I will accept that this blog entry is intended to back up some of my potentially whacky theories about life and death, but it is also meant as a gift for others. I don't need to be convinced that there is life after death because my entire life has been dedicated to this enquiry. Personal experience and research have confirmed, as much as it is possible, that my intuition is valid. So I am now offering some 'proof' for others.
In respect of my more 'morbid' writings I say this: to want death more than life is just as unbalanced as wanting life more than death. To live in the best possible way is to take a neutral position which means living every moment as if it were your last. This is difficult, being in quite a bit of pain these last few months has made it even more so, but lately I find myself more frequently, and gratefully, right where I am - even when it hasn't been pleasant.
An MD called Jeffrey Long has been doing research into NDEs (near-death-experiences). He admits that he was a sceptic but after interviewing 1300 people he is now convinced that 'there is life after death'. Here are Jeff's 'nine lines of evidence':
1. The level of consciousness and alertness during NDEs is usually greater than they experience during their everyday life even though NDEs generally occur while unconscious or clinically dead. The elements in NDEs generally follow a consistent and logical and order.
2. What people see during a NDE is generally realistic, and often verified later.
3. Normal or super-normal vision occurs among those with significantly impaired vision or even legal blindness. Several NDErs who were blind from birth have reported highly visual NDEs.
4. Typical NDEs occur under general anaesthesia at a time when conscious experience should be impossible.
5. Life reviews in NDEs include real events that took place in the NDErs lives, even if the events had been forgotten.
6. When NDErs encounter beings they knew from their earthly life, they are virtually always deceased, and usually deceased relatives.
7. The NDEs of children, including very young children, are strikingly similar to the NDEs of older children and adults.
8. NDEs appear strikingly consistent around the world. Many NDEs from non-Western countries are very similar to typical Western NDEs.
9. Changes in the lives of NDErs after their experiences, the NDE aftereffects, are common. Aftereffects are often powerful, lasting, and the changes follow a consistent pattern.
Further: 'NDErs who have life reviews view themselves from a third-person perspective' (I have experienced this while conscious). 'A spiritual being sometimes accompanies the person who is having the life review….. (during which they) almost never describe feeling negatively judged' and 'knowledge and love are two elements that we take with us when we die'.
During these experiences people made discoveries about: 'God, love, the afterlife, the reason for our earthly existence, earthly hardships, forgiveness….' Jeff found that these were strikingly consistent across cultures and races ie pre-existing beliefs did not significantly influence the content.
Having read the Tibetan's view on this (and again based on my own psychic experiences) I consider that Jeff's findings are only the first stage of the journey through death and back again. However, his report does undermine the patronising medical view that bright lights and visions are just a neurological after-effect because in many cases these events happened while the person was clinically dead. Of course we could argue the concept of 'consciousness' till the end of time so I will leave you with some words from the 'Master':
I cannot prove to you that God exists, but my work has proved empirically that the pattern of God exists in every man and that this pattern in the individual has at its disposal the greatest transforming energies of which life is capable. Find this pattern in your own individual self and life is transformed. (C.G. Jung from Steve Parker's recently published book, Heart Attack & Soul: In the Labyrinth of Healing)
Image: Frantom, photo.
Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-death Experiences, Jeff Long & Paul Perry, http://ndestories.org/resources/book-summary-evidence-of-the-afterlife/
