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| Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Collection of stories about Near Death Experiences
- The Journey Through the Tunnel
- Life Review
- A Glimpse of Paradise
- Embraced by the Light
- Light filled with Knowledge
- Seeing a World of Darkness
- The Unborn Son
- A Changed Life
- Descent into Hell
- A Child's Journey to Heaven
- Biographical Sketches
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
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| Introduction
The selected stories in this anthology are from people who had first hand accounts with near death experiences. Near death experience is a phenomenon that occurs when a person comes
very close to death or is pronounced clinically died only to be revived and from there, they are able to remember stories of spiritual worlds and other supernatural events in great
detail.
Although each story is experienced from a different person, they are arranged in chronological order starting from the beginning of Near death experience to the end. Some of the experiences were not written by the first person accounts, but were written by doctors studying and obtaining a better understanding about Near death experience. Most of the authors who wrote the stories were not professional writers, but were compelled to tell the story of their experience.
The controversial phenomenon Near death experience has its fair share of skeptics, but this anthology does not represent the mathematical equation or the answer, more so, it represents the lives of the people it has changed. This anthology represents the message of love and forgiveness.
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| Journey in the Tunnel
This excerpt from the book Beyond This Reality tells a story about a woman named Grace Bubulka Hatmaker who had reached the limit with her pain and gave up fighting for her life on her hospital bed. From there, she writes about what she saw, and her journey through the tunnel. This piece focuses mainly on tunnels, because there has been numerous accounts of traveling through a tunnel in near death experience. Usually, this is the early stage in the journey to the reach the other side.
I was completely comfortable and no longer in any pain. All of the distress I was in while lying in my hospital bed was gone. I felt like I was bobbing about in a warm bath. While I was at the hospital room ceiling I was somewhat stationary. Now I was in motion. I was proceeding slowly in an upward and outward direction, slightly angled to the left. I was aware of being surrounded but I didn't know by what or by whom. At first it just seemed like a foggy grayness about me. As the speed of my upward and outward movement increased, the enclosing fog seemed to have a bright ending at the distance. I remember at the early moments of moving ahead through this enclosure a brightness to my left where I could see through the cloud-like tunnel. Beyond the walls of my tunnel was a shimmering, glowing light. The light contained an infinite number of specks within it. The specks were moving about. Some specks were going fast, some slow. They were all going in different directions yet none ever touched or impacted with each other. The only comparison I can draw with what I saw was what a person can see if you look into a sunbeam. It looked like the dust particles that ride within a sunbeam. I remember smiling to myself (or at least having a happy, knowing feeling) that I was akin to these specks and they were journeying as I was between realities.
I was also very aware of being helped through this transition. I was in the company of an innumerable amount of others who were just like me. It was as though they were family ... that I didn't know or I had forgotten. They knew all about me and were there to celebrate, comfort, ease and move me ahead. There was no sense of recognition but I knew they were there to help. My tunnel structure thinned along the sides but the light ahead was beckoning me. I was intensely attracted to reaching the light. As the sides of the tunnel became clearer, the light ahead became brighter and closer as my speed increased. The level of joyous anticipation I was feeling was indescribable. At this point I had no insight into what any of this was about. I did not think I was dead. I knew I felt like a spirit or a disembodied person. I knew that the real "I" continued to exist in the absence of my earthly body. I had a sense of heightened knowing, of peace and of assured expectancy.
As I neared the warm, glowing radiance ahead of me, I felt pure ecstasy. I was in the beginning of the light. I was part of the light. The light was part of me ... but the light was more. Somehow I knew there was more ahead but for now I could go no further because something was about to take place. I felt as if I had returned to something I knew before. It was as if I had come home. I had come home to the beginning of not just me but the beginning of all eternity. This is so hard to explain but it seems so important. The only thing this compares to in a way is the way it feels when it is a beautiful warm night and you look up into the clear starry sky.
When you look at the stars, there is an awe of the glimpse at the beginning of infinite space. It was like that feeling as I savored my experience.
Side Notes
This piece was placed first in this anthology because of its focus on
the beginning of a near death experience. The main focal point in this
passage is the tunnel. Although the tunnel existed in Ms. Hatmaker's
experience, it was also a symbolism. A tunnel is a passage people take to
reach to another side of their destination. Whether it's taken by a
vehicle, train, bike, or boat, a tunnel exists in the natural and man-made
world. Light is perhaps always at the end of any tunnel, and the closer
we get to the end, the brighter everything becomes. Perhaps a tunnel is
an appropriate symbol in this passage because of the fact that when one
dies, many believe death is the end, but a tunnel may represent a path
to a new beginning. It starts from the entrance and at the end it leads
one into a new beginning.
