"So," I said, "back to the topic of NDEs. Since we're on this topic, we may as well explore them more fully. They tie together quite neatly with other things we've talked about. We'll start here, with another passage from The Holographic Universe…"
Ring bases his conclusion on the numerous suggestively holographic aspects of the NDE. One is the tendency of experiencers to describe the world beyond as a realm composed of “light”, “higher vibrations,” or “frequencies.” Some NDEers even refer to the celestial music that so often accompanies such experiences as more “a combination of vibrations” than actual sounds — observations that Ring believes are evidence that the act of dying involves a shift in consciousness away from the ordinary world of appearances and into a more holographic reality of pure frequency. NDEers also frequently say that the realm is suffused with a light more brilliant than any they have ever seen on earth, but one that, despite its unfathomable intensity, does not hurt the eyes, characterizations that Ring feels are further evidence of the frequency aspects of the hereafter.
Michael Talbot
"What does that remind you of?" I asked.
"The little candle in the sun!" Zac said. "If the 'higher realm' is a God-like state, then the candle is returning to the infinite light."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I made that connection too. 'There once was a soul who knew itself to be the light. This was a new soul, and so, anxious for experience. 'I am the light,' it said. 'I am the light.'' In NDEs, the 'guides' existing in these other dimensions are often described as 'beings of light'. Here's another passage that talks about this…"
These are, of course, difficult questions to answer. When Whitton tried to find out the identity of the beings who counseled people in the between-life state, he found the answer elusive. “The impression my subjects gave — the ones who could answer the question — was that these were entities who had completed their cycle of incarnations here,” he says.
After hundreds of journeys into the inner realm, and after interviewing dozens of other talented fellow OBEers [out-of-body experiencers] on the matter, Monroe has also come up empty-handed. “Whatever they may be, [these beings] have the ability to radiate a warmth and friendliness that evokes complete trust,” he observes. “Perceiving our thoughts is absurdly easy for [them].” And “the entire history of humankind and earth is available to them in the most minute detail.” But Monroe, too, confesses ignorance when it comes to the ultimate identity of these nonphysical entities, save that their first order of business appears to be “totally solicitous as to the well-being of the human beings with whom they are associated.”
Not much more can be said about the civilizations of these subtle realms, save that individuals who are privileged enough to visit them universally report seeing many vast and celestially beautiful cities there. NDEers, yogic adepts, and ayahuasca-using shamans — all describe these mysterious metropolises with remarkable consistency. The twelfth-century Sufis were so familiar with them that they gave several of them names.
The most notable feature of these great cities is that they are brilliantly luminous. They are also frequently described as foreign in architecture, and so sublimely beautiful that, like all the other features of the implicate dimensions, words fail to convey their grandeur. In describing one such city Swedenborg said that it was a place “of staggering architectural design, so beautiful that you would claim this is the home and source of art itself.”
People who visit these cities also frequently assert that they have an unusual number of schools and other buildings associated with the pursuit of knowledge. Most of Whitton’s subjects recalled spending at least some time hard at work in vast halls of learning equipped with libraries and seminar rooms while in the between-life state. Many NDEers also report being shown “schools,” “libraries,” and “institutions of higher learning” during their experiences. And one can even find references to great cities devoted to learning and reachable only by journeying into “the hidden depths of the mind” in eleventh century Tibetan texts. Edwin Bernbaum, a Sanskrit scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, believes that James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, in which he created the fictional community of Shangri-La, was actually inspired by one of these Tibetan legends.
Michael Talbot
"There are several points to make here," I said. "The first is a reference to something we already covered, back when God talked about being the Alpha and the Omega; a snake eating its tail; an infinitely recursive structure. He said…"
Exactly. Yet you are not condemned to [hell]. You are not relegated to it forevermore. All that it takes to get out of hell — to get out of not knowing — is to know again.
There are many ways and many places (dimensions) in which you can do this.
You are in one of those dimensions now. It is called, in your understanding, the third dimension.
And there are many more?
Have I not told you that in My Kingdom there are many mansions? I would not have told it to you were it not so.
Then there is no hell — not really. I mean, there is no place or dimension to which we are everlastingly condemned!
What would be the purpose of that?
Yet you are always limited by your knowingness — for you — we — are a self-created being.
You cannot be what you do not know your Self to be.
Neale Donald Walsch
"In My Kingdom there are many mansions," Zac said. "Do you think these light realms are one of those metaphorical mansions?"
"Yep," I said. "That seems logical."
"Cool," he grinned.
