biological systems
work. Mr. Benedict has found that living cells
can respond very quickly to light stimulation
resulting in, among other things, high speed
healing. He is a researcher, inventor and
lecturer who holds six U.S. patents.
Mr. Benedict's NDE is reprinted here by the
permission of the author's Dr. Lee Worth
Bailey and Jenny Yates. Their excellent book
entitled
The Near-Death Experience: A Reader,
published by Routledge, New York, in 1996, is
highly recommended by the webmaster. A portion
of his near-death experience also appears in
P.M.H.
Atwater's
book,
Beyond the Light.
Concerning Mellen's near-death experience,
Dr. Ken Ring
remarked, "His story is one of the most
remarkable I have encountered in my extensive
research on near-death experiences."
_______________________________________________________________________
In 1982 I died from
terminal cancer. The condition I had was
inoperable, and any kind of chemotherapy they
could give me would just have made me more of
a vegetable. I was given six to eight months
to live. I had been an information freak in
the 1970's, and I had become increasingly
despondent over the nuclear crisis, the
ecology crisis, and so forth. So, since I did
not have a spiritual basis, I began to believe
that nature had made a mistake, and that we
were probably a cancerous organism on the
planet. I saw no way that we could get out
from all the problems we had created for
ourselves and the planet. I perceived all
humans as cancer, and that is what I got. That
is what killed me. Be careful what your world
view is. It can feed back on you, especially
if it is a negative world view. I had a
seriously negative one. That is what led me
into my death. I tried all sorts of
alternative healing methods, but nothing
helped.
So I determined
that this was really just between me and God.
I had never really faced God before, or even
dealt with God. I was not into any kind of
spirituality at the time, but I began a
journey into learning about spirituality and
alternative healing. I set out to do all the
reading I could and bone up on the subject,
because I did not want to be surprised on the
other side. So I started reading on various
religions and philosophies. They were all very
interesting, and gave hope that there was
something on the other side.
On the other hand,
as a self-employed stained-glass artist at the
time, I had no medical insurance whatsoever.
So my life savings went overnight in testing.
Then I was facing the medical profession
without any kind of insurance. I did not want
to have my family dragged down financially, so
I determined to handle this myself. There was
not constant pain, but there were black-outs.
I got so that I would not dare to drive, and
eventually I ended up in hospice care. I had
my own personal hospice caretaker. I was very
blessed by this angel who went through the
last part of this with me. I lasted about
eighteen months. I did not want to take a lot
of drugs, since I wanted to be as conscious as
possible. Then I experienced such pain that I
had nothing but pain in my consciousness,
luckily only for a few days at a time.
I remember waking
up one morning at home about 4:30 am, and I
just knew that this was it. This was the day I
was going to die. So I called a few friends
and said goodbye. I woke up my hospice
caretaker and told her. I had a private
agreement with her that she would leave my
dead body alone 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 is the beginning of a
typical near-death experience. Suddenly I was
fully aware and I was standing up, but my body
was in the bed. There was this darkness around
me. Being out of my body was even more vivid
than ordinary experience. It was so vivid that
I could see every room in the house, I could
see the top of the house, I could see around
the house, I could see under the house.
There was this
light shining. I turned toward the light. The
light was very similar to what many other
people have described in their near-death
experiences. It was so magnificent. It is
tangible; you can feel it. It is alluring; you
want to go to it like you would want to go to
your ideal mother's or father's arms.
As I began to move
toward the light, I knew intuitively that if I
went to the light, I would be dead.
So as I was moving
toward the light I said, "Please wait a
minute, just hold on a second here. I want to
think about this; I would like to talk to you
before I go."
To my surprise, the
entire experience halted at that point. You
are indeed in control of your near-death
experience. You are not on a roller coaster
ride. So my request was honored and I had some
conversations with the light. The light kept
changing into different figures, like Jesus,
Buddha, Krishna,
mandalas,
archetypal images and signs.
I asked the light,
"What is going on here? Please, light, clarify
yourself for me. I really want to know the
reality of the situation."
