The habit we have on this planet of treating death as an unfortunate (and permanent) end of a life is fast losing popularity.
People are exploring attitudinal alternatives, new ways of looking at death without perceptions of fear and finality.
What happens when we depart our bodies is a question of great interest and importance to anyone who plans to die.
I was raised by atheist parents who encouraged me to believe that there’s no such thing as an afterlife. But that didn’t seem to compute with what I learned in high school physics, that energy could not be destroyed, and that all matter, including physical bodies, was made up of energy.
These matters of life and death were quite confusing to my young mind.
I remained somewhat confused until I had an after-death experience and lived to tell about it.
My taste of death left me with an unwavering sense of the eternality of life, along with a cosmic sense of humor that has never left me. It helped me shed layers upon layers of premature rigor mortis, and I can now say with gratitude and glee that there is consciousness on both sides of the fence.
But is the grass greener?
Perhaps my story will help answer that.
It all started when a medical researcher friend of mine asked me if I would mind being clinically dead for a study he was conducting.
I instantly consented, much preferring a temporary bout with death to the traffic school I was signed up for on that day.
I met him where he worked, “The Clinic For The Clinically Dead.”
After signing some release forms making it clear that he was not liable if I didn’t make it back, I was shown to the room. A graph was set up to monitor my heartbeat, and I nervously waited for the straight line that would mark the beginning of my journey.
My friend tried to relax me with an attempt at humor. “Try to sneak some stock market tips back through customs,” he said as he stuck a needle in my arm.
He then pulled a white sheet over my head and turned on some music to ease my transition. The last thing I heard as I left my body was the Beatles singing “Magical Mystery Tour”.
Suddenly I was skateboarding down a long tunnel towards a breathtakingly beautiful white light. As I got closer to the glorious light, I passed various billboards, apparently advertisements for various resorts where I could stay while I was there.
One sign particularly caught my eye: Check-In Center For The Newly Dead — Two Kilometers.
“Wow,” I thought to myself, “the metric system!”
When I arrived there I met my guardian angel, who already knew I was only in town for a temporary death experience. She gave me a visitor’s pass, which read Good For One After Death Experience. Expires When You Do. I put it in my pocket and left with my angel.
She took me on a journey that can best be described as a tourist’s dream come true. We explored many worlds, other dimensions, and higher levels of reality. I met my grandparents, who assured me that they were doing fine, had been overseeing my life with great pride and affection, and loved me dearly.
My grandmother added that I could use a haircut.
The highlight of the trip was the nightlife. We visited a swinging place called “The Other Side.” The sign by the door said No One Newly Dead Admitted Without Deceased Parent Or Guardian.
I was beginning to realize that the spiritual world is full of signs, just as mystics have been telling us all along.
I danced the night away with a wildly attractive entity with a glowing light body and a wall-to-wall aura. We got pretty intimate and after a while she purred in my ear, “Your dimension or mine?”
Before I could answer my angel whisked me away, returning me to the glorious white light where my journey had begun. It was time to go back to my body.
A sign read Thank You For Your Stay. Please Come Again.
I made my way through the tunnel once more, this time on a surfboard with the Beach Boys serenading me in the background.
My friend welcomed me back and listened intently to my tale. I thanked him profusely for the experience, which showed me firsthand that life is indeed eternal, death is simply a portal to greater things, and there’s a hot date waiting for me at The Other Side.
“The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”— Richard Bach, Illusions
“Death is like taking off a tight shoe. The first thing you see when you leave your bodies is light, the first thing you feel is love, and the first thing you hear is laughter.”— Emmanuel
