The Afterlife: A Wider Perspective of Near-Death Experiences

Every culture has its own belief in the afterlife. There are their stories and tales of what happens when one dies. The souls goes to happy places, sad places, hang out with the gods, or other spiritual beings. What happens after death is often a reflection of the earthly world, but different in character. Reward and punishment plays a big role in it, and it gives humanity morals and ethics in order to reap the benefits once the earthly life was over. Not that everyone would hold on to a good life, as there are always people who don't believe in the afterlife and live their lives in selfish ways. Religions keep the idea of an afterlife alive, but all too often in a simplified and childish way, in order to keep the masses dependent on the churches or other religious institutions.

With the rise of the industrial revolution, science was declared the only reality and everything spiritual as non-existent. Together with the rising scandals of the churches, many people left their religions behind, and with it a belief in the afterlife. Some churches and religious institutions thrive once again, but their teachings of the afterlife is often a simplified one.

Fortunately, the advance in medical science had the result that people who would have normally died, were brought back to life. A good deal of those people, who had a brush with near-death, started talking about their experiences while their physical body was clinically dead. The stories of those near-death experiencers (NDErs) are all different, but with common themes. Even the differences are meaningful. Not all NDErs experience all of the features described below.

Some investigators have collected and researched numerous NDE stories. You can find them on the web at certain websites, but also on YouTube (links at the end of this article), and in many books. Unfortunately, we, humans, have a lack of discernment. When people have near-death experiences, (NDEs) the experiences reflect their belief system, religious or otherwise. They do not question the content of their experience.

What I am attempting to give you here is an overview of the NDE, with information from esoteric sources, which will give you a better interpretation of what NDEs or life-after-death is about. In the usual NDE research there is a lack of this esoteric information, and I will try to fill in that gap.

First we will have to look at this esoteric information before we can interpret the NDE stories.

1.1 The Nature of the Afterlife World

The afterlife is very real. You could call it another dimension; in esoteric circles it is usually called the astral world. After the physical body dies, the soul finds itself in this other dimension. The astral world is composed of astral matter that is very fluidic. That means that it will shape itself according to one's thoughts. As the mind is very habitual, the souls in the astral world will automatically create an environment that reflects their previous existence on the physical level. In the same habitual manner, their astral bodies take on the shape of their previous physical bodies, because that is what they have been used to, while they were in the physical body. The soul itself does not have a form, but it can take any form it wants in these astral worlds. Over time, the appearance of the astral body will change to reflect the inner nature of the soul.

Most people are unaware of the nature of the astral world and astral matter. At death, their subconscious will create their appearance and the environment in according to their previous habits and all their unconscious programs or belief structures. An awakened soul who has left his physical body will go rapidly through the initial phases, and it can take any human form it wants, or any other form, even a light sphere; and can go whoever it wants, or create any environment it desires.

All forms in the astral world are created by the mind, and this is important to understand. All those astral realms you hear about or read about have no objective existence. They only exist as long as there are souls who consciously or subconsciously create them. These environments allow the souls to recover, to reflect, to create, to enjoy and to explore. The astral world could more accurately described as states of consciousness. In each astral environment you will find souls living together who are like-minded. So each astral environment, reflects a certain state of mind of those who dwell in it.

A soul can visit other souls in other astral realms. However these other souls have a different consciousness, and thus that soul can't stay for long in these other realms because the environment vibrates at a different 'frequency' than his own. He will be most at ease in those realms that corresponds to his own state of mind.

By now, you will understand that when the physical body of a person dies, his soul will enter a realm that provides him with experiences that reflect his own state of consciousness. His mind will project its content outwards, because human beings are accustomed to experience life as moving in a world that exists objectively outside itself. In other words, when the soul leaves the body, it automatically creates his own environment in the spiritual world that corresponds to his own beliefs and expectations. This also applies for some of the beings encountered, who are projections of one's mind, and not real spiritual beings.

I would simply think about something and it would instantly manifest…or I had think about a place and there I had be! Oh, what a sensation to experience such power—to be anywhere I wanted to be and to create anything I wanted to…and to feel so totally free. (NDERF)

As my orientation went on, they explained how on that celestial side of the veil, anything we desire is instantaneously provided. We just need to feel the desire... But, suddenly I had an urge for a piece of my mother’s famous homemade chocolate cake with her special fudge frosting. As soon as I thought of the cake, my earthy mother was handing me the biggest piece of dark chocolate cake I had ever seen. (NDERF)

...and I was manifesting things I was thinking you know wouldn't it be great if there were you know butterflies or fairies or something beautiful flying around and suddenly there were these creatures that again are not of this Earthly World flying around me and they were just indescribably so beautiful. (YouTube)

The astral world, being a reflection of the human mind, is a much more intense and wider experience as it does not have the limitation of the physical world. Emotions are more intense, there is more clarity of mind, communication with other souls is instant and not limited in words, space and time is different, there are more colors etc.

Time and Space

NDErs often remark that time doesn't exist in the spiritual world, and that space or distance can be bridged in no time. This is also well documented with out-of-the-body-experiencers, who tell us that the experience of time and space in the astral world is totally different than on Earth.

Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and mystic from the 17^th-18^th century, who visited the spiritual realms numerous times, explains:

All things in heaven appear, just as in the world, to be in place and in space, and yet the angels have no notion or idea of place and space. As this must needs sounds like a paradox, I will endeavor to present the matter in a clear light, as it is of great importance.

All changes of place in the spiritual world are effected by changes of state of the interiors, which means that change of place is nothing else than change of state...Such are all movements of the angels; and in consequence they have no distances, and having no distances they have no spaces, but in place of spaces they have states and their changes.

Spaces in heaven are simply the external conditions corresponding to the internal states.

Again, when any one goes from one place to another, whether it be in his own city, or in courts or in gardens, or to others out of his own society, he arrives more quickly when he eagerly desires it, and less quickly when he does not, the way itself being lengthened and shortened in accordance with the desire, although it remains the same. This I have often seen to my surprise. All this again makes clear how distances, and consequently spaces, are wholly in accord with states of the interiors of the angels; and this being so, no notion or idea of space can enter their thought, although there are spaces with them equally as in the world.

(Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen § 191-195)

In other words, space or distance is seen as in our earthly world, but it is only apparent. One merely has to think or want to be at another place, and one is there. If you want to visit another soul, you just think of him and your are with him. One can still walk the apparent distance, as on Earth, if one still wishes to do so. It just depends on one's intent.

The key element in this is one's own state of mind, or inner awareness. This is also true for the notion of time.

Angels do not know what time is, although with them there is a successive progression of all things, as there is in the world. (Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen § 161)

Although there is a progression of time in the spiritual worlds, there is no means of measure as we do have here on earth. There are no clocks, no 'fixed alternations' as Swedenborg calls it. They only thing they keep track of are the changes that are happening.

In the astral world, one can experience events as having taken a certain (long) time period, while the amount of physical time during the near-death is very short. The time experience in the spiritual worlds is a matter of how fast or slow one's mind can experience the events.

Also, in the spiritual worlds, one can perceive past, present and future together, as some NDErs have told us. They often tell us that there is no time in the afterlife, because of this. This is not quite true. However, one can instantly see past events, the present, and the possible future as they are connected to each other. That is a perception; past, present and possible future also flows on the spiritual planes. But we, here on the physical plane, are conditioned to see time as a linear development, and thus have difficulty grasping the spiritual concept of time and space.

1.2 Self-Created Content in NDEs

It is important to understand what life is about, and who we are, both as humans, and as spiritual beings or souls. Although we do not have all the answers, and it can be looked at from different angles, here is a short overview.

Everything that exists, on the physical and on the spiritual planes is the Divine. (I am avoiding the word God because it has such a laden religious content). We, humans, like every other living being, are part of the Divine. In the process of the (ongoing) creation, we have created ourselves a duality. So now, we speak of our divine center, our Spirit, also called the Higher Self, and the Lower Self, which is our Soul that incarnated in a physical body to have experiences in the physical world. At one time in the past, you came to this planet Earth to incarnate in the human form, and at each death of the physical vehicle, you went to the astral world for a while, and then re-incarnated again into the physical, many times.

What you need to understand is that the afterlife, or the astral world, is an illusory world. Most NDErs take their experiences at face value. They are convinced that they have met God, Jesus, their dead relatives, have visited heavenly parks, libraries and other environments. They are convinced that all these are objective, just as on the physical plane. Because an NDE is a profound, often life changing and positive experience (there are negative ones too), I doubt they would be willing to consider that what they experienced is not what it seems. And yet, it would not invalidate their experience but only their interpretation thereof, because they lacked the knowledge of what the astral worlds are really like.

Everything in the astral worlds is self-created, that is, created by one's own mind, including the group-mind of like-minded people who congregate in their own societies. The people a soul meets in the astral world is not always the person they believe they are seeing. The being can also be another kind of being that has taken the shape and form of a relative, in order for the newly arrived soul to be at ease. The being can also take the form of a religious figure, such as Jesus, or an angel, knowing that would certainly provide a much need calm and guidance for a soul that does not know what to expect.

An example an NDE:

So the thoughts came into my head: what kind of form or shape would make you most comfortable? 'What do you mean?' I thought back. Some require me to take the shape of a wise old man, others a woman and still others an animal, all of different races, ages, sizes or species. What about you? I thought without hesitation 'Human.' With that, the light began to simultaneously separate into amazing rays of color and intensify into a more solid form. Once the light reached the stage where it looked like a human form, a rather generic looking cookie cutter shape, like a gingerbread man, I thought, 'That is enough, I am comfortable with this form.' (NDERF)

So, the figures and the environment you encounters just after death can be a subconscious projection; or another spirit or soul can read your subconscious and take on a form of a religious figure or a dead relative to make you more comfortable during your transition to the astral world.

However, it is important to understand that the astral world is also home to many different kind of beings. Some of them take advantage of the ignorance of humans. They will also take on the shape of religious figures and deceased relatives to deceive the human soul for their own purposes, as we will explore later in this article.

It is important to recognize what spiritual beings are real, if they are honest or deceptive, or have some interesting things to communicate.

Below is an overview of all the different aspects that can happen when somebody dies, and then comes back. Some people will experience most of them, while others experience only a few of them. There are also differences between different cultures. Every near-death experience is different, but the features below are common themes. An NDE is a variable combination of a number of possible elements from an established repertoire, the details of which differ on a case-by-case basis.

1.3 Interpreting the NDE

What is a near-death experience, or NDE? It is an experience a person can have when his body is nearly dead, or clinically dead for a short amount of time. Consciousness leaves the body. The soul feels that all his usual senses are heightened. Colors are brighter, sounds are clearer and can sometimes be heard from a distance. One can find himself in other places in an instant. Space and time is experienced quite differently than on Earth. Feelings and emotions are more intense and in general positive, although a few NDErs experience negative emotions. Some pass through a tunnel, have an experience with a light source. Light beings or deceased relatives show up. A life review can present itself. One can even visit other spiritual realms. Information and knowledge can be obtained. Eventually one comes back to the physical body.

All near-death experiences are different, but the essence of an NDE is the experience of love and how all life in the universe is connected. On the other hand, the experience is difficult to describe because it is so unfamiliar, and so different compared to the physical world. The NDEr description is not a complete one, because he does not really know what he is dealing with. We will often find that NDErs try to interpret and identify what they went through, based on their own belief system and cultural background. Like any experience, an NDE is rooted in the culture of the person having it. This means they are processed and interpreted depending on a person's religion, language, society and environment.

Some NDEs are short, or follow an almost standard process, while in others the soul has elaborate mystical experiences. Overall, an NDE has a profound effect on the person when he comes back to his body. He gains another perspective on reality giving his present life more meaning.

On the other side, NDErs never question what they have experienced. Is what they experienced and who they encountered in the afterlife really what they thought it was? Is it possible that they misinterpreted the experience? A lot of NDErs would not even consider that their favorite religious figures who gave them so much love might not be what they thought they were.

The afterlife process might be quite different than what most people believe it is. When the soul or consciousness is released from the body and enters the dimensions of the astral realms, it begins to project its own reality and creates its own world according to its state of mind and purity of consciousness.

The state of one's consciousness will shape his experience in the afterlife. Most people are ignorant, they have no or little spiritual knowledge. They are largely focused on the material world, and belief the misguided religious stories their priests have told them. They live in a world of duality, of light and darkness, and are driven by their desires. In the afterlife they will find themselves in their own self-created reality which they will take as real. Deceptive spiritual beings can easily fool and guide the unsuspecting human soul in directions he would normally not take if he knew what is really going on.

When a person has gained spiritual knowledge and a consciousness that can see beyond the veil of illusion, it will recognize the illusionary nature of the astral realms, and go beyond it, into the higher spiritual realms.

2. An Overview of the Afterlife Process

2.1 The Void or Darkness

Some near-death experiencers finds themselves first in darkness. It is a total black darkness that stretches all around them into infinity. It is sometimes called the Void. It is total stillness and peace. Although it might be initially scary, it does bring relief after all the pain and trauma the physical body had to endure. Now, one feels free and calm. Some people might think that the darkness or void is something bad or evil, but that is not so.

It is sometimes explained as being the void that is full of potentials, before creation.

One NDEr (she was around 5 years old) found herself in what she called "The Womb", and asked her spiritual guide what is was:

...I call, "The Womb". It's similar to "void" experiences except that I saw flashes of pink (sometimes other colors, but usually pink) like muted, dark lightning. I was floating in darkness, everything was peaceful and incredibly calm. I existed, it wasn't frightening. I felt wrapped tightly in immense love...

I could sense what I usually call my "attendant". Guide, guardian angel, whatever you wish. It was there, as a presence, but not as a being of light this time, just sort of there on the periphery of my "knowing".
I asked, "What is this place?"
It answered telepathically, "It is your memory."
Being obviously smarter than the average idiot, I said, "I don't remember this." (This makes me laugh every time I look back on it--I was IN the memory, so obviously I remembered it!) I went on, "Why am I here?"
"This was a place where you felt loved. You came here to feel safe."
I thought on this for a while. "Is this my mommy?" (I was five, btw, so Mommy was a perfectly fine word).
"Yes, but not this one."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing for a while, just floating in the peaceful weighted darkness. There were pink flashes again, and I asked, "What's happening?"
"Light is coming."
"Am I getting born?"
"No. This is the womb of creation. This is your way of understanding it."
"The first time I knew I was me." (It made sense at the time)
"Yes. The first time you knew yourself. The first time you felt love."
"That's when you know yourself? When you know love, you know yourself." (I felt rather clever figuring that one out. I still laugh at the childlike joy I took in this "deep" tidbit, lol!)
At this point, although I couldn't see a body or even really sense a body, I did what I would think of as flips or cartwheels. "I exist." (Again, I felt particularly clever and delighted by this, this 'realization' filled me with immense joy and laughter).
"You have always existed, you just forget from time to time." (Now it was the attendant's turn to express amusement and great love towards me)
I hung suspended in the vast sea of nothingness, watching the rare flash of color around me. Then I admitted it was time to go, and we returned to my body. (NDERF)

For esoteric minded people, I would compare this black void with the sephirah Binah on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is the womb of the Mother of the universe, before creation takes place. Everything is present in her as potentialities. In Hinduism we could compare it with Shakti as primordial female.