I cannot really say
the exact words, because it was sort of
telepathy. The light responded. The
information transferred to me was that your
beliefs shape the kind of feedback you are
getting before the light. If you were a
Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you
get a feedback loop of your own stuff. You
have a chance to look at it and examine it,
but most people do not.
As the light
revealed itself to me, I became aware that
what I was really seeing was our Higher Self
matrix. The only thing I can tell you is that
it turned into a matrix, a mandala of human
souls, and what I saw was that what we call
our Higher Self in each of us is a matrix.
It's also a conduit to the Source; each one of
us comes directly, as a direct experience from
the Source. We all have a Higher Self, or an
oversoul part of our being. It revealed itself
to me in its truest energy form. The only way
I can really describe it is that the being of
the Higher Self is more like a conduit. It did
not look like that, but it is a direct
connection to the Source that each and every
one of us has. We are directly connected to
the Source.
So the light was
showing me the Higher Self matrix. And it
became very clear to me that all the Higher
Selves are connected as one being, all humans
are connected as one being, we are actually
the same being, different aspects of the same
being. It was not committed to one particular
religion. So that is what was being fed back
to me. And I saw this mandala of human souls.
It was the most beautiful thing I have ever
seen. I just went into it and, it was just
overwhelming. It was like all the love you've
every wanted, and it was the kind of love that
cures, heals, regenerates.
As I asked the
light to keep explaining, I understood what
the Higher Self matrix is. We have a grid
around the planet where all the Higher Selves
are connected. This is like a great company, a
next subtle level of energy around us, the
spirit level, you might say.
Then, after a
couple of minutes, I asked for more
clarification. I really wanted to know what
the universe is about, and 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.
Now I came to this
with my negative view of what has happened on
the planet. So as I asked the light to keep
clarifying for me, I saw in this magnificent
mandala how beautiful we all are in our
essence, our core. We are the most beautiful
creations. The human soul, the human matrix
that we all make together is absolutely
fantastic, elegant, exotic, everything. I just
cannot say enough about how it changed my
opinion of human beings in that instant.
I said, "Oh, God, I
did not know how beautiful we are."
At any level, high
or low, in whatever shape you are in, you are
the most beautiful creation, you are.
I was astonished to
find that there was no evil in any soul.
I said, "How can
this be?"
The answer was that
no soul was inherently evil. The terrible
things that happened to people might make them
do evil things, but their souls were not evil.
What all people seek, what sustains them, is
love, the light told me. What distorts people
is a lack of love.
The revelations
coming from the light seemed to go on and on,
then I asked the light, "Does this mean that
humankind will be saved?"
Then, like a
trumpet blast with a shower of spiraling
lights, the Great Light spoke, saying,
"Remember this and never forget; you save,
redeem and heal yourself. You always have. You
always will. You were created with the power
to do so from before the beginning of the
world."
In that instant I
realized even more. I realized that WE HAVE
ALREADY BEEN SAVED, and we saved ourselves
because we were designed to self-correct like
the rest of God's universe. This is what the
second coming is about.
I thanked the light
of God with all my heart. The best thing I
could come up with was these simple words of
totally appreciation:
"Oh dear God, dear
Universe, dear Great Self, I love my life."
The light seemed to
breathe me in even more deeply. It was as if
the light was completely absorbing me. The
love light is, to this day, indescribable. I
entered into another realm, more profound than
the last, and became aware of something more,
much more. It was an enormous stream of light,
vast and full, deep in the heart of life. I
asked what this was.
The light
responded, "This is the RIVER OF LIFE. Drink
of this manna water to your heart's content."
So I did. I took
one big drink and then another. To drink of
life Itself! I was in ecstasy.
Then the light
said, "You have a desire."
The light knew all
about me, everything past, present and future.
"Yes!" I whispered.
I asked to see the
rest of the universe; beyond our solar system,
beyond all human illusion. The light then told
me that I could go with the Stream. I did, and
was carried through the light at the end of
the tunnel. I felt and heard a series of very
soft sonic booms. What a rush!
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! All creation
passed by me. It was an unimaginable wonder! I
truly was a wonder child; a babe in
Wonderland!
