If you ever went on a planned adventure, you always took one last little
pause to ask yourself, do I have everything I need? ... water,
flashlight, etc. In that spirit, be sure to tuck this thought into
a handy pocket: Remember, it's not the
stories themselves that are important. It's the 
value we derive from them and what comes to live in us as a result,
which is a recognized Process,
by the way, though we won't border into that territory here.. What lasting impact
does the event have on the life of the experiencer?
Similarly, how might such events lastingly influence the lives of those
who hear
or read about them? Notice how it feels to imagine the
difference if you never encountered others' experiences of this
nature. What if we never shared them? What if
you never knew such possibilities could exist? Or what if
someone's or your type of experience showed up in the Physician's Desk
Reference as if it were a type of pathological aberration? How
would that feel different to you than the perception of such events
being inherently normal, healthy, healing, wholeness-making, uplifting,
connecting and validating of the pervading Larger Life
and your place and being within this -- we could say -- infinite,
eternal perspective?
As many alive today remember, before the 1990s it was very rare even for
close family and friends, at least in the United States, to share their
unusual or spiritual experiences. With regard to my family's
stories, only after a young brother's passing did I hear of any such
events -- I was in my mid-thirties, and that was likely because I asked. One was shared with my mother on a grandmother's
deathbed nearly three decades before, which I did not hear of till
shortly before
my own mother's passing in 2001.
And I'm willing to bet my life my grandmother did not tell one other soul during
the roughly 50 years that had lapsed since that wondrous moment. Another
involving much younger brothers and my parents and that same
grandparent was
never mentioned to me until my brother's 'death',
a dozen years after it took place. Yet each person who witnessed
these wondrous events, most likely considered these to be surely among
the most significant of their lives.
Their stories have so enriched me and my experience of my family and of life in
general. They have given me insight into those who had the experiences
and reinforced my own spiritual beliefs in a way that, short of my own
experiences, nothing else could. They also deeply validated my
inner experiences the way nothing else could. They gave me hope
for all of us and life on this Earth, that we can be so touched by
Spirit, directly, experientially, that Spirit would so grace us,
any-to-all of us as simply members of the Human Family, that such things don't just belong
to the time of ancient religious origins, don't just occur among a
spiritual elite or any given religious group, nor are they merely myths or
fantasies or psychoses. They have left me with a sense of
continuity and caring and "roots" that feel alive with meaning
and good and that are
clearly sourced in other than our physical world. They have strengthened my sense of hope and faith in humankind and in
Spirit. I saw my
family/friends as if with new eyes [and heart]. Their experiences
fed my own evolving spiritual life and being, including altering basic
values and life priorities to reflect more of the positive and loving
outlook characterized by the
aftereffects you see mentioned all over this website. And
in that awareness and appreciation, I realized my experiences may
similarly validate others' such experiences and be a positive influence
in their lives.
All this
because of their willingness to share their own very personal and
sacred, life-enhancing experiences. If I had never heard them, all
this would be lacking. I had had experiences not unlike these, yet
had almost never talked with others who had also and in a way that we
could mutually substantiate each other's occurrences of this nature. Learning that such things had
also happened to members of my family, very normal, every-day folks like
me, and whom I knew I could trust without question was one of the most
powerful things that had ever happened to me. All this Light from
their own experiences flooded and reinvented
my world.
Dr. Raymond Moody, Jr. is probably the first person in the Western
modern world who has commented on this. He says,
the very best person from whom to hear the details of a [his
specialty:] near-death experience is always a close relative, a sage,
grounded, experienced, sensitive person of long personal
acquaintance. Almost everyone knows someone who has had a
near-death experience, and that has afforded tens of millions of
people the opportunity to hear the story firsthand from a beloved
other person long known and long trusted -- a wise Aunt Pearl, a dear
grandmother or grandfather, a respected close friend. By now,
that is probably as large a factor as any other in why so many people,
lay or professional, dysbelievers [sic] about the paranormal, or not,
have become aware of the actual occurrence of these life-changing
episodes.
