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Last month, I attended a weekend workshop by Margarethe Randow-Tesch, one of the translators of A Course in Miracles into German, and a teacher of the Course in the German world. I enjoy her workshops because she is a really good teacher who explains the Course clearly, and also because she often mentions Ken Wapnick, a gifted Course teacher who died in 2013, and someone very dear to my heart. As I sat and listened to Margarethe, I had a question in my mind about how to reconcile concepts from A Course in Miracles with accounts of the other side that I have read about in books like Hello from Heaven, and learned about through listening to The Telepathy Tapes, and to interviews of people who have had near-death experiences, like Jonathan Ashford most recently. A few ideas came to me that I want to share in this post.
In my last post, I distinguished Ultimate Reality from experiences in the non-physical world, often called, “the other side,” (or “the other side of the veil”), or referred to as “realms,” “heavenly realms,” “the field,” and “the Hill.” There are multiple sources of information about the other side, including accounts of reincarnation, astral travel, and information received through mediums. In this post, I focus on accounts of near-death experiences and I share some ideas from A Course in Miracles that may tell us something about these experiences, both positive and negative.
Any number of people have described an experience of continued consciousness while their physical body is dead. Most people spontaneously revive or are revived by medical professionals within 5-15 minutes, but in rare cases, the body may be dead for an hour and even for several hours, as Jonathan Ashford has reported to be the case for him. Most people who have a near-death experience have an incredibly positive one, although, by one estimate, up to 20% of people have a negative experience. I will return to this towards the end of this post.
To give a flavor of accounts of near-death experiences, I am copying a snippet of one such account shared anonymously on IANDS.org, the website of the International Association for Near-Death Studies. This is a only a small part of the account of a near-death experience shared by a woman who had a sudden asthma attack alone in her home:
I was dying. Then the world faded. I don’t know how much time passed, but suddenly, I was elsewhere. My body remained in the physical realm, but my spirit was in a place of brilliant pure white light, unlike anything I had ever seen. There were no distinct forms, yet I was surrounded by something familiar, something loving. I felt no fear, no worry. Only an overwhelming sense of peace and love, a love unlike anything I had ever experienced in my earthly existence. I knew my grandmother’s essence was near. I knew Archangel Raphael was present. How? I can’t explain it. I just knew. Though I saw no faces at first, I felt the presence of beings made of light, or orbs, guiding me. I didn’t even look down to check for my own body, I just felt at home.
(Excerpt taken from near death account “Woman Dying from Asthma Hears: Know Thyself, Be the Light, Be the Love,” found at https://research.iands.org/research/nde-research/nde-archives31/newest-accounts/1906-woman-dying-from-asthma-hears-know-thyself-be-the-light-be-the-love.html)
Whereas the specific description of the other side differs from account to account, near-death experiences typically contain recurring elements. People very often describe intensely joyful encounters with loved ones who have died or with spirit beings. Others may describe a love that is unimaginably vast, unconditional, and greater than any love they ever felt as a body. People also often describe the other side as incredibly vivid and as ‘more real than real.’ Many mention that they feel like they have gone to their true home, and subsequently may feel disoriented for a time after they find themselves back in their bodies. It is quite usual for people to say that their near-death experience is difficult to put into words or that words cannot do justice to the experience. The near-death experience often changes the person permanently in one or another way, but especially in how they view their life after the experience.
Sitting in Margarethe’s seminar, it occurred to me that many people’s near-death experiences are examples of revelation described in A Course in Miracles. The end result of our awakening journey is revelation, that is, permanent, direct communication with God and recognition of being One with God. In other words, a permanent state of revelation is the same as permanent awareness of Ultimate Reality. But the Course also talks about experiences of revelation before becoming fully aware of our Oneness with God. I believe that many near-death experiences are glimpses of this state, and so they are also revelations:
[Revelation] reflects the original form of communication between God and His creations… ⁵Revelation unites you directly with God. (T-1.II.1:2, 5)
Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated. ²That is why any attempt to describe it in words is impossible. (T-1.II.2:1-2)
⁷Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love. (T-1.II.2:7)
These explanations of revelation, as the Course teaches the concept, bring together some of the recurring elements of near-death experiences and glimpses of the other side. The enormous love ‘unlike anything ever experienced on earth’ that is often experienced during an NDE is a taste of the Love that we have blocked from our awareness. Although revelation does not require an experience of leaving one’s body, doing so even briefly can bring people closer to the original form of communication between God and all of us. During a near-death experience, the Love of our Source and our true nature may be symbolized through seeing loved ones or interacting with spirit beings, or it may simply be felt directly as being all around. This Love is beyond words, and so it makes sense that people have trouble describing it.
What blocks our experience of Love is fear, but for the majority of people, during the experience of revelation through temporarily dying, fear drops out of awareness:
Revelation induces complete but temporary suspension of doubt and fear. (T-1.II.1:1)
³Revelation induces only experience. (T-1.II.2:3)
...revelation is an experience of pure joy. (T-5.I.1:3)
Having a direct experience of the other side seems to pretty much eliminate doubt about its existence, and may permanently eliminate fear of death. The experience of joy is undeniable in the majority of accounts about near-death experiences, and that felt sense of joy can stay with the person for the rest of their life. Doubt and fear may nevertheless return, which is why a near-death experience is only a glimpse of Reality. The reaction of the person to their experience becomes part of their life-classroom. They may be positively changed by it and nonetheless still have to work through any fear that it evokes or that remains in their minds.