It seemed as if all
the creations in the universe soared by me and
vanished in a speck of light. Almost
immediately, a second light appeared. It came
from all sides, and was so different; a light
made up of more than every frequency in the
universe.
I felt and heard
several velvety sonic booms again. My
consciousness, or being, was expanding to
interface with the entire holographic universe
and more.
As I passed into
the second light, the awareness came to me
that I had just transcended the truth. Those
are the best words I have for it, but I will
try to explain. As I passed into the second
light, I expanded beyond the first light. I
found myself in a profound stillness, beyond
all silence. I could see or perceive FOREVER,
beyond infinity. I was in the void. I was in
pre-creation, before the Big Bang. I had
crossed over the beginning of time - the first
word - the first vibration. I was in the eye
of creation. I felt as if I was touching the
face of God. It was not a religious feeling.
Simply I was at one with absolute life and
consciousness.
When I say that I
could see or perceive forever, I mean that I
could experience all of creation generating
itself. It was without beginning and without
end. That's a mind-expanding thought, isn't
it? Scientists perceive the Big Bang as a
single event which created the universe. I saw
that 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.
The ancients knew
of this. They said Godhead periodically
created new universes by breathing out, and
de-creating other universes by breathing in.
These epochs were called yugas. Modern science
called this the Big Bang. I was in absolute,
pure consciousness. I could see or perceive
all the Big Bangs or yugas creating and
de-creating themselves. Instantly I entered
into them all simultaneously. I saw that each
and every little piece of creation has the
power to create. It is very difficult to try
to explain this. I am still speechless about
this.
It took me years
after I returned to assimilate any words at
all for the void experience. I can tell you
this now; the void is less than nothing, yet
more than everything that is! The void is
absolute zero; chaos forming all
possibilities. It is absolute consciousness;
much more than even universal intelligence.
Where is the void?
I know. The void is inside and outside
everything. You, right now even while you
live, are always inside and outside the void
simultaneously. You don't have to go anywhere
or die to get there. The void is the vacuum or
nothingness between all physical
manifestations. The SPACE between atoms and
their components. Modern science has begun to
study this space between everything. They call
it
zero-point.
Whenever they try to measure it, their
instruments go off the scale, or to infinity,
so to speak. They have no way, as of yet, to
measure infinity accurately. There is more of
the zero space in your own body and the
universe than anything else!
What mystics call
the void is not a void. It is so full of
energy, a different kind of energy that has
created everything that we are. Everything
since the Big Bang is vibration, from the
first word, which is the first vibration.
The Biblical "I am"
really has a question mark after it.
"I am? What am I?"
So creation is God
exploring God's Self through every way
imaginable, in an ongoing, infinite
exploration through every one of us. Through
every piece of hair on your head, through
every leaf on every tree, through every atom,
God is exploring God's Self, the great "I am".
I began to see that everything that is, is the
Self, literally, your Self, my Self.
Everything is the great Self. That is why God
knows even when a leaf falls. That is possible
because wherever you are is the center of the
universe. Wherever any atom is, that is the
center of the universe. There is God in that,
and God in the void.
As I was exploring
the void and all the yugas or creations, I was
completely out of time and space as we know
it. In this expanded state, I discovered that
creation is about absolute pure consciousness,
or God, coming into the experience of life as
we know it. The void itself is devoid of
experience. It is pre-life, before the first
vibration. Godhead is about more than life and
death. Therefore there is even more than life
and death to experience in the universe!
I was in the void
and I was aware of everything that had ever
been created. It was like I was looking out of
God's eyes. I had become God. Suddenly I
wasn't me anymore. The only thing I can say, I
was looking out of God's eyes. And suddenly I
knew why every atom was, and I could see
everything.
The interesting
point was that I went into the void, I came
back with this understanding that God is not
there. God is here. That's what it is all
about. So this constant search of the human
race to go out and find God ... God gave
everything to us, everything is
here - this is where it's at. And what we are
into now is God's exploration of God through
us. People are so busy trying to become God
that they ought to realize that we are already
God and God is becoming us. That's what it is
really about.