Imagery was painted throughout the passage. The writer used many
variations of words to describe the light she saw. Some of her use of
words to create the images in the reader's mind include "foggy grayness",
"shimmering glowing light" and "As I neared the warm, glowing radiance
ahead of me." It is known for a fact that she could not have accurately
described what she witnessed, perhaps because of the limitation of
one's senses when trapped in the "fleshed prison"; one would not
comprehend or know the right humanly description of the light she experienced.
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| Life Review
Laurelynn Martin, a promising tennis player had a routine surgical procedure that went wrong. She found herself floating about her bed, as the medical team frantically tried to revive her. Engulfed by a beautiful light, Laurelynn found herself in the presence with her brother in law Wills whom had died seven months earlier from cancer. Guided by Wills, Laurelynn learns a lesson about being judgemental. This excerpt is about her life review that she experienced from her book Searching for Home.
Wills was like the "Spirit of Christmas Past." By reviewing my past, I was brought to new places of discovery within myself. Many events were shown simultaneously. I recalled two examples. When I was five years old I teased Tammy Fowler, another five year old girl, to the point of tears. I was now in a unique position to feel what Tammy felt. Her frustration, her tears, and her feelings of separateness were now my feelings. I felt a tremendous amount of compassion for this child. I was Tammy and needed love, nurturing and forgiveness. My essence gave love to both of us – a love so deep and tender, like the love between a mother and child. I realized by hurting another, I was only hurting myself. Again, I was experiencing oneness.
The next incident was similar. I had made fun of Billy Bradley, a scrawny, malnourished asthmatic kid. He died when he was seventeen years old from a cerebral aneurysm. He seemed to be in the realm of existence I was in. Yet, still I was not sure where I was. When Billy was twelve, he had written me a love letter that I rejected. I was experiencing his pain which became my pain. At the same time, I felt a tremendous amount of love for this boy and myself. My contact with him went beyond the physical and I felt his soul. He had a vibrant, bright light burning inside of him. Feeling his spirit's strength and vitality was an inconceivable moment especially knowing how much he physically suffered when he was alive.
The message was clear. The message was – LOVE. Above and beyond anything else, one must first learn to love oneself non-judgmentally and unconditionally. Then one will actually love all people and all things the same way. I realized how important people were in life, how important it was to accept them and love them. And I finally understood the old Mohegan Indian saying I had heard when I was in Girl Scouts, "Never judge another squaw until you have walked a mile in her moccasins." As I reviewed my life with Wills, my judgment prevailed and I remember thinking, "I've done worse things in my life." My question was answered before I finished my thought. All events in your life are significant. To bring an understanding of all things, even the experiences which you consider insignificant, will bring you to places of great awareness and compassion.
By the time my review was finished, I understood. I was aware of an almost cathartic release. I experienced emotion without the physical signs of tears. It brought me to a deep place of understanding and compassion. I never took the time to think how my actions affected others or how I treated myself. I felt a grieving for all my unconscious actions. With awareness of my unaware state, I released all the grief I had ever caused and joyfully moved into forgiveness.
Side Notes
In this passage, Laurelynn Martin encounters her brother-in-law
Wills, and describes him as being like the Spirit of Christmas Past, who
seemed to emit an important symbolism in her experience. The Spirit of
Christmas Past was a fictional character from Charles Dicken's book A
Christmas Carol. The spirit guided the wickedly greedy banker to scenes
from his youth that occurred on or around Christmas in order to
demonstrate to him the necessity of changing his ways. Described by Laurelynn
Martin, Wills brought her to see her unrighteous past to help her change
for the better. She also mentions the Girl Scouts, which is also a
vital point of symbolism in the experience. The Girl Scouts was an
organization created to help girls build character and skills for success in
the world by teaching them to develop leadership, values, social
conscience, citizenship, and conviction about their potential and self-esteem.
She mentions them by stating a quote that she learned: "Never judge
another squaw until you have walked a mile in her moccasins." The Girl
Scouts symbolized God in a sense, because as a child, she learned from the
Scouts like a worshipper who attends church learns from God.
The imagery used by Laurelynn Martin has a more intense visual
feeling. She describes BIll Bradley as "a scrawny, malnourished asthmatic
kid." If she were to take any one of those words out, the description of
Bradley would not be so accurate. The words she chose, “scrawny”
and “malnourished” are often seen in third world countries, and helps
the readers to pity Bradley. As opposition to these negative
connotations, she uses a very optimistic description of Bradley after she
realizes how wonderful he was. She states that "He had a vibrant, bright light
burning inside of him." She uses the two of the five senses from the
human body, sight and touch, by using the words “bright” and
“burning”.
The lesson about being less judgmental and seeing from a different
viewpoint was not only a lesson learned by Laurelynn Martin, but also
from the readers.
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