Hearing the story directly from a good, solid, honest person with whom
one has already been long and personally acquainted brings the
near-death experience home in its most wondrous immediacy this side of
the near beyond.
Much of what most folks' wisest loved ones have to say about their own
visits to the near hereafter is soothing, loving, and cheerful in
spirit. It is easy to appreciate the amusement value of happy,
comforting, near-death experiences.
In A Book of
Angels [by Sophy Burnham], Professor
S. R. Harlow describes an incident where he and his wife both
witnessed angels. He says,
"We
frequently took walks in the country, and we especially loved the spring
after a hard New England winter, for it is then that the fields and
woods are radiant and calm yet show new life bursting from the
earth. This day we were especially happy and peaceful; we chatted
sporadically, with great gaps of satisfying silence between our
sentences."
It was in this mood of great contentment
that they both first heard the approach as from a distance of a group of
others in animated discussion, who then overtook them. Harlow
continues,
"Then we perceived that the sounds
were not only behind us but above us, and we looked up. How can I describe what we felt? Is it possible to tell of the surge of
exaltation that ran through us? Is it possible to record this
phenomenon in objective accuracy and yet be credible? For about
ten feet above us, ... was a floating group of glorious, beautiful
creatures that glowed with spiritual beauty. We stopped and stared
as they passed above us. There were six of them, young beautiful
women dressed in flowing white garments and engaged in earnest
conversation. If they were aware of our existence they gave no
indication of it. Their faces were perfectly clear to us ..."
After they passed, he and his wife Marion exchanged a look of utter
stupefaction. He asked her to tell him in detail what she had experienced, and it exactly matched his own observations.
Professor Harlow says,
"[E]ven
as I record it I know how incredible it sounds. Perhaps
I can claim no more for it than that it has had a deep affect on our own
lives. For this experience of almost thirty years ago greatly
altered our thinking."
One outcome of these personally corroborative events that certainly
altered my thinking is this: If family and friends had
not been willing to entrust me with their sacred stories, first and
last, just as this man infers, my life would be bereft of the most
important, meaning-filled gifts we can share with one another. They naturally gave me greater .. I will call it
'confidence' .. in Life! and in my own experiences.
Rhea White slathers on whole other dimensions to the import of meaning.
After
more than 40 years in the field of parapsychology as the editor of the
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, and considered
by her professional peers to be one of the most important contributors
to the field, she began her great works you see here. White
commented,
"I have taken an
experiential rather than an evidential approach. I have chosen
meaning instead of proof. I think they are like the waves and
particles of quantum mechanics -- you can't have both at the same time."
The critical breakthrough for me was family stories, without which I most likely
would not have ever imagined undertaking something like this web
project. This work comes straight out of my ongoing journey of continuing to grow and
expand my understanding about life as a result. The
breadcrumbs of stories and insights, growth spurts and plateaus continue
to carry me forward into an ever-more expansive, enthralling awareness of
Life-Writ-Large. I've been studying these for decades, and
their collective impact just keeps building.
I can't recommend this highly enough -- for you and even for your loved
ones: Write
them down -- your stories,
family/friend stories, media stories, whatever feeds you -- this
is a tried and true path to your own inner processing and SHIFT in
consciousness. And once you are
there you will marvel at your original feelings about jumping that puny
little fence between your old way of looking at things and your new
way. If you imagine this shouldn't make much of a difference, then
you have never met the Sacred, and you have never ever glimpsed
the unique JOY of your Eternal Being, nor witnessed it in another!
This
is not about the kind of ghost stories we relish telling around the ol'
campfire to get every last hair on everyone else's head to stand on end. It is a
sacred privilege to be told such a story firsthand, as is
being invited to share your own heart's cherished treasures with others when it
feels right to you to do so.