When I realized
this, I was finished with the void, and wanted
to return to this creation, or yuga. It just
seemed like the natural thing to do.
Then I suddenly
came back through the second light, or the Big
Bang, hearing several more velvet booms. I
rode the stream of consciousness back through
all of creation, and what a ride it was! The
superclusters of galaxies came through me with
even more insights. I passed through the
center of our galaxy, which is a black hole.
Black holes are the great processors or
recyclers of the universe. Do you know what is
on the other side of a black hole? We are; our
galaxy; which has been reprocessed from
another universe.
In its total energy
configuration, the galaxy looked like a
fantastic city of lights. All energy this side
of the Big Bang is light. Every sub-atom,
atom, star, planet, even consciousness itself
is made of light and has a frequency and/or
particle. Light is living stuff. Everything is
made of light, even stones. So everything is
alive. Everything is made from the light of
God; everything is very intelligent.
As I rode the
stream on and on, I could eventually see a
huge light coming. I knew it was the first
light; the Higher Self light matrix of our
solar system. Then the entire solar system
appeared in the light, accompanied by one of
those velvet booms.
I saw that the
solar system we live in is our larger, local
body. This is our local body and we are much
bigger than we imagine. I saw that the solar
system is our body. I am a part of this, and
the earth is this great created being that we
are, and we are the part of it that knows that
it is. But we are only that part of it. We are
not everything, but we are that part of it
that knows that it is.
I could see all the
energy that this solar system generates, and
it is an incredible light show! I could hear
the
music of the spheres.
Our solar system, as do all celestial bodies,
generates a unique matrix of light, sound and
vibratory energies. Advanced civilizations
from other star systems can spot life as we
know it in the universe by the vibratory or
energy matrix imprint. It is child's play. The
earth's wonder child (human beings)
make an abundance of sound right now, like
children playing in the backyard of the
universe.
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, followed by another soft
sonic boom.
I was in this great
light of love with the stream of life flowing
through me. I have to say again, it is the
most loving, non-judgmental light. It is the
ideal parent for this wonder child.
"What now?" I
wondered.
The light explained
to me that there is no death; we are immortal
beings. We have already been alive forever! I
realized that we are part of a natural living
system that recycles itself endlessly. 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.
I don't know how
long I was with the light, in human time. But
there came a moment when I realized that all
my questions had been answered and my return
was near. When I say that all my questions
were answered on the other side, I mean to say
just that. All my questions have been
answered. Every human has a different life and
set of questions to explore. Some of our
questions are universal, but each of us is
exploring this thing we call life in our own
unique way. So is every other form of life,
from mountains to every leaf on every tree.
And that is very
important to the rest of us in this universe.
Because it all contributes to the Big Picture,
the fullness of life. We are literally God
exploring God's Self in an infinite Dance of
Life. Your uniqueness enhances all of life.
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 just 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.
There was a "Yes."
It felt like a kiss to my soul.
Then I was taken
back through the light into the vibratory
realm again. The whole process reversed, with
even more information being given to me. I
came back home, and I was given lessons on the
mechanics of reincarnation. I was given
answers to all those little questions I had:
"How does this
work? How does that work?" I knew that I would
be reincarnated.
The earth is a
great processor of energy, and individual
consciousness evolves out of that into each
one of us. I thought of myself as a human for
the first time, 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 estimation of what 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 was given a lesson on
how individual identity and consciousness
evolve. So I reincarnated back into this body.
I was so surprised
when I opened my eyes. I do not know why,
because I understood it, but it was still such
a surprise to be back in this body, back in my
room with someone looking over me crying her
eyes out. It was my hospice caretaker. She had
given up an hour and a half after finding me
dead. She was sure I was dead; all the signs
of death were there - I was getting stiff. We
do not know how long I was dead, but we do
know that it was an hour and a half since I
was found. She honored my wish to have my
newly dead body left alone for a few hours as
much as she could. We had an amplified
stethoscope and many ways of checking out the
vital functions of the body to see what was
happening. She can verify that I really was
dead.