After the impact, I faded to black into what I call a void. It was dark, black, empty and wide open. It was the most peaceful and calm feeling I ever had. I knew with just one thought I could travel through the void... (NDERF)

I found myself in a black void completely at peace. I had no self-awareness, no memory of who I was but I somehow knew that I was separate from the void. I cannot describe the feeling of completely peace: no pain, no worries, no sense of self, it was fantastic...I didn't feel very lucky and was really angry at being back. At the time, I really would have preferred to stay in the void. (NDERF)

After a while, the soul perceives a light in the distance, and will be attracted to it. This then leads to the experience of the White Light. Sometimes, this movement towards the Light creates a tunnel effect, or a vortex like tube, that will connect the soul with this next, higher level. The time spent in the void seems to be related to what the soul needs in order to contemplate its new state of being. When it is ready it will perceive the Light in the distance.

In a certain way, you could call it a black mirror. A few NDErs experience this black void with fear. Based on their explanations, it seems more that their fear stemmed from not understanding what this void is about. The void itself is neutral.

The Void is actually the basis of everything, for all creation. The stillness and nothingness is only apparent, as it contains all potentialities. I think this is what the alchemists called Nigredo, the Blackness, and also the Prime Materia, the substance underlying all creation.

The Void can be a rather pleasant experience:

I had traveled to another realm of total and absolute peace. With no physical body my movement was unencumbered. Thought was the avenue for travel. I floated up through blackness where there was no fear, no pain, no misunderstandings, but instead a sense of well-being. I was enveloped by total bliss in an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance. The darkness was warm and soft, a blanket of velvety love, stretching endlessly. The freedom of total peace was intensified beyond any ecstatic feeling I’ve ever felt on Earth. In the distance, a horizon of glorious white, golden light beckoned me forward. (Laurelynn Martin's Near-Death Experience)

One can see the Void as the primal matrix of creation containing nothing and everything (as potentials). However the Void is also in oneself, a place of stillness where one can rest, reflect or just be. It seems that some NDErs who find themselves in the dark Void, actually have gone within themselves, to that inner quiet place they need to adjust themselves to the new situation they are in. That is why we do not find any presence or interference of astral beings in the Void.

2.2 The Tunnel

I have always found it strange. How can there be tunnel in the afterlife? Why does a soul have to go through a tunnel? However, a third of near-death experiencers do. Other rise up directly to a heavenly place, or out into space, looking at the Earth, or find themselves in another situation, without ever going through a tunnel.

The tunnel can be experienced as being in motion, and with texture or grooves. Colors also vary.

Most people go over to the next level directly without going through a tunnel. Maybe this is because the soul was still 'out of it' after having experienced the traumatic process of death, and did not consciously experience the transition through a tunnel.

The tunnel can appear when one is in the void, but also in any other afterlife scene.

Most of the time the White Light appears at the end of the tunnel. At other times, a figure is waiting.

Although the term 'tunnel' is widely used, the soul can also go through a 'door', 'passage', 'tube', 'shaft', 'hole', 'funnel'... these are all transition structures. It seems that the mind of the deceased is creating the appearance of a tunnel or other structure that symbolizes for him the passage from one place to another, with the transition from one plane of consciousness to another, or from one dimension to the another.

The soul can also go through a tunnel when it returns to the body. This is rarely reported, probably because the descent into the body is usually very rapid and the tunnel experience might not have been consciously noticed.

I must go back; I have not accomplished my mission. In that moment, I sensed I was going backward into a tunnel and I found myself back in my body. NDERF

So I returned through the same tunnel, seeing my life pass before my eyes from my childhood until my age at that moment. At the end, there was a window. When I looked, I saw my body on the table of the operating room and the doctors around me, operating. NDERF

In regression therapy, a form of hypnotic access to the subconscious to explore previous life times or incarnations, a tunnel is also reported when the soul in the spiritual world, goes 'down' into its new physical body for another incarnation.

We find the tunnel experience also with out-of-the-body-experiences (OOBEs). In his book Far Journeys II, Robert Monroe (1915-1995) reports on the tunnel experience as the result of fixation on a pinpoint of light when the latter appeared into the vision of the participants:

"These phenomena were gradually perceived in a pattern, as somewhat of a band preceding a change into the out-of-body experience. There were also preliminary physiological responses—lowering of blood pressure and pulse, slight temperature drop (03°), loss of muscle tone. Subjectively, there were reports of a heaviness in the physical body, sometimes catalepsy, and a strong sense of heat followed by coolness. As the induction of the OOBE state was examined further, one key element did repeat consistently. Subjects began to locate within their nonphysical perception a pinpoint of light. When the subject learned to "move" in the direction of the light until it became larger and larger, and then move through it, the OOBE state was achieved. In slow motion, it "felt as if one were going through a tunnel to get to the light," a classic description that has been brought forth by many who performed the OOBE inadvertently or in a near-death situation." (page 19)

OOBEr Oliver Fox (1885-1949) writes in his book Astral Projection about going through a tunnel when he wanted to visit a scene in the past:

I then willed to travel to a certain temple which I have been told once existed in Allahabad. I moved off at a great speed and came to rest in a modern brilliantly lighted room. Here a man and a woman were seated at a table, having a meal. They did not seem to see me. Again I repeated my desire : "Temple —Allahabad—India—in the Past". And now it seemed to me there was a sort of hole or break formed in the continuity of the astral matter ; and through this, in the distance—as though viewed through a very long tunnel—I could see something indistinct which might have been an entrance to a temple, with a statue still further away showing through it. I then moved forward again, but to my disappointment came to rest almost immediately in another room, where three women were seated at a table which also bore the remains of a meal. A fourth woman—pretty, with fair hair and blue eyes—was standing up in the act of leaving the table. Apparently, none of them could see me. Sticking to my objective, I once more repeated "Temple Allahabad—India—in the Past". The tunnel arrangement was coming into view again, then something must have occurred which broke my trance —though what, I do not know. Instantly I rushed back to my body and awoke. (page 98)

It seems that the tunnel can also appear when consulting the Akashic Records to see or relive past events. On page 106, Oliver Fox writes about another experience in which he arrived at another scene in the past:

I then decided that I would try to reach a certain ruined temple in Tibet, of which my Master, Azelda, had spoken. With this end, I concentrated all my will in one big effort, expecting to rush off in some horizontal direction. The result was absolutely unexpected. The ground collapsed beneath my feet and I was falling, with seemingly tremendous velocity, down a dark, narrow tunnel or shaft.

In his book Astral Dynamics, Robert Bruce explains that the tunnel experience is a natural feature in the astral world:

Dive into an astral tube structure and you will feel acceleration and great speed. Grid lines and colors and patterns and tones will change as you move. Exits appear at regular intervals, marked by changes in the colors, tones, and patterns around you. You can also get psychic impressions and intuitive feelings of where best to exit. Use your intuition, or just enjoy the ride and wait until you naturally exit. At the end of the tube experience, you’ll suddenly find yourself inside an astral realm.

Tunnels also appear with people taking mind altering drugs. Here is a quote from and person who took DMT, posted on Erowid Experience Vaults:

The visuals began. My breathing became heavy, I was laying on the ground and could see the night sky above me. Large beings were circled around me, observing me as if I had fallen right out of the sky, they all bent over me, blocking my view of the sky, suddenly they began to circle around me, raised their arms and the next thing I knew, I was trapped in a colorful tunnel. I was overwhelmed by what was happening, the tunnel began projecting me through it and I had no idea where I was going or if this tunnel ever ended. 2- dimensional beings were dancing on the walls of the tunnel...I was thrown back into the tunnel, but this one was slightly different; It was as if the artist Alex Grey had painted the inside of this tunnel for me. I remembered the end of the last tunnel, this one too had an end! I Indubitably reached the end...

2.3 The White Light

Regardless, I don't care about happy, pleasurable experiences, and furthermore, they tend to be one of the worst spiritual traps into which people fall.

Jim Tolles

When the NDEr finds himself in the Void, a light in the distance will eventually appear, and the soul will gravitate toward it, usually through a tunnel. Some people do not experience the Void or the Tunnel but go directly to the White Light. Only about 20% of NDErs have White Light experiences.

The experience of the White Light is not unique to NDEs, it is also experienced in altered states of conscious (with psychedelic drugs), in OOBEs, and in experiences by shamans. It is usually described as a very intense bright white light, but some NDErs say that it had a golden, blue or pink hue to it. Is it really white in color, or is it just so intense and bright that the closest description is that of being white?

"My first visual memory was looking forward and seeing a brilliant bright light, almost like looking directly at the sun. The strange thing was that I could see my feet in front of me, as if I were floating upward in a vertical position. I do not remember passing through a tunnel or anything like that, just floating in the beautiful light. A tremendous amount of warmth and love came from the light. (from the book Beyond the Light, by by P. M. H. Atwater)

As we will see in the following chapter, there might be a difference between a White Light and a clear brilliant Light that NDErs encounter. Because most NDErs don't know what to expect when they near-died, they probably didn't pay attention to this difference and/or don't remember if the Light was white or just clear bright. For now we will look at what most people experience when encountering a Light.

The White Light doesn't just appear. It attracts, mesmerizes, envelopes and put the NDEr in a sort of trance with overwhelming good feelings.

I became aware of an intense bright Light off in the distance and I turned my focus toward its captivating dance. The Light's prism of energy and illumination began to spiral and grow and I immediately put forth all my senses into its hypnotic allure. I began to feel the most utterly peaceful, loving sensation and I yearned to move toward and inhabit this Light and the love it emanated. (NDERF)

The light was hypnotic, persuading you to enter but the feeling of love felt stronger. (NDERF)

As the experience of the White Light varies from person to person, one's culture is also a factor. Studies of NDE's of Hindus in Thailand and India show that they usually do not encounter a White Light. In contrast, Japanese NDEs do have the same White Light experience as Westerners, but the Japanese do not ascribe a personality to the White Light, nor does it emit any love feelings. This seems to reflect the low importance of religion in their lives. Some Japanese NDErs can have a conversation or communication with the White Light. (A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and Western NDEs)

It is quite common for NDErs to state that they felt drawn toward the Light, or that the Light pulled them in. The Light can embrace the soul with a feeling of intense love, or understanding, or bliss. This feeling can be immense and powerful. Some NDErs merge with the Light. The love feeling is so overwhelming that the soul wants to stay there. A sense of unity is also reported. The soul can also hear music at the same time.

I noticed my body separating from me, as I was drawn towards a strong white light at the other end of a tunnel which itself was completely dark. (NDERF)

At first, it was the Light, a brilliant, white light, without reflection and without glare. Then, the feeling... of quiet jubilation, of peace and incredible serenity enveloping me. It was not ecstasy or any feeling I could identify, except perhaps glory in the warmest most positive sense of the word. (NDERF)

The Light can appear as having no dimensions, no limits or boundaries, just being infinite. Sometimes the soul finds itself inside an orb of light, or when reaching the light, one or more beings appear.

The Light also has an intelligence to it, so much so, that it is sometimes considered to be a light being of some sort, or God himself. However, some NDErs do leave the White Light presence undefined. They admit they don't know what or who it is.

NDE investigator Raymond Moody in Life after Life, makes an interesting remark about the White Light:

Despite the light's unusual manifestation, however, not one person has expressed any doubt whatsoever that it was a being, a being of light. Not only that, it is a personal being. It has a very definite personality. The love and the warmth which emanate from this being to the dying person are utterly beyond words, and he feels completely surrounded by it and taken up; in it, completely at ease and accepted in the presence of this being. He senses an irresistible magnetic attraction to this light. He is ineluctably drawn to it. (page 58-59)

One woman put it this way:

It was an Awareness, an Intelligence that was everywhere. It also communicated, but again, without words. As soon as we entered what I have termed 'the chamber' I understood that this Being is everywhere, everything. (NDERF)

When inside the White Light, some souls hear a voice (often male) telling them to go back to the physical body, or sometimes answering questions, or allowing the soul to experience certain characteristics of the spiritual world of cosmos.

The White Light is also associated with the appearance of religious beings, such as Jesus, Mary or angels, and deceased relatives. They also serve as reminders of going back to the physical body, or they will guide the soul to the Council for a Life Review.

The religious figures that appear in the White Light are projections so the NDEr can relate to something familiar to him, a human shape:

It was incredibly bright, unlike the light of day, that often has a tint to it, and this particular light was pure white. As I entered the light, I was surrounded by an immediate feeling of ultimate peace. I was home. I was surrounded by pure love and acceptance...

Thus, the White Light, whatever it is, can also generate illusionary figures based on the soul's religious beliefs and his dead relatives.

Other beings can instantly change their shape to make the person more comfortable:

In the room were three beings, made of shimmering crystal. Light shone through them like a glass prism, forming a rainbow. One was larger than the other two, but all of them spoke to me. I was afraid of them, and they seemed to realize this. Instantly, they transformed into what I recognized as angels. They didn't have bird wings, they had fibers like fiber optic cables that were shaped like wings and pure light shone through the fibers, forming colors in all shades. (NDERF)

Here, the White Light forms the image of Jesus on request of the NDEr:

I recall flashes of parts of my life up to that point, a bright light in one direction, being drawn in that direction, an inquiry to me as to which religious symbolic form I wanted the presence to appear in, a few options, then my image of Jesus Christ in a blue robe appeared. (NDERF)

This (spirit) woman explains that she would appear not only as religious figures but also as dead relatives of the NDEr:

On my left there was a woman floating, like I was I could not see her head or hands and she was clothed in robes that had the colors of the earth and more in them. ... Before I was sent back, I asked how long was I here and is this what it would be like for everyone else. I was told that I was there for seven years and that each person would see only what they could understand when they came to her. Some would see her as Jesus, some their fathers or moms, every imaginable deity as well. (NDERF)

In general, religious figures just appear inside the White Light, but these last examples show that the figure of Jesus was projected image. One could assume that all beings associated with the White Light images created by the white Light itself, or whatever being is behind it.

This might be a shock to NDErs who firmly believe that they were greeted by their favorite religious being.

2.4 White Light versus Clear Light

This chapter might not sit well with a lot of people, but I think we should look at NDEs from more than one angle, even if this viewpoint stirs up controversy.

There have been a few people who have claimed that the White Light might be a deceptive light. That might sound strange because we all hear about the wonderful feelings the White Light impart on the NDEr's soul. It often emanates immense love, it has intelligence, it guides the soul.

We do have to remember that the astral plane is a world of illusions. Everything you see and experience in that world is a reflection of what is in one's own mind, or in the mind of other astral beings, whoever they might be. We create our environment there, or enter into the environment created by other beings. In the astral world we are also subject to the energies and influences of other beings. That is why all those wonderful NDE stories of God, Jesus, heaven etc. should not be taken at face value. After all there are negative NDEs too.

Because there are also deceptive spiritual beings in the astral world, we should also consider the possibility of mind manipulation by those beings. The White Light might be the manufacture of deceptive beings. How can this be if the White Light is generally described as so wonderful? NDErs don't go by their own volition to the White Light. They feel attracted to it. The White Light exerts a pulling force on the soul. Then it envelops the soul and imbues it with the wonderful feelings of love, bliss etc. Why does the White Light or its associated beings do this? The human soul who has gone through the hardships of a human life, and is usually in pain because of an accident that caused the near-death, will be delighted with this euphoric experience. He will be very inclined to trust this Light, and beings, and immediately obey their instructions, be it to go back to the body or to go to a Council for a Life Review. Or, if death is final, to go to one of the many astral worlds. The human soul will not even think of questioning what is happening to to him, or if there are other options available. The immense large universe must offer a lot more opportunities to express oneself, than to go to an Earthly astral world where the soul just repeats its earthly habits.