If these types of stories touch you, you can bet they will have
similar impact on others, and that is important, because they help us to
validate each other’s experiences, and thus, they are to each of us
spiritual superfood. They
encourage a certain bent of mind, heart, and soul, you could say; they
open us up more directly to The Ineffable in our everyday lives; they bring
us closer to who and what we truly are as spirit beings and as spirit ..
being, if we allow them to. Know
that people's lives are similarly altered by such stories from books and other media and
even strangers we may meet. If they warm and nurture you, include them in your
collection of what White called "wowie stories." And
revisit them from time to time. If you dare, let others -- your
kids? grandkids? spouse? siblings? -- read them.
This
potential impact is most powerfully experienced when they are your stories and
those of people whom you know well, love well, and trust implicitly.
May the collective amalgam of 'yours, mine, and ours' contribute
to that Shift within you toward always becoming more of your Great Self
... and the Great Self we all are. May this growing personal and
collective confidence in and awareness of this Larger Life Reality and
our being sourced within it in turn reflect ever more fully in our relationships and in our concern for our Earth.
It is just this
kind of greatly altered awareness -- I think of it as our beginning to
awaken together to a whole new
consensus reality -- that can and will and IS
making enough of a Difference to assure continuance and greater quality
of life for our children and their children ... Because people
whose lives have been transformed by these experiences rely on that
profound knowing, their lives are filled with meaning and purpose, and
they make powerfully motivated, caring, compassionate waves in their
daily world without even intending to! Also, FYI, your interest
and appreciation in these types of Cosmic Nudges typically invite more
such Moments into your life, says Abraham Maslow. The more he and
his students studied and heard and read and told and wrote about such
experiences, the more they themselves had such experiences.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, like the power of these personal
Experiences to stretch our awareness that we are not merely these poor
little human beings in bodies, but we are literally Eternal Beings. Only
when we truly live from that perspective does it become so obvious how
crucially essential it is to recover this planet for untold generations
to come, we must do everything to take care of and learn to appreciate
each other with all our individuating differences. This is the
natural, universal Insight that comes to us when and as we are from the
core of our beings changed permanently by these events; it
is a SHIFT in consciousness in which one comes to live out of "a
spontaneous moral consciousness and reverence for all life." [R.
White]
It's easy to imagine it's about "belief," but it's definitely
not. The difference is like night and day; it's a visceral,
passionate meaning-sufflé of knowing, of knowing-that-you-know.
As Elisabeth Kubler-Ross puts it, "They can hang you by your
toenails, and still you will know."
Our
Children Need the Strength and Confidence These Stories Provide for Their Challenges
Ahead.
Please find ways to share your Experiences and those of other loved
ones, above all, with your children. Every family needs at
least one special Keeper of Stories, to collect, to share, and to be
ever ready to listen to and to nurture their potential gifts on behalf
of our present and future generations. I believe this
is the most important inheritance we may offer them.
Outa' the mouths of babes .. you might be utterly
shocked at what you don't know in this regard about a child. One of
my little nephews was four years old, when over cereal one morning,
quite matter-of-factly, he
said Jesus came and talked to him in a dream, and he told at length what
was said, which was perfectly relevant to his then little boy
concerns. How does anyone know if it was THE Jesus we all
are familiar with by name, and who's to say it was or was not? The thing is, he got something wonderfully meaningful out
of that dream, not the least being a sense of connection within the
Great Web of Life. What a wonderful thing that his parents
thoughtfully listened to and took seriously his dream, which is not what
a lot of us grew up with at all.
Rhea White was an only child and very close to her parents. Yet
when she had a life-changing near-death experience, for many years she
did not tell one other soul, not even her parents. She was afraid
others might think she was crazy or deride or not believe this event,
which she felt was without a doubt the most important event of her life. Times are
changing. Today, even many medical professionals accept that such
things happen.
We must encourage our children and their children to honor the meaning,
inner-directedness and other gifts of their own Experiences of this
nature and to bring their potential actively into their daily
lives. We are leaving them with the saving of a
planet and humanity, whose chances have been looking
pretty scary of late. They need our stories and our respect
and desire to listen and sometimes to help them process their stories, which will
allow them to cultivate phenomenal personal resources most of us never
imagined, growing up. Who, upon
reflection, would deny a child the promise and power of that kind of inner
strength and knowing?