It was not a
near-death experience. I experienced death
itself for at least an hour and a half. She
found me dead and checked the stethoscope,
blood pressure and heart rate monitor for an
hour and a half. Then I awakened and saw the
light outside. 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 very surprised and yet very awed about
what had happened to me. At first all the
memory of the trip that I have now was not
there. 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 I had ever felt in my life. My
memory of the journey came back later. I could
see nothing wrong with any human being I had
ever seen. Before that I was really
judgmental. I thought a lot of people were
really screwed up, in fact I thought that
everybody was screwed up but me. But I got
clear on all that.
About three months
later a friend said I should get tested, so I
went and got the scans and so forth. I really
felt good, so I was afraid of getting bad
news.
I remember the
doctor at the clinic looking at the before and
after scans, saying, "Well, there is nothing
here now."
I said, "Really, it
must be a miracle?"
He said, "No, these
things happen, they are called spontaneous
remission."
He acted very
unimpressed. But here was a miracle, and I was
impressed, even if no one else was.
The mystery of life
has very little to do with intelligence. The
universe is not an intellectual process at
all. The intellect is helpful; it is
brilliant, but right now that is all we
process with, instead of our hearts and the
wiser part of ourselves.
The center of the
earth is this great transmuter of energy, just
as you see in pictures of our earth's magnetic
field. That's our cycle, pulling reincarnated
souls back in and through it again. A sign
that you are reaching human level is that you
are beginning to evolve an individual
consciousness. The animals have a group soul,
and they reincarnate in group souls. A deer is
pretty much going to be a deer forever. But
just being born a human, whether deformed or
genius, shows that you are on the path to
developing an individual consciousness. That
is in itself part of the group consciousness
called humanity.
I saw that races
are personality clusters. Nations like France,
Germany and China each have their own
personality. Cities have personalities, their
local group souls that attract certain people.
Families have group souls. Individual identity
is evolving like branches of a fractal; the
group soul explores in our individuality. The
different questions that each of us has are
very, very important. This is how Godhead is
exploring God's Self - through you. So ask
your questions, do your searching. You will
find your Self and you will find God in that
Self, because it is only the Self.
More than that, I
began to see that each one of us humans are
soul mates.
We are part of the same soul
fractaling
out in many creative directions, but still the
same. Now I look at every human being that I
ever see, and I see a soul mate, my soul mate,
the one I have always been looking for. Beyond
that, the greatest soul mate that you will
ever have is yourself. We are each both male
and female. We experience this in the womb and
we experience this in reincarnation states. If
you are looking for that ultimate soul mate
outside of yourself, you may never find it; it
is not there. Just as God is not "there." God
is here. Don't look "out there" for God. Look
here for God. Look through your Self. Start
having the greatest love affair you ever had
... with your Self. You will love everything
out of that.
I had a descent
into what you might call hell, and it was very
surprising. I did not see Satan or evil. My
descent into hell was a descent into each
person's customized human misery, ignorance,
and darkness of not-knowing. It seemed like a
miserable eternity. But each of the millions
of souls around me had a little star of light
always available. But no one seemed to pay
attention to it. They were so consumed with
their own grief, trauma and misery. But, after
what seemed an eternity, I started calling out
to that light, like a child calling to a
parent for help. Then the light opened up and
formed a tunnel that came right to me an
insulated me from all that fear and pain. That
is what hell really is.
So what we are
doing is learning to hold hands, to come
together. The doors of hell are open now. We
are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out
of hell together.
The light came to
me and turned into a huge golden angel. I
said, "Are you the angel of death?"
It expressed to me
that it was my oversoul, my Higher Self
matrix, a super-ancient part of ourselves.
Then I was taken to the light.
Soon our science
will quantify spirit. Isn't that going to be
wonderful? We are coming up with devices now
that are sensitive to subtle energy or spirit
energy. Physicists use these atomic colliders
to smash atoms to see what they are made of.
They have got it down to quarks and charm, and
all that. Well, one day they are going to come
down to the little thing that holds it all
together, and they are going to have to call
that ... God. With atomic colliders they are
not only seeing what is in here, but they are
creating particles. Thank God most of them are
short-lived milliseconds and nanoseconds. We
are just beginning to understand that we are
creating too, as we go along.