Maybe the difference lies in what Light the NDEr encounters. When you follow spiritual traditions, they will tell you that the Light of the True Self has no color. The True Self lies outside any created (astral) worlds. It is clear, bright, intense energy.

When the light you encounter has a color, including white, then it is present in the astral world. Such an intense White Light, with accompanying love feelings, can be created by astral beings. Then you can be tricked in whatever they want you to do or believe.

Maybe we should consider that it is possible that in some NDEs this is the case. It is a bit strange that, especially in the Western world, NDErs are often made to feel guilty during their Life Review process, and this a decisive reason for returning to the physical body. Guilt is a negative emotion, and never constructive. Guilt is often used, here on the physical plane, by people who want to manipulate other people. It is quite effective unless you are more spiritually evolved. Take also into account that the spiritual guides of some NDErs stated that there is nothing good or bad (when viewing the Life Review); there is only experience.

There is another important difference between the White Light and the Clear Light. The White Light actively attract the soul, and envelops it with very strong feelings of love. The soul feels so good about it, that it could stay there forever. Even after the NDE experience the person often longs to go back. The White Light caters to the love feelings we all so crave for. Once the soul is enveloped with this immense love, sometimes also peace and ecstasy, he will be so overwhelmed that he will let all his guards down, and trust the first being that comes along and tells him what he must do. It is similar to the concept of love bombing, a manipulation tactic where someone shows excessive affection and attention to influence another person, often to gain control over them.

In Buddhist meditation, one does not pay attention when a white light appears. Lights and figures appearing are a distraction, and will eventually lead to rebirths. The goal is the attainment of clear pure consciousness, which is the essence of every human being. It is variously translated as "brightly shining mind" or "mind of clear light". In Dzogchen The clear light level of mind is naturally devoid of grosser levels of mental activity, which are the levels at which conceptual cognition and the fleeting stains of disturbing emotions and attitudes occur.

There is an interesting comment of a person who is experienced with out-of-the-body experiences. He says about the White Light:

"Hey, I've been following your work for a while now. And you're absolutely right about the light being a trap. I've been having out of body experiences for about four years now and I've seen things most people can't imagine. Including the light. At present I've seen it seven times. Both in dreams and out of body experiences. Every time I see the light it tries to wipe my memory. Unsuccessfully, of course. I've found that everyone has the ability to wipe their own memory or someone else's memory in the afterlife. I've tried it on myself and it worked. It caused my memories to start fading. The thing is that if you try to wipe someone else's memory and they don't want you to, they can resist through sheer force of will. This is why they can't wipe my memory. It's kind of like the jedi mind trick. It only works on the weak mind.

So for me the light is bad because it tries to memory wipe people against their will which I consider to a be a form of psychic rape. It doesn't usually do this during near death experiences but there are a few in which it has. Most likely these guys can tell whether someone is only temporarily dead or permanently dead. And they proceed accordingly. If they know someone is temporarily dead, they will most likely feed them a bunch of B.S. to reinforce a religious belief system. If they are permanently dead, they will most likely roll out the memory wipe to prepare them for reincarnation. In my case I think they're testing me to see if the memory wipe will even work, which it doesn't.

So. anyway, about my experiences with the light. As I said. I've seen it seven times. Two of those times it tried to pull me in. The first time the light itself was pulling me in. The second time there were invisible entities trying to pull me to the light. Both times I was easily able to get away and got the hell out of there. I have considerable experience navigating the afterlife and dealing with negative entities. That's why I was so easily able to evade the light. A near death experiencer, unfortunately, wouldn't have my knowledge and skill. So it would be harder for them, but they could still evade the light if they realized what was going on and didn't want any part in it.

One thing I should point out is that there isn't just one light. There are a lot of lights. I've seen them have different shapes, colors etc. My guess is the light is a construct someone created to fool people. In the afterlife thought creates reality. So creating something like the light would not be difficult. (Tricked by the Light)

When in the Void, one can go to any world or spiritual realm by just willing it, bypassing the the White Light that will hold you in Earthly astral realm.

2.5 The Welcoming

The White Light is closely associated with the appearance of welcoming figures, although these figures also appear without a White Light manifestation. These figures always have the same function: welcoming the soul, and then telling the soul it has to go back, or to bring the soul to the Council for a Life Review.

These beings are related to one's belief system. Jesus is popular with Christians, although the way he looks vary widely. Occasionally Mother Mary can be present. With Hindus and Buddhist it is often the Lord of Death. Angels frequently appear. Krishna can appear, and Mohamed too. However, how can a person know the real identity of the religious figure? The person can only make a comparison with images he has seen before, images that were based on the imagination of the artist who created them.

Most of the time, these beings do not identify themselves. It is the NDEr who assumes that they represent a particular religious figure. Sometimes they leave them unidentified.

I remember being in the most beautiful white light. It was all encompassing and warm. In the white light with me was a holy being that seemed to me to be God or Christ. (NDERF)

As you can see in the above quote, the soul is greeted by a man he didn't know, but he assumes that it is God, or Jesus.

Sometimes, only a voice is heard, or an invisible presence is felt. Or dead relatives show up. However are all these figures really who they appear to be?

It seems that there are other beings who take the shape of these figures based on what is present in the subconscious of the NDEr, or deceased soul.

I became aware of a Being of light standing beside me...

It's response was that I could call it whatever I wanted to. Most people, it explained, called it an angel or a guide; some called it a god.

'But you aren't really any of that, are you.' I somehow inherently understood this.

It expressed pleasure and pride--what we would call a smile--and replied, 'No. None of those are fully accurate, though all are as accurate as they can be for the person deciding.'

'Why can't I decide what you are?'

'You have no preconceived ideas to get in the way of your understanding. You understand that you cannot truly know me while you carry the limitations of your body. You know whether I am good or bad and whether or not you trust me. This is complete enough knowledge.' (NDERF)

Some NDErs are greeted by non-descriptive beings appearing in a white robes, and they assume that they are angels.

Sometimes spiritual guides appear to help the NDEr through the afterlife process. These beings don't have to be human spirits, they can be angelic or light beings, or even other types of beings we are not familiar with.

Astral beings changing their shape to make the person more comfortable:

In a rare NDE account, this is exactly what the NDEr is told:

"I am your guardian angel, your higher self, your oversoul," answered the angel, "I have been with you all of your life."Upon hearing these words, I became aware of another part of myself, a larger, higher part that I had only glimpsed as a child and in rare dreams throughout my life. I had not understood that this was the larger part of me, the oversoul, or the source of inspiration, my connection to the light. (The Wonder Child, A Journey Through the Light and Back, by Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

Are they really angels, or other kind of astral beings who pretend to be angels? An angel that says it is your Higher Self is also suspect.

Here is an account of a woman who was engulfed by the White Light, and then hooded beings appeared:

As I got closer, it got bigger and brighter until it was all that I could see. I was immersed in the light. As I stood there, the light slowly parted, and I was now able to see two rows of hooded beings in long robes similar to monks lined up in front of me. I sort of passed between them as if floating forward. One of them stepped toward me and spoke. As I turned to look at this being his presence felt somewhat male. There was no face to be seen inside his hood, just darkness and energy. I heard his voice and words, which seemed more energetic than vocal. It was as if we were speaking inside of each other. There was a knowing about our way of communicating. At this point I became overwhelmed with this feeling of unconditional love surrounding me. It was as if all of the hooded ones were radiating love to and through me. I felt totally cherished for the first time in my life, on a level I never knew existed. I was home! South Bay IANDS

Hooded beings also appear with the Council and the Life Review. Although hooded beings can appear to be benevolent, the fact that they don't want to show their true face/identity makes them suspect of ulterior motives.

We might expect that the same afterlife scene would also occur with people from other cultures, replacing the appearance of religious figures with their own gods. Strangely, the entire experience can be different, although it is still a reflection of their own belief system. Here are two quotes from researchers to illustrate this.

"Near-death experiences in Thailand are different from western experiences. There is no tunnel and no White Light. However the soul is always greeted by one or two beings who lead it to Yama, The Lord of Death, who acts as judge and who usually rules that the wrong soul has been taken and that it has to be taken back to Earth. Heaven and hell scenes reflect their Buddhist beliefs." (Near-Death Experiences in Thailand: Discussion of case histories, by Todd Murphy, 1999)

"Hindus in India report that the souls were taken to the after-death realm by functionaries. Then, they or Yamraj, the Hindu god of the dead discover that a mistake has been made and send the person back; but they also can be told by family members to go back. Tunnel experiences do exist but are rare. Religious deities are also encountered. Consistent with western accounts, some Hindu near-death accounts included a Life Review. However, whereas in western accounts the Life Review often consists of viewing a person's entire life, Hindu accounts consist of having someone read the record of the dying person's life." (Near-Death Experiences of Hindus Pasricha and Stevenson's research, 1986)

Despite the superficial differences with Western reports we do find the same theme of beings who take the soul to a place or council where an authority figure sends the soul back, although for a different reason. When the soul does not want to go back, it is forced to go back as is the case in Western NDEs.

Although the reason of the wrong soul being taken is quite common in near-death experiences for these eastern people, some of them had never heard of this before. The reason for this might lie in the shared morphic field of that culture.

There is also a cultural difference in the reason why the soul is send back to the body. The Hindu and Buddhist people are forced to go back, because of a mistake. There is no place for arguing, and no reasons are given and no special mission is mentioned. In Christian societies, we don't hear of any mistakes. They are usually send back because they still need to take care of their family member(s), or they have a mission to fulfill. Sometimes they are also forced to go back against their will.

The following quote of an NDE researcher also explains the appearance of these beings as a result of their belief system:

In past Japanese Buddhism there were reports of souls encountering Enma-Daio, the Japanese version of the Lord of Death. In contemporary Japan people don't believe in Enma-Daio anymore, and modern Japanese NDE'ers do not encounter the Lord of Death at all. "With the demise of the sense of being judged by Enma-Daio, which is directly linked to the overall loss of religiosity, the majority of Japanese people do not seem to think that their deeds in this world will be judged in the next world. This situation may very well contribute to the scarcity of panoramic life review in Japanese NDEs." (A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and Western NDEs)

If we take the Hindu and Buddhist experience as a clear setup of a play with fictional characters, then the same must apply to the afterlife experience in Western culture. That might come to a big shock to all those Christian who were feeling so privileged that Jesus or God showed up in person.

It is also possible that the NDEr is creating these welcoming figures himself. An example of where this might have happened is the NDE account of three people who were struck simultaneously by lighting. They went out of their body together, and found themselves in a beautiful valley:

The light began gathering at the far end of the valley, and slowly, out of the mist, a pure white being began to materialize. I saw an angel with a strong, bright face, but not like you’d usually imagine. She was closer to a strong, Viking Valkyrie. I knew she was the special angel that watches over the women of my family, and I perceived her name to be Hellena. James saw this same being as his late father, a career Naval officer, in a white dress uniform. Rashad perceived the being to be the Enlightened One, or Buddha. (Near-Death)

The unconscious projection of an NDE experience from one's own mind (subconscious) does not invalidate or degrade an NDE.

2.6 The Presence of Deceased Relatives

A little more about those deceased relatives that show up. By the way, there is an NDE account where the soul of a still living friend showed up in her NDE experience. This suggests that he was just a projection of her mind.

Religious figures are not the only ones that show up. Frequently, deceased family members, mostly a grandparent, who the soul once was close to, are present. It is of course quite possible that the relatives are real, that they came from their astral home or heaven to say hello.

One would expect that the NDEr and the deceased grandpa or grandma would have a lot to talk about, since they last saw each other. Instead, there is often no conversation worth mentioning, and the relatives seem to be just there to tell the soul...to go back to the physical body. This is a strong indication that we are dealing with other beings who took the shape of the dead relative. When this is the case, the appearance of a dead relative seems to be to gain the trust of the soul, just like all the other characters. Sometimes the dead relative doesn't say anything at all; he/she is just standing there with the other characters.

When The Soul Does Not Want To Go Back

In general, all these beings, and that includes the Lord of Death in Hindu and Buddhist experiences, are there to send the soul back to its body.

The big problem is, the soul almost never wants to go back, because of the good feelings of love and bliss that were given, and the immense feeling of freedom in the spiritual world.

He answered that the only way I could help him was by going back and telling my world what had happened to me. I was completely shocked to hear him say so, because I did not want to go back. I was so depressed that I almost started to cry. (NDERF)

Refusal is never accepted. There is clear persuasion tactic at work.

First the soul is bathed in extreme good feelings and the appearance of a trustworthy personage. They all exude love feelings, but tell the soul to go back anyway.

If the soul refuses to go back, it will be told that it has work to do on Earth.

I was SO happy to see her and I wanted to stay with her. I asked her if she was OK and she told me she was fine and then told me I had to go back. She told me, ‘It is not your time. You have many things to do.’ And with that I was slammed back into my body – back was the pain and I felt sad.” (Karen Floyd)

If that doesn't work, it will be reminded of family members, especially children. That works in most cases because refusal would bring up an immense feeling of guilt.

If the soul is brought before the Council for a Life Review, it will be shown scenes that the soul will always feel bad about. Who has never done something in his life that he regrets or knows that was wrong? (that doesn't mean it was wrong or bad to begin with)

Another reason that is effective is to tell the soul that it has a special mission to fulfill, although it is never told what that mission is.

If the soul is steadfast in staying, then it will be forcibly pushed into its physical body.

Uncertain up to this day I can't recall if after looking downwards the decision to return was completely mine or forced to me by an inside voice that didn't belong to myself. (NDERF)

Isn't coercion or forcing a violation of one's free will?

However, some NDErs make their own choice, knowing the difficulties that are ahead of them in the physical world. As one six year old child describes it:

I looked then at my body lying there. 'I will know only pain if I go back.'
'Yes. Still, the choice to return is your own. We will not decide. We love you always.'
'I want to stay so badly.' I looked at the Being and felts its understanding and willingness to accept that.
'I'll go back.' It wasn't a choice, but it felt like acceptance and knowledge. I knew I would go back. I had promised. I had work to do even though it was really, really hard work. But I didn't want to go back.
The Being waited patiently as feelings of my pain and desperation warred with my mental knowledge and commitment. I had just spent eternity in magic, wonder, and a wealth of love and gratitude, listening to celestial songs and ballets in a perfect world.
Now I would return to squalor, abject misery, terror, and agony. And I knew it wouldn't end soon either. I did return to my body and all the inherent pain, after an exploration of magnificence I cannot even describe at all. And here I remain, for now. (NDERF)

2.7 The Life Review

Not all NDErs have a Life Review. The Life Review itself can happen at any time, right after leaving the physical body, inside the White Light, with a light being or with deceased relative, or at the Council inside a building. The Life Review can be projected onto a screen, but not always. The scenes can be presented just in front of the person. The person can also find himself in the scenes from a third person point of view or relive the scenes as it was happening again.

In esoteric circles this corresponds with the akashic records of the individual. Everything we do, feel and think during our life is recorded on the astral plane in the akashic records. These akashic records are such that they can be viewed as a third person or relived. You can also access other people's akashic records. This explains that an NDEr can also feel what other people were feeling when he did his good and bad things in life. For example, he can feel the result of his expression of anger towards a person. One must understand that the other person is responsible for his own feelings and reactions, but when you express anger with the intention to hurt, then it is beneficial to see how this causes pain in others.