People who have near-death experiences may say that the other side feels like home and more real to them than their life as a person living in a physical world. Jonathan Ashford describes his life since having his near-death experiences as being like a cartoon in comparison to what he experienced on the other side. A central teaching of A Course in Miracles is that the physical universe is not our home. Ultimately, God is our home, and our awakening journey is one of dawning awareness of this:
⁴Ours is simply the journey back to God Who is our home. (T-8.V.5:4)
In a sense, a near-death experience is a crash course in this awareness:
⁶Against this sense of temporary existence [as a body] spirit offers you the knowledge of permanence and unshakable being. ⁷No one who has experienced the revelation of this can ever fully believe in the ego again. ⁸How can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious gift of God? (T-4.III.3:6-8)
It is no wonder, then, that for many people, their near-death experience brings with it a long-lasting change of awareness about their lives in the physical world. They may have an expanded sense of their true nature, and a new sense of purpose. Also, they often feel their interconnectedness with others more strongly, both familiar people and strangers.
What about those people who have negative near-death experiences? Here are two examples published in The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association:
A woman in childbirth felt her spirit separate from her body and fly into space at tremendous speed, then saw a small ball of light rushing toward her: “It became bigger and bigger as it came toward me. I realized that we were on a collision course, and it terrified me. I saw the blinding white light come right to me and engulf me.”
A woman who attempted suicide felt herself sucked into a void: “I was being drawn into this dark abyss, or tunnel, or void…. I was not aware of my body as I know it…. I was terrified. I felt terror. I had expected nothingness; I expected the big sleep; I expected oblivion; and I found now that I was going to another plane.… and it frightened me. I wanted nothingness, but this force was pulling me somewhere I didn’t want to go, but I never got beyond the fog.”
(Article and examples found at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6173534/)
Both of these people found their experiences extremely frightening and even traumatic. Perhaps in these two cases, it was the expectations of the person that influenced their negative experience. The first woman went into labor expecting to become a mother and bring new life into the world. Instead, she temporarily died and found herself on a collision course with a blinding white light, something she in no way wanted. The second woman actually wanted to die and expected to slip into permanent nothingness through killing herself. Instead, she experienced herself going into another plane of existence that felt like a void. This did not line up with her expectations and was not what she wanted when she chose to die by suicide.
Some years ago, before I found A Course in Miracles, I had an experience of seeing something beyond my physical surroundings, and it really scared me! At the time, I had been reading a lot about spirituality, including books about near-death experiences and reincarnation. I found the accounts and cases reported in the books truly fascinating and they gave me a lot to think about. Then one morning, out of the blue, as I was getting ready for work, I had a spontaneous vision of golden orbs floating around me. I could still see my bedroom, but I also saw the orbs, which I understood were not part of the physical world. I felt very frightened seeing these orbs, and they vanished quite quickly. I told a friend who had been on a spiritual path for many years, and she reassured me that the orbs where a good sign. In writing this blog post, I remembered that experience and how frightened I felt. Although my seeing golden orbs did not rise to the level of revelation, looking back on the experience, I can appreciate that I was not ready for what I saw, which made me afraid. It then occurred to me that early on in the Workbook, the Course mentions the possibility of having experiences beyond normal perception as students practice a new way of seeing and thinking:
As we go along, you may have many “light episodes.” ²They may take many different forms, some of them quite unexpected. ³Do not be afraid of them. ⁴They are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. ⁵They will not persist, because they merely symbolize true perception… (W-15.3:1-5)
Although there is no way to tell which experiences of the non-physical world may be frightening, preparation is important. In the first chapter of A Course in Miracles, there is some guidance for students about what lies ahead on the spiritual path:
5. A solid foundation is necessary because of the confusion between fear and awe… ²I have said that awe is inappropriate in connection with the Sons of God, because you should not experience awe in the presence of your equals. ³However, it was also emphasized that awe is proper in the Presence of your Creator… ⁷Some of the later steps in this course [] involve a more direct approach to God Himself. ⁸It would be unwise to start on these steps without careful preparation, or awe will be confused with fear, and the experience will be more traumatic than beatific. ⁹Healing is of God in the end. ¹⁰The means are being carefully explained to you. ¹¹Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to you, but to reach it the means are needed. (T-1.VII.5:1-3, 7-11)
A Course in Miracles is one “means” by which to travel along the path to awakening, and it states quite clearly at the start of the Manual for Teachers that it is only one form of the universal course. There are thousands of others. Near-death experiences happen to people from all walks of life, religious backgrounds, and spiritual commitments, including doubting the existence of anything other than the material world or actively believing that the material universe is the only reality there is. Revelation through near-death experiences can be immensely joyful and comforting, just as for some, it may be frightening and even traumatic. No matter the effect of the experience, healing is always available and the path to awakening remains open. Everyone will find their way Home in the end.
A Course in Miracles is published by The Foundation for Inner Peace. All the books comprising the Course, along with the supplemental pamphlets, can be found online: https://acim.org/acim/en
All quotations of A Course in Miracles in this blog post are drawn from this version of the Course.
Funnily enough, as I was writing this post, Jason Warwick was a guest on the podcast, Miracle Voices (Episode 175, “You Can't Control Anything in this World,” MiracleVoices.org.) He had a near death experience and said that he understood it as personally revelatory.