As I saw forever, I
came to a realm in which there is a point
where we pass all knowledge and begin creating
the next fractal, the next level. We have that
power to create as we explore. And that is God
expanding itself through us.
Since my return I
have experienced the light spontaneously, and
I have learned how to get to that space almost
any time in my meditation. Each one of you can
do this. You do not have to die to do this. It
is within your equipment; you are wired for it
already.
The body is the
most magnificent light being there is. The
body is a universe of incredible light. Spirit
is not pushing us to dissolve this body. That
is not what is happening. Stop trying to
become God; God is becoming you. Here.
The mind is like a
child running around the universe, demanding
this and thinking it created the world. But I
ask the mind:
"What did your
mother have to do with this?"
That is the next
level of spiritual awareness. Oh! My mother!
All of a sudden you give up the ego, because
you are not the only soul in the universe.
One of my questions
to the light was, "What is heaven?"
I was given a tour
of all the heavens that have been created: the
Nirvanas, the Happy Hunting Grounds, all of
them. I went through them. These are thought
form creations that we have created. We don't
really go to heaven; we are reprocessed. But
whatever we created, we leave a part of
ourselves there. It is real, but it is not all
of the soul.
I saw the Christian
heaven. We expect it to be a beautiful place,
and you stand in front of the throne,
worshipping forever. I tried it. It is boring!
This is all we are going to do? It is
childlike. I do not mean to offend anyone.
Some heavens are very interesting, and some
are very boring. I found the ancient ones to
be more interesting, like the Native American
ones, the Happy Hunting Grounds. The Egyptians
have fantastic ones. It goes on and on. There
are so many of them. In each of them there is
a fractal that is your particular
interpretation, unless you are part of the
group soul that believes in only the God of a
particular religion. Then you are very close,
in the same ball park together. But even then,
each is a little bit different. That is a part
of yourself that you leave there. Death is
about life, not about heaven.
I asked God, "What
is the best religion on the planet? Which one
is right?"
And Godhead said,
with great love, "I don't care."
That was incredible
grace. What that meant was that we are the
caring beings here.
The Ultimate
Godhead of all the stars tells us, "It does
not matter what religion you are."
They 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. There is going to be a
reformation in spirituality that is going to
be just as dramatic as the Protestant
Reformation. There will be lots of people
fighting about it, one religion against the
next, believing that only they are right.
Everyone thinks
they own God, the religions and philosophies,
especially the religions, because they form
big organizations around their philosophy.
When Godhead said, "I don't care," I
immediately understood that it is for us to
care about. It is important, because we are
the caring beings. It matters to us and that
is where it is important. What you have is the
energy equation in spirituality. Ultimate
Godhead does not care if you are Protestant,
Buddhist, or whatever. It is all a blooming
facet of the whole. I wish that all religions
would realize it and let each other be. It is
not the end of each religion, but we are
talking about the same God. Live and let live.
Each has a different view. And it all adds up
to the Big Picture; it is all important.
I went over to the
other side with a lot of fears about toxic
waste, nuclear missiles, the population
explosion, the rainforest. 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. It, more than any religion or
philosophy on earth, 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 in to 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. As
Peter Russell
might say, these problems are now "soul size."
Do we have soul size answers? YES!
The 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. It is part of a
larger thing.
Earth is in the
process of domesticating itself. It is never
again going to be as wild a place as it once
was. There will be great wild places, reserves
where nature thrives. Gardening and reserves
will be the thing in the future. 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.
What happens when
we dream? We are multi-dimensional beings. We
can access that through lucid dreaming. In
fact, this universe is God's dream. One of the
things that I saw is that we humans are a
speck on a planet that is a speck in a galaxy
that is a speck. Those are giant systems out
there, and we are in sort of an average
system. But human beings are already legendary
throughout the cosmos of consciousness. The
little bitty human being of Earth/Gaia is
legendary. One of the things that we are
legendary for is dreaming. We are legendary
dreamers. In fact, the whole cosmos has been
looking for the meaning of life, the meaning
of it all. And it was the little dreamer who
came up with the best answer ever. We dreamed
it up. So dreams are important.