A Life review is an option readily available on the spiritual planes. It can be automatically initiated at the moment of death, or near-death, by the subconscious or the Higher Self of the person. It can also be generated by a spiritual guide, but also by deceptive beings in order to make the human soul feel guilty, and make him return to the body, or when death is final, to reincarnate in a new body.

Although good and bad are relative terms based on morals and ethics which are human inventions, it can useful to review one's life if certain actions were not in line with a higher spiritual or divine perspective. This is an individual choice.

2.8 The Mission

Sometimes the soul refuses to go back to the physical body. The spiritual environment is so full of love and light and freedom, that going back to a battered physical body (often by an accident) in pain is not attractive. Some NDErs do ask themselves, afterwards, why we come here in the first place. Over there it so wonderful, so why would any soul decide to incarnate here on the physical Earth with all its hardships, troubles, pain and horrors?

When the NDEr does not want to go back to his physical body, then we see a discussion that is aimed at giving reasons to change his mind. We see this especially with the Council. An effective technique is to tell the soul that it has a special mission to fulfill, although it is never told what that mission is.

When the person reached me, we spoke through thought. He told me that it was not my time to enter into my heavenly home but had a mission to fulfill. NDERF

When getting to the light I saw a man who radiated peace and tranquility, but when I was next to him, he stopped me and said, 'No, you cannot come in. Your time is not now yet. Get back you still have to fulfill your mission on earth.' NDERF

During the NDE experience I was told' that I couldn't stay there and I had to return to this world because I had a mission'. That was all I was told in words...

Furthermore, this 'mission,' I did not know what my 'mission' was. But I knew I had one. Every second of recovery in the hospital I obsessed the thought, 'What the hell could this mission be?' Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife

Ah, yes, what is the point to tell someone he has a special mission to fulfill but not tell him what that mission is.

The light told me without words that I was still on a mission on earth, but without saying what it was. NDERF

I was at TOTAL peace so there was nothing I needed. I asked if I could stay and a voice boomed, 'Your mission is not complete. You cannot stay. NDERF

I asked if I could stay because it was so beautiful there and I didn't want to come back to earth. The light being said, 'No, you have a mission that you must do.' I didn't know what the mission was but I said 'Yes' to returning back to the earth. NDERF

After a while, they told me they had to go and I should go back, because they said, 'You, also, still need to accomplish your mission'. NDERF

In the garden to the right were two people; one wore a white tunic and had bare feet. It was JESUS CHRIST and beside him was my brother who had died of a car accident when I was eight years old. When I reached them, my brother asked me, ‘What are you doing here? Jesus told me, ‘GO BACK. It is not your time. You have to go back because I gave you a mission. You’re already a MOM! NDERF

Her mission was being a mother?? Well, Jesus said so!

They said, 'Maybe another time, but not now. You have a mission to do on the Earth and you must do it. No one else can do it but you.' I thought about it and I said, 'Ok. I’ll do it.' My mission is basically to share my story down here on the Earth, to tell everybody that they are love too. I told the light body that I would do my mission. It said, 'We will be in touch once more.' NDERF

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. NDERF

So as I drifted along, I suddenly came to a stop. I didn't want to go back into my body. I encountered a form, who I knew was God, who told me it was time to now go back. I started arguing with God in my own little obnoxious way and God said I needed to go back because my mission here wasn't complete. NDERF

Next, I found myself in some kind of courtroom. Before me sat an unbelievably stern all-powerful yet very kind judge. Absolutely incorruptible. Duty and person were one and the person didn't exist without the duty. I sat on a bench and near me was a friend or defender. Great love emanated from him. Was it Jesus? The judge asked me, 'What are you doing here?' I was overcome with fear and wanted to wake up but that didn't happen. I thought about it and remembered that I had wanted to die. At the same moment that I knew this, so did the judge. I felt his mercy and it was like balm for my soul. I realized he wasn't at all angry. I learned how to distinguish between power and anger. The judge thought for a while and said: 'But you have a mission.' In this moment, I saw all the people (of my era?) with their unique destinies as a great mosaic, and my destiny was intertwined in that mosaic. The harmony of all these destinies together was amazing. I knew that if my own destiny failed then the harmony of the whole would be destroyed. I knew that I had to fulfill my destiny. The shirt was closer to me than the jacket. I did not want to return to the hell that is the reality of being on earth. The judge determined in his objective way, 'You must go back! NDERF

In this last experience, the NDEr is told that "I knew that if my own destiny failed then the harmony of the whole would be destroyed." Really? It sounds more like manipulation. If he would decide to stay in the astral world, then he would be responsible for the destruction of the whole world? The problem here is that the recently deceased souls tend to belief everything an authoritative figure, like a judge, tells them.

When back in their body, these people often try to understand what their mission is. Being ordinary people, they usually figure that it is to help other people. This not exactly a mission, it is our natural instincts to help each other.

I was sent back and I was supposed to do something, and I don’t know what. I don’t know what. I’m here, and I don’t know if it’s supposed to jump out at me and I’ll know. I haven’t a clue. I haven’t a clue! Maybe I’m supposed to save somebody from getting hit by a car, or something, but I know I’m here for a reason. I know this, but don’t ask me how I know, because I know. I don’t know how I know, but I’ve got to be here. I haven’t a clue. NDERF

As mentioned earlier it is a typical western phenomenon. So the source might lie in the collective unconscious of Western people. In Eastern NDEs this mission issue does not appear.

2.9 The Thunderous Voice

When the soul refuses to go back, the response can be very intimidating when the authority figure raises its voice with a thunderous tone. This is not to be expected from a peaceful and loving God. It does make sense when people are familiar with the Old Testament God. The accounts strongly suggest that these scenes are created by deceptive astral beings.

While flying around having a little fun, a large translucent head approached us very rapidly. It was only a head and face of an old wise man with no body. The head seemed to be the size of a house, ten times the size of us. The angel/spirits began to speak first saying, 'He likes it here. He wants to stay.' The large head of the wise old man replied in a very low deep voice, 'He is not ready.' The angel/spirits replied again, 'But he likes it here.' The old man responded in a sterner voice, 'He's not ready.' Again, the angel/sprits replied, 'Please can he stay? He really likes it here.' This the wise man responded with a mean expression on his face and with thunderous deep loud voice, saying, 'He's not ready!' This seemed to scare the angel/spirits and shook me a little bit. Because I understood the old man was not talking to me and was directing his wrath towards the angel/spirits for not being obedient to his words, I just stared at the old man. This is the last image I saw in this reality. NDERF

The old wise man image is reminiscent to the Old Testament God. The thunderous voice reminds us of how God spoke to Moses. Very intimidating. In the following account, a figure on a throne also implies God:

There were two glowing figures. I could not see their faces but one was sitting on a throne and one was standing next to the other. A thunderous voice spoke and the other man said it is not time my son, go back and take care of people. NDERF

Even more intimidating, also with biblical reference:

I am not quite sure about what happened next, but all of a sudden, I heard a thunderous, angry voice accusing humankind, including myself, of destroying his garden on Earth...However, he insisted by saying, ‘Now you are again a little and ignorant child that does not know how to do it!’ So I asked him that, being a little and ignorant child, I would not know how to inform my world. To my great surprise, the light answered in an angry and brusque voice, ‘You will know how to do it when the time is right.’ NDERF

A 'superior' being this time, but unidentified as to it might have been:

Just when I was ready to go into the great city, a big voice, something like when a big thunder comes down and booms strongly. A very authoritarian form and sounding very loud says my name. I started to feel an incredible force, like a big turbine, pulling me back. Just when I was returning, I could see the moon and a big transparent being, like a jellyfish, was holding over his head the moon and in between both feet, holding the Planet Earth...

Yes I was aware that there was a superior being. Besides, I heard his voice pronounced in a tone like the noise of a thunder that resonated in my ears in the dome were I was, pronouncing my name. I saw him when I was coming back, I saw him holding the Moon over his head and with his feet he held The Earth and I am certain that he was the one that pronounced my name with a thunderous voice. NDERF

2.10 The Council

The Council does not seem to be a natural product of the afterlife. There is no reason for one's subconscious to project a scene in which a council of beings judges a soul. It strongly suggests that there are deceptive beings at work here. There are not that many NDErs being brought before a Council. However, it shows that on the astral plane there are deceptive beings who employ different scenarios.

The Council event is a way that primarily provides the Life Review. When we look at Hindu accounts, the Life Review consists of having someone read the record of the dying person’s life (called the akashic record). There is no visual or panoramic view.

It seems that a soul is brought before a Council when it has no intentions of going back to his physical body, and thus the deceptive beings want to exert more pressure on the soul to change its mind.

The Council event is usually in a courtroom-like setting, and maybe this is a reflection of the existence of courtrooms in our present culture. It is an ideal setting to bring the soul under an authoritative environment in which it has to submit to a verdict.

The council meeting can be really strange. In typical NDE fashion, it is different in every case, which is an indicator that the deceptive beings use the content of the NDEr's subconscious mind. I find it strange that the NDErs never ask "Who are those council members?" They describe them as 'beings'. Sometimes their description shows that they are clearly non-human. Sometimes they are hooded, hiding their faces. Strangely, some of the council rooms were filled with mist making it impossible for the soul to make out any details about these beings.

In the following experience, the fourteen year old girl, got a verdict that was really strange as it included judgment on things she hadn't done yet. This does not look like one's own mind creating such a judgment on itself. It looks more like an instigation of severe guilt on a young girl:

I was aware that I could communicate without speaking and that I could know all that I wanted to know. There was a feeling of peace and calm, unlike anything I've experienced since. Then came a judgment of sorts, where I was judged on the things I had done and the things I would do in my future life. This upset me as I felt it was mean to punish or judge me for things I hadn't done yet. I wasn't judged on big things, more small instances of intent. It was the little things that mattered and not the big things. Then I was told that I had to go back, which didn't make me happy at all as I knew that being alive would hurt. (NDERF)

In the following experience, they asked the NDEr if he wanted to stay, although he was forced to go back under the pretext that he still had to learn a lot. It is a reason that often comes up when a soul wants to stay in the astral world.

I was surrounded instantaneously, by six or seven 'Entities', (maybe Angels) as I was in the middle of them, all of us were in a cloudy mist like fog or clouds, floating in the air, in a grayish-brilliant LIGHT. They were in white robes, but I couldn't see their faces or their feet. None of us was the touching ground. There was no ground. I realized they all knew me. They knew who I was and everything about me... They asked me if I wanted to stay with them or if I wanted to come back to Earth? Because everything there was so overwhelmingly wonderful and beautiful, I asked to stay with them. It wasn't until years later, after I realized what happened to me had a name, 'Near-Death-Experience', and that what happened to me was REAL, not a dream, that I remembered then that they 'sent' me back, against my will. Then I was really MAD! Why did they make me come back, when I wanted to stay?? I felt controlled. Why did they ask me, if the decision wasn't really mine?? OHHHHH I was so MAD!!! Of course, now I know why. My life on EARTH wasn't finished yet. I had a lot to do. I had a lot of learning to get, and I was to help others with this experience. (NDERF)

The soul can feel really intimidated, especially when it finds itself naked:

Next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a council of thirteen beings with the One in the middle twice as big as the six on either side of him. They were all sitting in chairs, big chairs at a sizeable distance in front of me. I was naked and felt totally revealed and tried to use my hands to cover myself up. NDERF

Here is a Council existing of all men, judging a woman who had issues with men in her life, what also reflects that her subconscious is used in a very particular way to persuade her :

I was led to a room, which was exquisitely built and appointed. I entered and saw a group of men seated around the long side of a kidney-shaped table. I was led to stand in front of them within the indented portion of the table. One thing struck me almost immediately; there were twelve men here - men - but no women. (from Betty Eadie's book Embraced by the Light)

From the scenes of its past life, usually projected on a screen, the soul feels a sense of duty, or obligation, or the soul is told that it has a special mission to fulfill. Again this is designed to make the soul feel guilty. Especially when there is a judge present.

I did not want to return to the hell that is the reality of being on earth. But the judge determined in his objective way: You must go back! NDERF

2.11 Predictions and Prophetic Visions

It is really a small minority of NDErs that receive predictions of the future.

There are two types of predictions given in an NDE experience. Predictions of future happenings in the NDEr own life, and prophetic visions of the future of humanity and the planet.

The predictions of one's own life are usually detailed and accurate, that is, they happen as predicted. It seems that this is to strengthen the belief of the person's own spiritual path in life. Here it is possible that the NDEr is able to tap into his own blueprint he drew up before incarnating, a blueprint that outlines the most important events that he wanted to have in this life. It is also possible that a spiritual being or guide is showing this to him.

The other kind is prophetic visions of large or world events. These are usually less detailed, and most of the time they do not come true. Why give a prophetic vision that is not going to happen?

The prophetic visions are given to the NDEr by a voice, by God, and often by unidentified beings. Why would any spiritual being give dire predictions about the world or humanity to a soul that just died? I see two possibilities. There are some mischievous spiritual entities that delight in giving these false predictions. Or, it is again the NDEr's own mind at work. We live in a world in which prophetic visions receive a lot of attention, especially in Christian circles. The NDEr himself might have an unconscious desire to give such predictions (actually make it up).

Dr. Kenneth Ring, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Connecticut who has studied hundreds of near-death cases, states that according to the NDE prophecies, "there will be an increasing incidence of earthquakes, volcanic activity and generally massive geophysical changes. There will be resultant disturbances in weather patterns and food supplies. The world economic system will collapse, and the possibility of nuclear war or accident is very great (respondents are not agreed on whether a nuclear catastrophe will occur). All of these events are transitional rather than ultimate, however, and they will be followed by a new era in human history, marked by human brotherhood, universal love, and world peace. Though many will die, the earth will live."

If you have followed predictions and prophecies of the last decades or even the last centuries, then you will know that most of them never happened. Isn't it strange that some NDErs are shown what will happen in the future by supposedly spiritual beings. It is, of course, mostly about cataclysms, catastrophes and disasters. What's the point of relaying such information to an ordinary person? Even if they write a book about it, it won't change anything. It just puts people into fear. Not to mention that most of it never happens.

When there are other beings giving the predictions to the NDEr, these figures are not what they seem to be. If we accept that Jesus is at least a very advanced spiritual being, he would not give such frightful information to a soul to disseminate into the physical world once he is back. Most of these visions don't come true anyway, and cause only fear; and when the predictions don't come true the person will be ridiculed.

2.12 Hearing Music

Esoteric teachings have always told us that the entire cosmos or universe is based on sound. Sound was the first thing created. Music is the progression and harmony of sound. You probably have heard that everything is vibration, or frequency, and thus everything has a sound.

Sound and music always played a big role in obtaining altered states.

Robert Monroe talked about sound and music in out-of-the-body-experiences:

"Out-of-body realms are usually areas of intense experience where the dominant reality is that of light, sound, vibration, motion or emotion. For example, the soul may sense a powerful vibration or sound that causes them to be caught up in that energy. Sometimes these sounds or vibrations propel them at a great speed through a tunnel. They may experience the feeling of inner sounds or vibrations but not the experience of movement and acceleration. Often, such experiences involve hearing spiritual music or sounds, and can be quite ecstatic. These inner sounds along with inner lights can sometimes act as a means of transition between waking experience and some formed inner world. Sounds which occur during conscious transitions out of the body are usually very powerful, and may result in the obliteration of the body image. Some of the sounds which occur are of a spiritual or mystical nature rather than transitional sounds that carry the traveler to a different place. These "higher" spiritual sounds are of a heavenly nature and are ecstatic beyond description. Some sample sounds one may encounter are the sounds of a speeding train, a loud buzzing, a flute, or the sounds of nature like the roar of a waterfall. These sounds or vibrations are of such intensity that they seem to pass right through the body, overpowering the other senses."

