2
Introduction
tell about it. Clinical studies and polls suggest that approximately 5 to 15 percent of people who die and “come back to life” report experiencing a conscious reality existing beyond this one. 1, 2, 3 Some of the afterworlds they describe are classically Heaven-like, replete with the grandeur of angelic choirs, winged entities, and ascendant beings of light; while others are dark and definitively hellish, full of fire, brimstone, sharp-toothed demons (with pitchforks even)—all that kind of scary, sinister stuff. The majority of these very personal experiences unfold somewhere in the middle, simple and humble NDEs that aren’t nearly as imaginative as those more spectacular experiences—more like normal life as we all know it. Aside from the inherently surreal circumstances of my NDEs, mine were more “normal” that way. They were like this life, only different. Like this life, they took place in a potentially magical world where practically anything could potentially happen. I believe that all of those different NDE stories are the truthful experiences of every one of those experiencers, but just where do the differences in their stories (as in mine) come from? Why does the afterlife seem to be configured differently for different people? Perhaps the answer to these differing experiences of Heaven can be found by looking at our personal earthly experiences—the nature of our perspective on life (the way we look at it), the presence we bring to living (how we live it), and the roles our individual and collective purpose has given us to play (the reason why we’re here). These three themes will be our focus as we move forward together in this book.
The Location of Heaven
I’d describe my three “near deaths” as having sent me into different powerful states of being, as well as to apparently different locations. 1. Knoblauch et al., “Different Kinds of Near-Death Experience,” Journal of Near-Death Studies.
2. Van Lommel et al., “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” Lancet.
3. Poll results in Gallup and Proctor, Adventures in Immortality.