After dying and
coming back, I really respect life and death.
In our DNA experiments we may have opened the
door to a great secret. Soon we will be able
to live as long as we want to live in this
body. After living 150 years or so, there will
be an intuitive soul sense that you will want
to change channels. Living forever in one body
is not as creative as reincarnation, as
transferring energy in this fantastic vortex
of energy that we are in. We are actually
going to see the wisdom of life and death, and
enjoy it.
As it is now, we
have already been alive forever. This body
that you are in, has been alive forever. It
comes from an unending stream of life, going
back to the Big Bang and beyond. This body
gives life to the next life, in dense and
subtle energy. This body has been alive
forever already.
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Study
seeks truth behind near-death experiences
Do incidents
challenge consciousness theories?
By SHANKAR
VEDANTAM
The 44-year-old man who had
collapsed in a meadow was brought to a
hospital, unconscious and with no pulse or
brain activity. Doctors began artificial
respiration, heart massage, and
defibrillation.
A nurse trying to feed a
tube down the man’s throat saw that he wore
dentures and removed them. The patient was
moved to the intensive care unit.
A week later, the nurse saw
the man again. The man immediately recognized
the nurse as the person who had removed his
dentures and also remembered other details of
what had happened while he was in a deep coma.
He said he had perceived the events from above
the hospital bed and watched efforts to save
his life.
This account
would be standard fare in a supermarket
tabloid, but recently it was published in the
Lancet, a British medical journal. It’s
the latest of many efforts to document or
debunk the existence of “near-death”
experiences, something that mostly had
remained in the realm of the paranormal.
‘Prospective’ approach
The new
study, conducted in the Netherlands, is one of
the first so-called prospective scientific
studies. Instead of interviewing people who
reported near-death experiences after the
fact, researchers followed hundreds of
patients who were resuscitated after suffering
clinical death as their hearts stopped. The
idea was that this approach might provide more
accurate accounts by documenting the
experiences as they happened, rather than
basing them on distant recollections.
About 18
percent of the patients in the study reported
some recollection of the period when they were
clinically dead, and 8 percent to 12 percent
reported near-death experiences, such as
seeing lights at the end of tunnels or
“crossing over” and speaking with dead
relatives and friends.
The
researchers say the evidence supports the
validity of near-death experiences and
suggests that scientists should rethink
theories on the nature of human consciousness.
More than brain power?
Most neuroscientists
believe consciousness is a byproduct of
the physical brain, that mind arises from
matter. But if near-death experiences are
really what those who experience them say
they are, does that mean people can be
conscious of events around them even when
they’re physically unconscious, when their
brains show no signs of electrical
activity?
How can consciousness
be independent of brain function?
“Compare it with a TV”
program, said Pim van Lommel, a
cardiologist at the Hospital Rejnstate in
the Netherlands and the lead investigator
of the research. “If you open the TV set,
you will not find the program. The TV set
is a receiver. When you turn off your TV
set, the program is still there, but you
can’t see it. When you put off your brain,
your consciousness is there, but you can’t
feel it in your body.”
T he
Dutch researchers tracked 344 patients who
had been resuscitated. They ranged in age
from 26 to 92. Three-quarters were men.
Most were interviewed within five days of
being resuscitated, and researchers
followed up with interviews two and eight
years later to test the reliability of the
patients’ memories.
Patients’ demographics,
religious beliefs, psychological make-up,
and medical treatment were also documented
to see who was more likely to report such
experiences.
The researchers found
that the experiences did not correlate
with any of the measured psychological,
physiological, or medical parameters,
which Dr. Lommel said meant the
experiences were unrelated to processes in
the dying brain. Most patients had
excellent recall of the events, he added,
undermining the theory that the memories
were false.
Finally, the people who
had such experiences reported marked
changes in their personalities, compared
with those who had come near death but not
had the experiences. They seemed to lose
fear of death, and they became more
compassionate, altruistic, and loving.
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