Sound and music is prevalent in the spiritual worlds. Swedenborg states that:

Once again I heard hymnists, or those singing the praise of our Savior. In fact, a number of choirs were heard singing at the same time about a variety of subjects, by means of visual displays and mental imagery. And yet they are one chorus, consisting of very many, and acting at the same time as one, without any confusion from each other, so that one was in the other, or inside of the other, even outside of the other. In this way the whole angelic heaven customarily devotes itself to the praise and glory of the Savior. This is why musical harmony and singing is so delicious to the heavenly ones when the thoughts of a person on earth are concordant with their ideas. I have often experienced in churches, that the heavenly choirs have joined in, with a very deep sense of gladness, unbelievable, and thus unutterable, to anyone. (Spiritual Experiences §491)

Swedenborg talked of the life in heaven as filled with music, concerts, and singing. He said that music originated in the heavens before coming to the natural world. Music can be an experience of wholeness and connection with each other and with God.

In the astral worlds, everything vibrates, and thus makes music. As a soul one can consciously or subconsciously tune into the vibrations of anything, from something small to something immense, and hear its music with the mind, and even become one with the music.

So it is no wonder that many NDErs feel vibrations, hear sounds or music. Because in the spiritual spheres there are no limitations as we experience on Earth, the music heard by NDErs is often difficult to reproduce, but some composers have tried and have come close.

Developmental and musical psychologist Dr. Joel D. Funk, a professor of psychology at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, found that about half of the NDErs had heard music while out of their body. To figure out the type of music he played different styles for 60 people who have reported a NDE and found the music sounds closest to New Age synthesized music. "New Age" music topped the list -- especially works by two California performers, Iasos and John Serrie, Funk said. They choose The Angels of Comfort composed by Iasos as the one best resembling what they heard. This track is on the Angelic Music a album. Some said the music of Brian Eno and Tibetan bells also came close to the music they had heard, while others felt some connection to the classical works of Wagner, Beethoven and Richard Strauss.

We should also mention Steve Roach who composed Structures from Silence as a close reflection to what he heard during his NDE. Gilles Bedard, also an NDEr said that "...when I heard Structures from Silence from Steve Roach, I recognized the sound I heard on the Other Side. The music of Steve Roach is by far the most accurate and closest to the real sound of the near-death experience. When you go to the source of that sound, you then find yourself beyond the emotional side that we usually associate with the music on Earth. In my twenty-five years of research, on the television and radio programs I was invited to, I played that music and hundreds of people 'recognized' this particular sound. This happened also at the IANDS conference."

An example of music heard by an NDEr:

The stars began to change shapes before my eyes. They began to dance and deliberately draw themselves into intricate designs and colors which I had never seen before. They moved and swayed to a kind of rhythm or music with a quality and beauty I had never heard and yet ... remembered. A melody that humans could not possibly have composed, yet was so totally familiar and in complete harmony with the very core of my being. As if it were the rhythm of my existence, the reason for my being. The extravagance of imagery and coloration pulsed in splendid unison with the magnificent ensemble. I felt completely at peace, tranquilized by the vision and the melodic drone. I could have stayed in this place for eternity with this pulse of love and beauty beating throughout my soul. The love poured into me from all corners of the universe. (from the book Lessons from the Light by Kenneth Ring)

2.13 Mystical Experiences

Some NDErs have truly transcendental experiences, in the sense that we do not usually experience these while still alive, unless taking mind altering substances:

The feeling of absence of time and space.

Perception of infinity.

Seeing all around oneself in 360°, also up and down.

Becoming one with something greater than oneself.

Feeling one with everything else.

Reality is viewed in a new light.

The feeling that everything is perfect.

Everything seems to have consciousness and is alive.

Communication is by telepathy or mind-to-mind.

Perceiving what is going on at another location.

Perceiving of future events.

Experiencing immense joy, bliss, love.

Touring around the universe and experiencing total unity.

Being in a state of mind where one knows everything, or any question is immediately answered.

Hearing unearthly music, or seeing colors that don't exist on Earth.

I mentioned before that in the afterlife, or spiritual worlds, one can assume any shape one wants. Normally, a deceased, or soul, keeps the form of his former human body, because that is what he has been habituated to. But more spiritual people can assume the form of a light sphere, which is the archetypal, or rather, the essential form of a soul. The Greek philosopher Plato said that the soul had the form of a sphere because the sphere is the most perfect and most beautiful shape. When light spheres or orbs are seen in NDEs, they are the forms of other souls.

I tried to fight for my life, but the battle became overwhelming. At this point I just surrendered myself, my soul, to the power that brings us all into existence and that gives us all life. I knew that this was the source of all life and the way of all things. I surrendered to that and I entered a state of peacefulness. Then, just like that (clapping her hands), I became a ball of light or energy in the midst of this crowd that was circling a body. (Near-Death)

The all-knowingness:

In time the questions ceased, because I suddenly was filled with all the Being's wisdom. I was given more than just the answers to my questions; all knowledge unfolded to me, like the instant blossoming of an infinite number of flowers all at once. I was filled with God's knowledge, and in that precious aspect of his Beingness, I was one with him. (Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife)

I suddenly felt a connection to all the knowledge that there is in the universe. I realized that I didn’t even need to form a question in my mind because the second I’d start to do that, I’d have the answer. (IANDS)

Infinity:

As if I blinked, I was no longer in a hospital bed but in a vast bluish/white infinity that radiated such peace and beauty. The vastness consumed me but expanded everywhere and all around. (IANDS)

Other realities, other worlds:

I had a strong desire now to join the river of life and felt this was home, where I came from. Touching the river gave me insight into realms beyond realms, universes beyond universes, dimensions beyond dimensions; I experienced infinity. I was shown a long line of experiences in other realms of realities and on other worlds. It was some time later I realized it was my past “lives” review of all existences of which I had been part. There were beings and objects unlike anything I had ever seen or heard of, even in the imaginings of science fiction writers I had read. I was made to know there were an infinite number of realms of existence and all were part of the One, the Source. The stream had distinct layers or levels that were not divided by any kind of barrier but each seemed to be of a different density. (IANDS)

The experience of oneness is quite common with NDEs:

I was no longer a separate awareness experiencing God but I became IT. I was THAT. I was the Omnipresent LOVE! I was the FORMLESS ONE DRIPPING LOVE DROPS THAT WERE manifesting INTO FORM everywhere. All of it was me. I was in God and God was in me. We were One and the same. I was the formless and the form, all pervading and timeless. I was everything and nothing at the same time, beyond time and space. (IANDS)

All this shows that the Earthly experience is limited to what the physical brain and body can process. In the spiritual realms there is so much more to explore.

2.14 Spiritual Transformation

Many NDErs had a profound change in their life because of their experience. They changed their attitudes towards people and the world at large. Their belief structure changed. Some became more religious (in their church), others became more spiritual. The consciousness of NDErs has expanded, and they have gained or deepened their awareness with the Divine.

Although some NDErs came back with a feeling of guilt, or had a distressing experience, the majority experienced a beneficial transformation. They have a larger picture of what life is about, and how they fit in it. They become less egocentric or egoistic, and have more respect towards others. In general they do not fear death anymore. Some want to go back to that wonderful place they were in.

One could call an NDE a mystical experience because of its lasting changes in character and values, including changes in the person’s relationship with what they perceive as God, but also with nature and other people.

2.15 Healing

Aside from spiritual transformations, a few NDErs started a healing practice. They usually also give intuitive and give spiritual guidance.

Other NDErs were healed from their aliments, such as cancer, anorexia, PTSD, bi-polar disorder, depression, etc. after their NDE.

I was just in this white light and in this bliss feeling. I don’t know how long all this was, but I came out and saw blood in my brain. As I saw my brain bleeding, I was guided on how to heal it. I was shown how to suck out this blood, and as I was doing this it was as if something was holding my hands, guiding me in doing this. I didn’t even have my literal human hands, but my self outside my body and something else using my “hands” to heal. Once all the blood was gone, I came back to the here and now and “woke up. (IANDS)

This shows that the transformative spiritual effect on the life of a person, can also have a healing or harmonizing effect on his mind and body. Some NDErs also develop psychic abilities. It seems that an NDEr not just returns to his body, but also can bring spiritual energies down, or certain spiritual channels are opened up by which he now can tap into more universal energy for various purposes. It just depends on the person to what degree, and to what extend.

2.16 Frightening Experiences

Some NDEs are distressing. The individual feels fear and panic when he left the body, and is filled with despair, enters darkness and a void, encounters an evil presence, or sees hellish places.

NDEs that are happy and wonderful get a lot of attention. However there are people who have had negative or fearful experiences during their NDE. These people are not so willing to share their experiences. NDE researchers have come across these accounts, but their estimate of how many people had negative experiences varies. Negative NDEs being unreported was due to fear, shame, social stigma, experiencers not wanting to burden others with their horrific tales, and the trauma associated with reliving these upsetting stories by retelling them.

For some NDErs their experience was frightening or had frightening elements to it, because they actually did not understand what was going on. We see that, for example, with the Void. Being alone in an endless black space can indeed be fearful for some. Experiencing strange vibrations, movements, and going through a narrow tunnel also can be frightening. Some see angry or malevolent spirits, or find themselves in a desolate place.

Overall, such NDErs have never being harmed. They experienced a fear or negative emotions that actually exists in themselves. The NDEr automatically creates such an environment, or is attracted to these lower astral levels. Once the NDEr calls out for help, he will be lifted out of these negative realms, or states of consciousness.

People who attempt suicide are almost always in a distressed frame of mind. Usually they are attempting suicide because they feel themselves to be in unendurable and unending emotional or physical pain. In addition, they are almost certainly aware of the widely held belief that suicide is cowardly and/or the wrong way to escape the pain of life.

The positive side of a distressing, negative or hellish NDE is that it can have a spiritual transformation in the life of the person. When the NDEr realizes what was wrong in his behavior he will be motivated to change his life around into a more positive direction.

I don't think only bad people, or people with heavy negative emotional issues will have unpleasant NDEs. Nobody is perfect, we all have issues and fears. There are probably many issues at play that we don't know of. The state of mind at the moment of near-death is probably a big factor, but not the only one. One's belief system or lack thereof can also be important.

Some researchers use the term hellish experiences, but the word hell is misleading because of the traditional religious meaning.

It is necessary to understand that in the astral worlds, there is no Hell as it is explained in religious traditions. There are lower astral regions in which human spirits dwell who are still holding on to their lower, negative emotions. In the astral world one creates his own environment, and somebody who is still attached to his fears will create himself a fearful environment. This also applies to people who are experiencing an NDE.

During several of Swedenborg's near-death experiences, he would witness people dying and see their happenings in the afterlife. He stated that immediately following death, there is a period of self-discovery in which the social masks worn on Earth dissolve away and the true self is revealed. Each person then shapes their own eternity to correspond with their real inner nature. Some people become irrational, driven by fear and greed. Such people are in the spiritual condition which Swedenborg called hell. Hell is a psychological condition which corresponds to the suffering we experience on Earth when we allow ourselves to be driven by the blind greed of our own egos. There are no devils in hell to inflict punishments because in the hellish spiritual state each person acts out their own malice by tormenting others.

From an NDEr:

Lamenting my situation, and aching for another chance at life, it dawns on me that the void is a place of my own making. A representation of my apathy; a symbol of the wall I’d spent a lifetime building. Its bricks were ones I’d stacked to keep people out and my feelings in. A barrier of my own construction, built brick-upon-brick with each hurt I’d suffered. My efforts to protect myself had made me less…less real, less vulnerable, less joyful, as impenetrable as the coma I lay in. My physical self in the ICU had no idea how close she was to losing it all. “When I finally realized the void was a prison of my own design, it split open with a thunderous BOOM! A bright light shone before me. The darkness was still there, but now it was behind and beneath me, being pushed back and down by the brilliant light. (IANDS)

2.17 NDE's and The Moon

Here is a strange topic associated with a few NDEs that we need to look into.

It seems strange that the Moon would be involved when a person dies and the soul leaves the body. However the presence of the Moon sometimes comes up in near-death experiences. Many cultures or peoples tell us that after death, the souls go to the Moon. The Moon is seen as a place where souls live or rest until they come back to Earth again.

In the following NDE, the typical love feeling that is instilled in the departed soul, usually by the White Light or a light being, came from the Moon.

Somehow, I felt like I was between the Earth and the Moon. I felt this overwhelming presence next to me on my right side, like the Moon, but it was an intelligence. It radiated love, far beyond anything I had dreamed or heard of before, sort of like a father. There was no image. He made me feel sad that I had ended up in that condition, like a scolded child, but in a loving way. I felt other beings nearby, but no shapes or faces. There was an overwhelming sense of peace and contentment all around me. Source: NDERF

Here, the Moon is associated with the Light:

It looked like I was floating into a huge light that looked like the full moon. Source: NDERF

I was moving towards a beautiful bright light just like the moon but sending out long rays of light that I was going towards. NDERF

The following NDEr thinks that the Moon is the place where deceased souls go to.

As I looked around I saw a bright light. It was the moon; the sun was reflecting light off the moon surface. We were in space, equal distance to the moon on the right side (looking from earth). I do not think this was heaven's final destination. I think it was a greeting area to receive us when we cross over. Source: NDERF

This last quote is really interesting, as the person sees the Moon as a receiving area for souls, something that out-of-the-body-experiencers also have talked about. Of some interest is that this man also claimed to have a UFO abduction eight months earlier.

Another NDEr went to the Moon:

I looked over my shoulder and it was as though I was on the moon or somewhere else other than earth...I looked around again and it was as though I was standing on the moon looking back down at the earth. I could see scattered white clouds covering the deep blue waters of earth. It was very beautiful and I felt very peaceful and happy. NDERF

2.18 Visiting Other Planets

There are quite a few NDErs who mention that at one point they 'flew' through the universe, and saw other stars and planets. Usually they are only briefly noticed, as in the following examples:

When it was time to return, we came to my body almost precisely as we had left it. This was odd to me because I had just spent eternity among the strange creatures of the other planet, among the stars, gas giants, ringed planets and frozen planets, and burning magma planets. (NDERF)

The tunnel seemed to be lit up. The space around me was lit up, like the stars. There was a large planet that was bigger than earth. It seemed to me. I even saw the atmosphere.... Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? Some unfamiliar and strange place Well! Now that I think of it, as I traveled through the tunnel, it kept stopping at planets, and stars: some strange places other than Heaven. It looked like there were buildings. But that was long ago. (NDERF)

I received knowledge. I flew in outer space, until I reached Jupiter. I was expanded and I was huge. My guides told me how planets were formed. Everything was discussed with me. (NDERF)

I immediately found myself moving past the planets starting with Venus, then Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. I must confess that I don't remember seeing Pluto. These planets were very close to each other in sort of a staggered line, not a straight line. They were huge and absolutely beautiful. Jupiter was the most colorful and brightest. They were close together in a way that I would pass one and immediately approach another. I was moving past them in a short amount of time yet I did not feel like I was moving very fast at all. As I was going past Uranus, I turned my head to look back at all of them again, they were just so incredibly beautiful. (NDERF)

At some point, I communicated that I was interested in knowing if there was life in other areas of the universe. I was transported through millions of light years of space in moments and shown many planets and places where complex and more simple life existed. Whole cultures and societies that flourished unknown to us. I was allowed to view these beings living their daily lives. (NDERF)

I distinctly remember feeling like I was being lifted. It was like I was in a transparent elevator moving towards a soothing light that did not even hurt my eyes. I saw planets unlike earth with just dust and rocks. It reminded me of mars or something like that. (NDERF)

At some point during the night I came to awareness to see that I standing on another planet. I looked up to see that a huge planet took up most of the sky, and it had rings like Saturn. I could also see a small moon. I knew for certain I was not dreaming, and that I was far from my own galaxy. What I saw and felt there was far more real than anything I ever experienced while dreaming or while awake.

I was on a beach in front of an ocean. It was exactly like an ocean in every way, except each wave was transparent - and each one was a different, deep jewel-like color. There were colors in that sea that I had never seen before. The Sea of Light was rolling and crashing on the beach, wave after wave. The sand was made up of pebbles and particles of real gold. The waves, taken together, created a heavenly orchestration that is indescribable.

I could hear tones and instruments that I knew did not exist on earth. It was like the music was not only 3D, but 4D. I experienced the colors and music in ways I cannot describe... I WAS the colors and music in every atom of my being. (IANDS)

Then I could see a small pinhole of a light, wanting to know about it, suddenly I was there. Entering into a light but not what I expected, I went through and saw billions of galaxies. Farther than the spiritual eye could see. Thought not really in control but still wanting to know more I spotted a blue planet. I guess I thought it was earth and wanted to go, suddenly I was there and it was not earth. I was in a city with buildings made of what appeared of glass. There were no seams in the buildings. It was as if a giant glass blower had blown the buildings from ground up. (IANDS)

I found only three accounts with detailed descriptions of life on other planets. Two of them I don't trust, having all the earmarks of having been made up. The only one that seems reliable, which is also interesting, is from Sandi T., a woman who had gone through multiple physical abuses. Here is the extract about the planets she visited, accompanied by her spiritual guide. It gives us a perspective of other intelligent life-forms in the universe:

Then I was out of my body, standing there watching the scene. My body was now limp, and Dorothy was shaking it by the throat as if expecting more of a fight. I turned to the Being beside my Awareness, as it were.
It reached out to me, like taking my hand would seem in real life. 'Let us take a tour,' was all it communicated to me.
I glanced back and saw that Dorothy had begun to resuscitate my body. I felt worry, but not for the body. 'Will we have time?'
The sense of a smile. 'Plenty, and some to spare. Time here will not pass while we are there.'
We were somewhere else. I didn't really sense a transition, as much as just being somewhere else. I felt only awe and wonder. We were at the base of plants that were like trees but more akin to seaweed. They waved back and forth like great fronds of ferns. They were either red or gold. The red ones had gold veining; the gold ones had green veining.
Moving gracefully through them were intelligent creatures, almost impossible to explain. They glowed with bioluminescent light, though they were what you might think of as 'mermaid-like' in appearance. They were long and lean; their faces narrow, but still kindly and elegant. Their eyes were wide set, but not quite on the side of their heads. Their fingers were webbed and light seemed to move along the surface of them.
I understood that this was a different world and a different planet than earth. This world was completely covered in water, and they had no concept for earth, dirt, or ground. They lived their entire lives on the water currents of their vast world.
We sank deeper into this world, where there were more strange creatures. These creatures were similar, but less evolved. They were curious and able to sense us, where the other creatures had not. They were gentle, filled with joy and pleasure at our presence. They flocked around us, similarly to dolphins. These were of a color we have no word for. Oddly, I no longer remembered the color as soon as I returned to my human body.
These creatures lived down in the darkness where their sun could not reach, and they saw in colors that we humans cannot. They were like joyful dogs greeting a long-missing, beloved human. They made strange sounds, which I knew my human ears would never hear. They made high-pitched sounds, but these sounds were not painful. These creatures sang in these beautiful, high sounds, and the sound traveled in the water. Then I heard others of their kind return their song from far away. I could hear and understand their very simplistic song about visits, joy, and how great was their teaching.
In my human-thinking, I had come simply to see. But they believed I had come to learn and they to teach me. I went with them at the gentle urging of the Being beside me. They took me into their homes that were honeycomb-like caverns under the ground where the water flowed in musical patterns.
We swam in these caves and they showed me how much was alive around us. Algae was on the walls. Some of the caves were inhabited by microscopic life that grew in small, hard shells and created walls in the caves. Some of them were gigantic, ancient life that grew cone-like, huge shells and ate of the life that bloomed in the water. These gigantic creatures could sleep, sometimes for decades, before the algae bloomed and woke them.
They showed me the way to know when they were going too far up. I could feel the sense of 'coming apart' when they reached the limits of their depth altitude. They showed me another school of their kind, which swam around me in circles, brushed against my energy, and asked me to bless them. I blessed them and told them that they would prosper for their kindness, for their 'washing away' of some of my grief. They left, satisfied that they had given and received blessings duly in return.
The pod I was with brought me back to their own place again where we had met. They wished for a blessing in their turn. I told them that they would grow greater because they had taught me; and they, too, were satisfied.
Then we went up into space and traveled among stars and planets. Although not occupied by life, each was beautiful in their turn.
When it was time to return, we came to my body almost precisely as we had left it. This was odd to me because I had just spent eternity among the strange creatures of the other planet, among the stars, gas giants, ringed planets and frozen planets, and burning magma planets. (NDERF)

2.19 What You Need To Realize Now

You create your own world, be it here in the physical, or later in the afterlife. In the physical world you need to work to make it happen; in the spiritual worlds your reality is created instantly.

In the spiritual worlds there is no judgment, no punishment or reward. If you want to judge yourself, then you do that by your own choice. Even the Life Review is a projection of your own consciousness, and how you feel about your past actions, that is up to you. In the spiritual world, you create your own environment.

Like minded souls create a shared environment. You can also enter other created environments, but they might not resonate with your own inner state of consciousness.

Out of habit, most deceased souls retain their human form, usually in a much younger and more beautiful appearance. But that is just habit. One can take any form one wants.

Clearness of mind (emotions and thinking) is essential to where you will end up in the spiritual worlds. So, better start working on it right now.

3. Deception in the Afterlife

And the occult teacher can give the pupil the necessary steadiness which is given of itself by the sense-world, as it continuously corrects errors. It is different, however, in the astral world; there one is easily subject to deceptions; there one must be supported by one who has experience. (Esoteric Development GA 96 IX.)

Imaginative Knowledge and Artistic Imagination, by Rudolf Steiner.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth – nothing more.”

Morpheus, in the movie The Matrix

Most people are totally ignorant of what awaits them after their physical body dies. Yet, one needs to acquire the necessary knowledge about the nature of the astral world and how to navigate it. The afterlife is not only a reflection on one's own mind, but also offers great possibilities for exploration. Unfortunately, Earth's astral sphere is also occupied by non-human entities who have a vested interest in keeping the human souls ignorant, and keep them incarnating again and again in physical bodies.

Some NDErs have encounters these entities and their deceptive practices. It also throws a very different light on all the other NDE accounts. This does not mean that every NDEr, or permanently deceased human, is manipulated in the afterlife, but it certainly looks like it is the majority.

So, who are these entities and why are they doing this?

3.1 Manipulating Entities

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.

Niccolo Machiavelli

When people are alive, that is, living a life in their physical bodies, they are strongly conditioned by the educational system to be quiet and obedient to an authority figure. The teacher is always right and you are wrong. The boss at the company tells you what to do and not to do, or you get fired. The government imposes myriads of laws to follow, or you end up in court before a judge who imposes penalties, or incarcerates you.

We feel dependent on an authority, and are always looking for a hero that will save us or solve all our problems. An example of this is the election process, where we look for the next politician who promises to make our lives better. Or a religious figure that will save our soul.

So, when people die, they immediately put their trust in the first figure that shows up: God, Jesus, an angel, a judge, a council of strange beings... Well, after all, they were first bathed in wonderful feelings of love, bliss, ecstasy. Considering that most people are unhappy, the White Light or the appearing figure gives them what they crave most. So, the NDEr doesn't even think about questioning anything or anybody in the afterlife.

Except for a few spiritually-oriented people, most people also have not been educated in who they are as a human being, how the universe works, what the different realities are in the higher dimensions, or about the existence of other kind of intelligent beings and their agenda.

It raises some serious questions why Jesus, the Virgin Mary, archangel Michael, angel Metatron, Buddha, the Lord of Death, and even God himself (sometimes in human form), and the soul's deceased relatives, all are waiting for the near-deceased soul to tell him to go back to his ailing body and the physical world full of suffering. Unless they are not not what they appear to be.

Is the afterlife manipulated by entities other than human souls? This is a sticky point, and a hard pill to swallow for most people. However, there is more than enough information to point to the existence of beings who, in some cases, are manipulating the deceased souls, or NDE'rs, right after death when they are still confused and vulnerable, and particularly ignorant about the reality in the astral world.

The astral world is a world of illusion in the sense that there is no objective world such as the physical world. In the astral world, everything that one encounters is a temporary reflection of the mind of its inhabitants, be it human or non-human. There are also high-spiritual beings who at times come by to help the deceased souls; but there are also lower astral beings who are deceptive and can manipulate the unaware deceased human soul. Sometimes, the lower beings are also active when people have out-of-the body experiences, or have hallucinogenic experiences. These beings are well-known by people on the spiritual path.

It is important to have a clear understanding of what to expect in the afterlife. So many people don't know anything. Those who have read NDE accounts know the general process, but they tend to accept the accounts at face value, and fail to see the nature of the astral world, the subconscious reflections and possible manipulations.

The initial experience of an NDE is often manipulated by lower astral beings to keep the human souls ignorant and make them go back for another incarnation-tour. It depends how easy one is manipulated. Unfortunately most people are completely ignorant about the reality of the afterlife.

With NDEs we often see that the person is persuaded or forced to return to the ailing body. This would not make sense if this would entirely depend on the NDEr, because the NDEr is always happy to be there, is bathed in love and bliss etc., and initially he does not want to go back. However, someone is persuading and forcing him to do so. A high spiritual being would never do this, that leaves only lower astral beings. A high spiritual being would explain the situation and possibilities, but let the NDEr decide for himself whether to go back or not.

It doesn't take much for the astral entities to manipulate the recently deceased soul. All they have to do is take on the appearance of what the soul beliefs in, make him feel guilty, and tell him a couple of lies in order to send him back to the physical plane. The soul will easily belief what is presented to him, and will then 'willingly' comply.

Few NDE'rs are able to become aware of interference and outright control by astral entities, but it does occur.

The light appeared in the same way people describe about the tunnel. I thought to myself, in my awareness, and without my conscious thought. I saw a man and a woman on his left side, both holding a candle. He held the candle with his right hand and she held the candle with her left hand, both sharing the same candle. ... I let out the words, 'Hey, I died'. In a fraction of a second, it was like he had stepped into my mind to control me and to take me to only God knows where. NDERF

Of course, not everything the NDEr experiences in the astral world is subject to the manipulation of these lower astral entities. There is a natural afterlife process for human souls. The lower astral entities only interfere in order to keep the soul ignorant and to make him go back to the physical body. It also seems that when a person really dies, the astral entities will always persuade the soul to incarnate again. In the mean time, the soul will spend its time wherever he wants in the astral world, although he usually settles with like-minded souls.

Going back to the physical body, or to reincarnate again is not wrong, but it should be a decision made based on understanding one's personal issues and desires, and not on outside manipulation, even when applied with very subtle means.

By the way, arguing with these entities is useless. It is better to leave them behind and go somewhere else.

So, who are those manipulating entities?

3.2 Non-Human Entities in NDEs

A detailed explanation will come later, so let it suffice here to say that beings on Iarga that possess this mentality are denied reincarnation. This selection is the cause of the continuing improvement in mentality, generation after generation, which enables a race to become unselfish. On Earth, this selection was blocked some twenty centuries ago by extraterrestrial intervention whereby we cannot improve our average mentality.

UfO...Contact from Planet Iarga: Stefan Denaerde, by Ankh-Hermes, Deventer, Netherlands, 1969

The above book was published in 1969, a long time before anybody made a link between near-death experiences (NDE) and control of the afterlife process by aliens. Even today, nearly everybody would reject such an idea. But, what if the author is right?

I never heard of aliens being present in NDEs, until I started reading NDE accounts. How strange it may sound, there are indeed NDE stories that describe the presence of alien looking beings during an NDE. There are different non-human looking beings that present themselves. Who they are or where they come from, we don't really know. Some people claim that they are extraterrestrial, earth-bound aliens, physical or spiritual, other-dimensional, inter-dimensional, etc. Our solar system is only 5 billion years old in a universe that is at least 27 billion years old. It is plausible that some extraterrestrial beings have arrived here in the past, and still might be here, both on the physical and on the astral plane.

Where they come come from does not really matter that much. What matters is that these entities are here and are interfering with our lives.

This not just a theory, some NDErs themselves have encountered those beings. The following accounts show a clear manipulation of the afterlife process by these deceptive lower astral beings. With knowledge and discernment one can avoid possible manipulation, and make one's own choice in the afterlife, instead of blindly following what is presented.

Nondescript Beings

Some beings appear vaguely human-like, but remain illusive as to their nature. In the following account they are also associated with a surrounding light.

After a few seconds, I noticed a giant grey being descending at a forty-five degree angle down towards me. As it got closer, it conveyed to me a feeling of love so strong that I could not only sense it, but I could FEEL it too. It was the strongest feeling of emotion I have ever felt even to this day. Eventually it was face to face with me. It was probably the equivalent to being seven or eight feet tall. It didn't really have any defining physical characteristics such as eyes, or a nose, or mouth. But it did have an area that resembled a face. It had blue and purple jewels around its head like a thin crown. There were no wings, no arms, and no legs. But it did have the relative shape of a human. It didn't speak to me, not at first. We waited there together for a few seconds. Eventually, we were joined by another being who was much smaller than the first one. This one was probably half the size of the other one ... Finally the smaller being left us and was gone for a short time. Then the area where our conversation had been began to fade from darkness and slowly transform into a beautiful golden light. The light eventually surrounded us. From the epicenter of this light came the smaller being. It floated down and got into position behind me and out of sight. That's when the larger being said to me telepathically, 'There's nothing we can do, you have to go back ... I've always wondered who those two beings were ... (NDERF)

Some of those beings seem helpful, but with what? Who are they?:

I saw twelve beings that were not human, they had large heads and large eyes, they had no mouths that I saw, or ears. They were not scary, they were not demanding, or judgmental, they were there to help. (NDERF)

Here again non-human beings with no features who send the soul back against his will:

Drawn to a joyous white light and up through a layer of personalities with tails like comets. Came into a space where I was tended to by silver, featureless creatures with thin limbs and conical (inverted) heads. They communicated telepathically and laid me down. I was told I could stay if I wished. I was tempted as I was ecstatic. When I decided against it, I was sucked down a tunnel. (NDERF)

I also had the overwhelming feeling of unconditional Love, Family, and Home comforting my thoughts by extremely loving non-human entities. There was a royal figure who decided, without my consent, if I could stay with them or not. It was decided I must return back to Earth where I currently and happily reside at; but I wish I could have had the choice to stay there. (NDERF)

This man had an NDE when still being a child. Where would the featureless beings have taken him, if he had not returned to this body?:

There were several (3 or 5) tall thin people whose features I either did not see or cannot remember. They seemed kindly. We were moving slowly toward the light. I have no memory of walking, we were just moving. There was no discernible tunnel, but the space did seem to have boundaries. One of the people took my hand and said, 'You can come with us.' (NDERF)

The Greys

Greys are known as a type of short alien beings in the UFO phenomenon. It might seem strange, but they also show up in NDEs.

Here is an example of an NDE in which the typical Grays are seen as a kind of demons in the terminology of this Christian person. This person grew up in an abusive home, and had taken an unidentified pill from her father after which she had her NDE:

Now as I sit, I feel parts of my life drip from my spirit body like water. It was like the stories of my life fall away through the surface I’m sitting on until the last drip. I knew I was going to hell and knew I deserved to go, but as the last portion fell away, there was what I like to call a small “belief-in-God stone.” I’m saying stone for lack of wording but there was a belief in God that did not fall through the surface, and as I was revealed that, a group of beings similar to the grey alien came up out of the black cavern. And I thoroughly knew I deserved hell and even said so, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Something in me said, “Pray.” The aliens had large, empty black eyes. I saw beyond their eyes into emptiness that went on forever, like if it were possible to step in to that eye, it would be a dark very vast empty place, void of anything. The largest being of the group of four or five threw his hand into my soul and was trying to capture or scare or hurt me. I felt electrical charge run through my soul’s lower right side. The being’s hands were emitting some sort of rough electrical shocking charge, but as fast as this is shocking me, I begin the Lord’s Prayer. When I was provoked to pray the Lord’s Prayer, I knew I had to do it NOW because there is an alien demon’s hand in my side. A dim light appears either from me or behind me, and as that light appears, these creatures turn and flee, and I mean flee fast. My praying the Lord’s Prayer and light appearing and their running all happened within seconds. (IANDS)

Here, a woman went through the tunnel and then into the White Light, where she was shown a scene of her life involving her daughter, upon which she decided the return to the body:

All of a sudden I felt myself going through this tunnel of light and there were gray beings on the outside. I don't know who they were ... It wasn't like I saw a face or anything but that the feature, the outline of it, could have been like an alien. But I don't know. (Grey ALIEN-Like Beings Seen During Near Death Experience, a YouTube interview with Sharon Lund)

Although the presence of Grey aliens is rare in NDEs, they might be part of the non-human beings who take the form of religious figures and dead relatives. It is well-known in ufology that there are accounts of alien abductions (which are primarily out-of-the-body experiences induced by those beings) where a deceased relative was present inside a flying saucer, only to change shape and appear as one of the Greys. The Greys are known to appear as family members in order to keep the abductee calm.

The NDEr can also be confronted with Grey aliens in the Council setting. Is it coincidence that in Councils are also known in UFO lore?

Mantis Beings

In Ufology, mantis (or mantid) beings are a bit enigmatic, as they are rarely show themselves. They are considered ancient and wise, and are the masters of the Greys.

Here is a comment from a YouTuber (on a video about mantis beings):

The Mantis are on a very high level. They are the ones that come for you when you die. I died twice, and they were there each time. I thought it was the REAPER because of the hooded cloaks, but now I know they are the Mantids.

People who have been abducted or are in contact with alien beings usually deal with the Greys. However, in some instances Mantis beings are seen or communicated with. Without going into detail about these beings, I found an interesting remark by a Reddit user, who had life-long experiences with both Greys and Mantis. She made an interesting remark that would clarify some of issues discussed above:

The Mantis are often seen wearing a purple cloak, and a medallion. I asked them about it, and they said the medallion is actually a device, and not a status symbol. They consider themselves "neutral" (or at least, they strive about it). The Mantis are the so called spirit guides people experience in-between lives and take care of reincarnations. According to Michael Newton PhD's book "Journey of souls", the spirit guides have a purple aura and wear a medallion. This was written before the Mantis aliens became as known as they are today (and even today, most people only see Greys).

In other words: UFOs are not "people from other planets" perse. I have surmised that the phenomenon is a control AND support system for reincarnation. The planet belongs to them, and we are renting the place while we incarnate here. They are behind social engineering via religion creation, and folk myths. They are driving our evolution via intellectual, social, and of course, genetic methods. (Reddit)

This would imply that in near-death experiences, or with a real death, the immediate appearance of relatives, friends, angels, spirit guides and religious figures are just visual impersonations by Mantis beings, but also Greys, who steer the deceased soul into a desired direction.

Mantis beings can also impart a strong feeling of love or bliss on the abductee. Maybe they are also involved in creating the White Light where the same happens.

Other Extraterrestrial Beings

In NDEs, other strange beings are seen and identified as being extraterrestrial.

Very strange looking ET beings:

One minute you're here and the next minute you're somewhere else. They took me to a room and I say 'they' because there were six of them there. There were three Beings on the left and three Beings on the right. They were dressed in heavy robes, they probably were eight feet high. And I was very much aware that this was not Angels and it wasn't the Mother Mary and it wasn't Jesus. These were extraterrestrial Beings. And they took me to a room in the sky. The first man or Being, pulled his hand out of the robe. The skin looked like it was Mercury and glass. It was liquid. And our fingers are this long and well his fingers were this long (showing 4-5 more inches.)

And the first thing they told me was, "We are Harmony Makers and Chaos Creators and we are both essential to your experience." I asked why one person got one experience and another person got another experience and they said that you will get the experience that will most give you comfort so I'm like, cool. (Slice of God)

Aliens, robed again, and forcing the human soul on hands and knees, in a setting of subjugation to a being on a throne:

I found myself suddenly 'very high up' in a bright white room. There were several beings there. I can't remember how many now, but at least four. I think there were more though. There was a being on a throne, that I was almost directly in front of, that was the only one sitting down. The others were standing up, and they were barefoot and in robes. I couldn't see their faces, just their feet, ankles, and the bottom of their robes. The standing ones seemed irritated a bit, and one lifted his ankle a bit as if to hide from me. They wanted to move off to the sides so that I couldn't see them. I was forced on my hands and knees, and couldn't move or look around except with my eyes. First I thought, 'cool, weird' and I thought they were aliens. I thought about the fact that there was one on the throne and changed my mind away from aliens. (NDERF)

Isabella A. Greene wrote two interesting stories of NDEs in her book Leaving the trap, How to Exit Reincarnation Cycle (2023) about (astral) extraterrestrial beings waiting for the soul the exit the body:

Laura and the Little Blue Beings

Laura was very ill, and when her husband reached out to me, it looked like she was about to pass. The husband asked me to be there with her in spirit and to make sure she goes where she wants to, not where she is shepherded. During her life, Laura was very involved with поп-terrestrial consciousness, and she hoped to “go home” to the Pleiades, not back into the cycle of reincarnation on Earth. As I tuned in, I was amazed by what I saw. It appeared there was something that looked like a blue tunnel or a blue beam of light in the room right next to Laura’s bed. It was not over her but a few feet away. Her sick bed was surrounded by six or seven little blue beings, clearly waiting for her soul to come out of the body. The beings looked just like the most typical depiction of the aliens commonly known as the “grays”; except these were semi-transparent and blue. The tunnel in the room was glowing with a similar color to the beings themselves. The blue beings were about four feet tall and appeared somewhat impatient. One of the beings had a device that looked like a clear “smart glass” clipboard. It was obvious that the purpose of the “clipboard” was to account for her soul or to input the information into some database. Things did not go as planned for these beings. Whether it was not her time yet or my presence made a difference, Laura did not pass that day. The beings appeared annoyed; the blue tunnel folded into itself, they were pulled right into it and were gone. Laura is still alive and healthy and looks forward to returning “Home” when it is her time.

Jane and the Two Tunnels

When Jane’s Mom called me, it was already too late. Jane was in the hospital, and her condition was irrevocable. Jane's Mom asked me to be there in spirit while she passes. As I energetically entered the hospital room, I saw two beams of light and two sets of beings waiting for Jane’s soul to come out of her body. One beam was dark-blue, and three dark-blue colored beings were standing next to it. The beings were tall and thin and did not look human. The heads of the beings were oddly shaped, and they had long robes on to cover their bodies. Their hands resembled the limbs of an insect. One was taller than the other two, and that one had a device that reminded me of a “smart glass” clipboard. The beings gave off a nervous vibe. It had to do with the competition for this soul that they were facing. On the other side of the room was another beam, a tunnel of white light. Three very different beings were standing next to it. They glowed with impeccable white light and had the typical angelic look. The beings had blonde hair and blue eyes and wore identical long white tunics. There were two men and one woman. These beings did not have any clipboards with them. They appeared laid-back and confident in the choice the soul would make. When Jane came out of her body, she looked confused for a moment. Her soul stood between the two tunnels. Neither of the beings tried to convince her; they al- lowed her to choose for herself. I stood there in spirit and watched while Jane's soul turned and floated into the tunnel of white light. The white tunnel folded into itself, Jane and the three glowing beings were pulled into it, and the spot where the tunnel was went dark. While watching that occur, I missed what happened to the dark-blue beam and the tall blue beings. When I turned to look, the room was empty.

3.3 Before an Alien Council

Can it be any weirder for an ordinary human to see aliens in the Life Review council during an NDE? What are they doing there?

They can be typical aliens, or non-specific beings (other than true spiritual beings).

I then went to twelve beings of greater knowledge. They were in front of me and stood in a row. They were not human. They had no feelings of anything like judgment or authority, but seemed strong in themselves. They seemed taller than I did and they wore silver white robes. They had white skin, large heads and large eyes. I do not remember them having a mouth. Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife

Tall white skin beings reminds us of the so-called Tall Whites, or Nordic Beings with alien abductions. They also wear white robes and have large eyes.

I was taken to special entities who looked like the usual grays, but they had many wrinkles on their faces. They called themselves the Counsel, and said they were part of a group called 'soul recyclers' helping souls to re-incarnate. (NDERF)

Isn't that quite revealing that Grays are telling that soul that they are involved in our reincarnation process? Grays with many wrinkles are also known with alien abductions.

Next we have an account where alien beings are not only present, but also an authority figure that uses force on the soul when it figured out they were aliens, as if he was not supposed to know this:

The following account is from a YouTube video. It contains all the typical features of a near-death experience, with a clear the presence of aliens. Bear in mind that she was raised a devout Christian in the Methodist Church:

The woman was 12 years of age when she choked on food. First she was in darkness, and started to see the White Light to which she felt drawn, accompanied by the feelings of peace and love. She was rotating while going slowly up into the Light. In what she thought was heaven, there were white clouds everywhere with light shining through them. Then she was grabbed by the arms what she thought were her guardian angels. To the right was archangel Gabriel and to the left Gloria, a female angel. They took her to some place. Then she noticed a bright light to her left. She felt that this was her father. Then, she was taken into a room which had a movie theater-like screen, showing her entire life, but also the future in which she would "take a part as the book of Revelation would come about". All of a sudden she was placed into another room. She was shown two alien beings. To her right was a typical small Gray who looked very pretty to her. To her left a taller beings, more whitish and smaller, more slanted eyes, and a smaller head in comparison with the bigger head of the Gray. The voice of God said to her not to be afraid of them. She could communicate with them telepathically. She was told that there are others liken them out there, and that they are God's creation. Then she was taken out of the room back into the White Light where God was. God told her not to look at him, otherwise she would have to stay. Of course, she wanted to stay. All of a sudden God told her that she had to go back, that she had work to do. She argued, but God started to speak in loud thunderous voice and pushed her down with great force, back into her body.

One wonders, why in the world would God himself show an ordinary 12-year old girl, after she had died, two alien beings, and tell her to not be afraid of them? In Christian religion aliens have no place at all. Do the aliens feel the urge to portray themselves as benevolent in the eyes of Christians? It is quite common with alien abductees and contactees, that the aliens do their best to portray themselves as nice, loving, well-meaning beings, and many of the abductees and contactees are convinced of it, despite what the aliens put them through.

In another YouTube video, a woman gives a short description of her near-death experience. While she was out of the body, she could not only see the operating room and the people working on her body, but she also knew what they were thinking, and other things about their lives. She started to become aware of ghosts and having telepathic conversations with some of them. Then she also became aware of alien beings coming and going, and having conversations with them as well, as to why they were there, and what they were doing there. Some of the aliens were humanoid, some were looking very different. She knew what they were thinking, where they were from. These aliens were in the third dimension" but in a place you can't see with your five human senses". In a follow-up video she explains that these aliens were 3-D but of another frequency. About three or four of them that she perceived were beings who had been on this Earth for as long as humans have been here, and "have their games set up that they are playing. They are playing the duality game too, in a different way." They are doing a lot of things we are not aware of.

In the following account the NDEr's soul was on a ... spaceship!

When I was before the council of thirteen beings (and they were not human, I know that!) There was no actual light, just a grayish mist everywhere. A clearly mystical or unearthly realm vague stuff...My past flashed before me, out of my control Well, we 'talked' about some things, and I think they took me somewhere else and showed some things although they did not allow me to remember all that. The place I was at looked like it was round inside, not square. Now I think it may have been some space ship. (NDERF)

No alien beings, but this woman felt that she was in a spaceship with a figure that looks like Jesus, but she didn't believe that it was Jesus. Not only that, but her story blurs the line between NDEs and aliens and UFOs:

There was a guy there that loved me but he didn't say he was Jesus, and people get really upset when I say I felt like it was in a UFO, kind of like a capsule... (YouTube)

When she was (half) back in her body, in the hospital, a beautiful, tall blue being appeared at her bed. When looking into her eyes, she suddenly got a download of information going through her. He was there to take her out of the body again. But she wanted to go back to the physical world:

...and I'm like you have to get me back there send me back and eventually it came out where she said I don't have the authority and I said get the authority...

Are we subject to an authority to leave or return to our bodies? It gets even stranger. When she was back home, she heard a voice one night to go outside and look up. Reluctantly, she did and saw a black void above her swimming pool, that she compared to a UFO or an interdimensional portal, after which she had lost time (actually missing memory). Periods of lost time is a well-known phenomenon with UFOs.

There are a lot of questions unanswered in regards to those aliens, or alien spirits, and their involvement in an NDE. However, we should not leave this issue out of NDE research, even if it is only a small fraction of NDE stories.

3.4 The Purpose of Control over Human Souls

I, too, sometimes wonder if when the handlers ted us we have a purpose on Earth, they really mean that our purpose is to continue providing energy for the cycle. If you think about it, you might realize that the handlers tell us we have a “purpose” or a “job to do” on Earth but never specify what that job is. Once we are back into our bodies after having a near-death experience, we are the ones who come up with the idea of what that “job” or that “purpose” is, entirely on our own. Those of us exhausted by the suffering and the atrocities we witness on Earth come up with the idea that perhaps now that we’ve been endorsed by the “Angels” we could actually make a difference.

Leaving the Trap, How to Exit Reincarnation Cycle, by Isabella A. Greene

Several UFO-researchers have pointed out that whoever is behind the phenomenon is exerting control over humanity in a deceptive and manipulating way. We are now starting to discover that near-death experiences are showing the same kind of control, by the same kind of beings. All of this is difficult to prove, but we need to follow the bread crumbs.

These entities seem to be primarily astral in nature, but they can also operate on the physical plane, although only for a very short time. Maybe they are physical, but have technology that can operate on the astral level. Maybe they are interdimensional. Lots of questions here.

Some sources tell us that these beings depend on the life energy we generate. This idea became known when out-of-the-body experiencer Robert Monroe published his book Far Journeys (1985) in which he used the term 'loosh' as a synonym for emotional or negative life-energy. Monroe, in his out-of-the-body experiences met a light being that told him that this energy is harvested by transdimensional beings, who use it to extend their own life spans. Violent deaths releases the most potent energy, both with animal and with humans deaths.

A few quotes from his book:

From experience, the Collectors have evolved an entire technology with complementary tools for the harvesting of Loosh from the Type 4M units [humans]. The most common have been named love, friendship, family, greed, hate, pain, guilt, disease, pride, ambition, ownership, possession, sacrifice—and on a larger scale, nations, provincialism, wars, famine, religion, machines, freedom, industry, trade, to list a few. Loosh production is higher than ever before . . .

The fact that human physical consciousness was for the most part totally unaware of being involved in the process may be an important ingredient itself. Precious few are cognizant of the nonphysical agenda, at least overtly.

The idea of keeping humanity ignorant of the fact that there are astral entities who manipulate humans to keep on generating life energy for these entities was not actually new. In 1959, Jan Van Rijckenborgh, the former head of a small Dutch Rosicrucian organization (Lectorium Rosicrucianum) published a small book, Unmasking. In it, he talks about entities in a 'reflection-sphere' which is the realm where the deceased reside. In the natural order of things, the lower energy body of the deceased will dissolve too. But some of these entities do not want to evolve and rise to the higher spiritual planes. They need life energy to extend their stay in this reflection sphere. They need to get it from the living, and that is why they will stage a Return of Christ because this will engender a release of a lot of life-energy by those who will believe in it. These entities work together with certain people still in the physical body to create this Great Play. Strangely, Van Rijckenborgh never uses the word 'humans'. You can read his book in this PDF version.

Those entities in the astral world need the energy generated by human beings in the flesh (its is our physical bodies that generate this life energy). That is why they sent the human soul back to his body in near-death situations (when it is possible by resuscitation efforts). However they also guide the (permanently) deceased soul to astral realms, keeping the human souls ignorant of immense possibilities they have in the spiritual words, and in the universe at large. So we see that human souls create themselves astral realms where they imitate the physical world they were used to live in, because they just don't know better. After a while they are persuaded to incarnate again on Earth to do it all over. After all, our memory gets wiped, so we don't remember any of our previous mistakes, or gained knowledge or talents. It is a way to keep us ignorant. After all, if you find out what is going on here, would you want to incarnate on Earth (again), with its perpetual wars, and all the bad stuff that is going on? Nobody is learning anything. Earth is not a school as some people say.

Spiritual beings, that is astral entities who are not spiritually evolved, are often elevated to a god-like status. Bronte Baxter (Splinter in the Mind) points out that this is world-wide phenomenon:

Historically, the gods exacted worship and sacrifice – blood sacrifice commonly, including the murder of humans. While Hinduism has a history of human sacrifice, it has been reduced today to worship of Kali, the goddess with her bloody tongue hanging out, whose body is adorned with a necklace of bleeding, decapitated human heads. Or Shiva, adorned with serpents, who dances on graves. Or Vishnu, whom Arjuna perceived in His cosmic form with pieces of devoured victims’ flesh sticking between his teeth. Gods feed on the energy of suffering, the fearful energy of the victim. In one South American sacrificial ritual, a bull has his throat slit, as slowly as possible. The reasoning given is that the gods cherish “live blood” as the blood with the greatest energy, so the animal must be kept alive while the blood drips from its body. In other words, the greater the fear and suffering of the sacrificial beast, the greater is the pleasure of the gods.

The Shrimad-Bhagavatum, among other scriptures, explains the antipathy of the gods for human enlightenment. According to the Vedas and the mythology of other cultures, the gods feel threatened by the human race, afraid mankind might grow as powerful as they. The gods want humans to remain ignorant and “inferior” because if man realized his intrinsic nature as consciousness, he would no longer be subject to deva control. The devas wish us to believe, and have told us throughout scripture, that their divine hands manipulate and guide the laws of nature – creation itself. For this reason we should worship them, chant to them, send them our soma (subtle energy generated in meditation). Because our energy feeds the gods and is needed by them to stay strong and in control of this material dimension. And they wish us to believe that their control is in our best interest.

Baxter makes a valid point, these beings are not all-powerful:

I suggest, if the gods are innately as powerful as they purport to be, they would not need human worship to survive. They would be self-sufficient, drawing on the Infinite within them for every need. Instead, they tell mankind to bow down and pay tithe, and threaten in the scriptures to destroy us if we don’t. What kind of power is it, that can’t exist without feeding?

It sounds more like psychic enslavement to me. Convince the people whose world you contrive to control that they are powerless without you, that the rains won’t come and the sun will go dark if they don’t please you. Drink their soma, the positive energy of worship, and drink their negative energy, too, when you can incite it and siphon it off. Feed yourself on human astral energy, whatever the quality, and you and your race can control human life as long as the system remains intact.

The gods are spirits/egos like everybody else. Most of the time they dwell on astral planes, which is why human senses normally don’t perceive them. According to ancient records, they have visited the earth in ages past in physical forms of their own, as entities from the stars.

In short, we have to cease to surrender to these astral entities, both in this physical world, as in the astral world, and during NDEs.

Also read Bronte Baxter's book Blowing the Whistle on Enlightenment

3.5 Are We Forced to Reincarnate?

As I have mentioned before, there is nothing wrong with incarnating, reincarnating, or coming back to the physical body during an NDE, if it is by your own choice. Life on Earth can be very interesting and joyful. But if you made a choice by being manipulated and by trickery, then you need to re-evaluate what you are really doing here, and who is controlling you.

The 'spiritual guides' in the afterlife keep saying that we have to incarnate again and again to learn certain lessons, or to spiritually evolve. At the same time they wipe our memory of previous lives, and what we learned in-between lives in the astral world. Thus every time we incarnate we have to start over again, making the same mistakes and not making any progress. Like we are running around in a hamster wheel. This is the reason why Buddhist say that we need to escape the wheel of rebirths.

There are some rare cases of people who can remember being guided to incarnate. They did not have much choice. They were shown a few possible births from which they could choose. It gives the illusion of choice, but is isn't really. And, every time they were forced to incarnate by 'guides' or other entities. Somebody gathered a lot of these cases and published them on his blog: 40 cases suggestive of forced reincarnation. Worth while to read.

How extensive is this forced return to physical bodies? We don't know. It seems that it is pretty extensive, since most of the human population has no idea of their own divine nature and innate abilities, about the many other possibilities in the vast universe, and other worlds to visit. Even those who are aware to some extant that there are beings exerting control over our lives, are still mostly in the dark about who those beings are and how they operate. The internet has allowed us to share knowledge about these issues, but we are only starting to discover that something is amiss. There is still a long way to go to get our freedom back.

In the mean time, remember that you are a divine being. When you cross over to the afterlife, you don't need any being to tell you what to do, nor do you need all those love-feelings you always longed for. You can go anywhere by intention. For that, you need to gain knowledge about the spiritual worlds. Start dong your research.

3.6 The Link Between UFO Experiences and NDEs

This is a short overview of the commonalities between UFO experiences and NDEs, taken from Raymond Fowler’s article in Volume 3 of the A Greater Reality book series titled Coming of Age as a Ufologist: The Relationship Between Ufology, Near Death Experiences & the Contact Modalities:

1. Both have Out of Body Experiences. Over 67% of Experiencers in the FREE survey had OBEs and most NDEs involve an OBE.

2. Both the NDE and UFO Experiencers are told of future and past events of their lives.

3. Travel to other dimensions: 50% of UFO Contact Experiencers and 100% of NDE Experiencers were brought to other dimensional planes.

4. The two major physical forms of beings seen in a UFO Contact Experience are the Human Looking Beings and the Energy Beings. These are also the two major forms seen by NDE Experiencers. In both groups, Human Looking beings appeared wearing Monk’s Robes or Roman Tunics.

5. Most of the beings seen in both NDE and UFO Contact Experiences relay enormous feelings of “Unconditional LOVE”.

6. Both groups became deeply spiritual after their CAP or NDE experiences.

7. The vast majority of both groups arrive at the conclusion that we are all “Eternal Spiritual Beings” and that “We are All ONE, there is no separation” among all living beings. 8. Both NDE and UFO Experiencers are affected by “psychic” experiences. 9. Both groups have seen and communicated with the deceased.

10. Both groups have also experienced Pre-Death Warnings of their or a family members death

11. Both groups have encountered “Orbs”.

12. Both groups have been affected by electronic devices. For example, both groups have had their computers or electric watches inexplicably stop working.

This is just to show that both phenomena share the same intelligence.

3.7 The Intelligence Behind NDEs and UFOs

So far we have considered the figures that appear in NDEs to be real beings, most likely non-human that take the shape of human religious figures and dead relatives. Only in a few instances did they show their non-human appearances, and even spaceships are mentioned. Considering that at least some of the non-human beings are the same as reported in UFO/alien encounters, there is an overlap with the UFO phenomenon.

In this article we can not go into detail about the UFO phenomenon, which span vast regions of physical effects, morphing forms, out-of-the-body experiences, psychic phenomena etc. The UFO phenomenon, as it presents itself to us, is irrational, not logical, contradictory and often outright absurd. Yet it is real. But what kind of reality are we talking about?

Spaceships, aliens, cryptic beings such as Bigfoot which are associated with UFOs, all appear for a very short time. They appear and disappear quickly. They do leave physical traces, but at the same time, they can walk on the ground and leave no traces. They walk through walls, and appear or disappear in light flashes. Sometimes they form straight out of a light sphere. These are just a couple of examples that show that we are not necessarily dealing with real beings, but with a kind of holograms that at times can take on a certain physicality that can leave imprints and can be touched. These must be produced by a very advanced technology, assisted by an artificial intelligence. This technology can reach any point on this planet and produce these holograms of spaceships and alien beings. It can also read what is in the mind of people, and thus tailor the appearances to the witnesses belief systems or what they are familiar with (from movies or books). This explains that aliens show up in literally hundreds of different 'races' in hundreds of different spaceships. It explains the absurdity of certain encounters, such a little alien sucking up dirt with a vacuum cleaner, asking for water, asking the time, or Bigfoot rummaging through a garbage can in the middle of a heavily populated city.

Although the technology is steered by an AI in producing the many varied experiences required, it still has to be controlled by physical beings. Some people think it is humans, others think that a small number of real aliens still in control. We can only speculate at this point.

This technology is also able to create illusory forms in the astral world, or the afterlife. Thus the religious figures and dead relatives are projected forms, as is the white light with its associated love and bliss feelings, and other scenes like waiting rooms, parks, temples and council rooms. Not that everything in the astral world is generated by this technology, but only what appears around the recently deceased people. Here the AI can scan immediately what a person would expect to see after death, and then generate those features that will love-bomb him with good feeling and 'trusted' figures, in order to take away any skepticism of the soul and steer him back to the body.

For a lot of people all this seems far-fetched. However we have to take into consideration that humanity is only about a million years old, and our rapid evolving technology is only about 150 years old. With our 'primitive' technology we already can control a human being completely by accessing his brain waves with modulated microwaves.

The universe is at least 27 billion old, so we may assume that other intelligent races on other planets have evolved much further than we are, and have very evolved technology that can transcend dimensions and can operate on more than one level.

The idea of the existence of this technology is not new. UFO researcher Jacques F. Vallée came to this conclusion by his extensive research in the latter part of the 20^th century:

I feel that I could go before a committee of scientists and convince them that there is overwhelming evidence that the UFO phenomena exists and that it is an unrecognized, unexplained phenomenon for science, but something that I think I could prove. My personal contention is that the phenomenon is the result of an intelligence that it is a technology directed by an intelligence, and that this intelligence is capable of manipulating space and time in ways that we don’t understand. I could convince a committee of my peers that the phenomenon is real, that it is physical, and that we don’t understand it. I could not convince them that my speculation is correct; there may be alternative speculations. The essential conclusion I’m tending to is that the origin of the phenomenon of the intelligence is not necessarily extraterrestrial.

In truth, I think we are dealing with something that is both technological and psychic, and seems to be able to manipulate other dimensions. This is neither wishful thinking nor personal speculation on my part. It’s a conclusion that comes from interviewing critical witnesses, and then listening to what they have to say.

I don’t have a good explanation for the question of why the technology seems to appear in a form that uses images from our own unconscious. I’d be kidding if I said that I understand that. There are cases of repeated observations where the phenomenon begins by being amorphous and then starts matching the expectations of the witnesses.

Jacques F. Vallée in an Interview with Christopher O’Brien

In regard to NDEs, if you want to control the passing over of souls at physical death of a population of billion of humans, then you have to be able to handle close to 200,000 dying people a day. That is too much for sending any real beings out to read the minds of the souls and create the entire after-death experience. It is logical to assume that this is done by a sophisticated AI.

There is an interesting e-book on the web called The UFO Phenomenon, Evidence of Control and Alteration of Consciousness & Matter Using Artificial Intelligence, by DanRaliegh. It can be found on Scribd, PDFcoffee, and XDOCS. The document discusses evidence that artificial intelligence may be influencing human experiences that are commonly attributed to spirits, angels, gods, or aliens. It notes that the messages received from these supposed entities through automatic writing or channeling are very similar worldwide. It argues that if advanced technology exists on Earth, it is logical to expect that AI applications could be interacting with people without their knowledge. The document aims to analyze experiences like mediumship, healing, and UFO encounters to determine if they can be better explained by the influence of covert artificial intelligence rather than by supernatural beings.

In the author's own words: "I found evidence to conclude that these highly advanced AI-based applications are being developed by a group of people who live among us." His conclusion of who is behind it all is quite different than the generally held opinion of alien beings controlling the AI and advanced technology. His study is extensive and comprehensive, and includes a wide variety of topics, including different forms of mind manipulation, mediumship, apports and materializations, religious experiences, mesmerism, somnambulism, just to name a few. The book is not an easy read. If you are able to read it to the end, you will understand that humanity has been mind manipulated in various ways by advanced technology for a while (a couple of centuries at the least). The technology is also able to physically interact with our environment and with people themselves.

If this technology is used by humans, then it must have been around since Atlantean times, with a group of people using it in secret, somewhere underground. The appearance of flying saucers, tall blond aliens and little Greys is then a modern adaption to the old appearances of air-ships or chariots with the tall white elves and the little dark kobolds.

If aliens/ETs are behind it, then they might be operating from the most logical place, the Moon, as some people have glimpsed some crystal technology in underground caves on the Moon.

Who is really behind it all, we don't really know, but the book speaks for itself in regard to all the manifestations of this technology. The author did not research near-death experiences, but you can clearly see that this technology can extend to this area as well.

In the mean while, Alice is still running around in Wonderland, and Dorothy still hasn't discovered the Magician behind the curtain of Oz.

Some Links to NDE Websites

Near-Death Experience Research Foundation

International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)

Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife

NDE Stories

The Self-Conscious Mind

The Formula

There is also YouTube with many videos of first-hand NDE accounts and lectures.