1. Tapping Into the Mind of God
I woke from a restless night’s
sleep, sauntered to the breakfast table and was greeted by my wife as she
stunningly gazed at the television. The commentator was screaming, “they just
flew an airplane into the World Trade Center and another one is heading for the
other building”. A thick cloud billowed from a collapsed structure and people
were crying and screaming as they were running. The evening news media portrayed
that some passengers phoned their relatives who confirmed that the attacks had
been carried out by Muslim terrorists who commandeered the planes and repeated
the phrase “God is great” before the planes flew into the buildings.
I had prior business dealings with several Muslims. They, like my departed
father were deeply religious. Malik the electrician had spent some time with me
explaining how the Islam religion requires prayer five times daily and forbade
the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Now I was puzzled, “How can devout
religious people kill others while claiming that God is great?” I stopped by
at the local bookstore and picked up a copy of 'Muhammad' by Karen Armstrong. It
explained about how Muhammad had formed the Islam religion. I read the book deep
into the night and again for the next two days until I was finished with it.
As I lay next to my wife that night, the television clock showed it to be 12:35
A.M. My wife was sleeping peacefully but my spirit was restless. The words, “How
this is possible” kept repeating themselves in my mind as my mind went
into deep meditation. One and a half hour went by, it was now 2:05 A.M. as I
felt a sharp pain in my head, I closed his eyes momentarily and when I opened
them I was staring down at myself looking at the clock with my wife sleeping
next to me. I felt surrounded by a beautiful, pleasant bright light.
I felt an exhilarating burst of energy, I experienced my spirit being
transmitted, whisked at a powerful speed as if through a light tunnel and being
united with a receiver at the other end, with a spiritual unity. My whole life
was revealed to me during the seemingly long journey.
“Am I in Heaven, am I with God?” I wondered as I experienced being in a
place with a gathering of spirits. I felt the greatest peace, tranquility and
ecstasy. I felt a rapture that was beyond a person's imagination. I felt as if
he was a part of ALL, a part of God. I was mentally communicating and in sync
with everyone. There were many of the prophets of the Bible and historical
people; there was Jesus, Abraham, Moses, and even Muhammad whom I just read
about. I saw my father and some of my deceased acquaintances and relatives. I
felt an engulfing love and support from everyone as they surrounded and embraced
me. I again looked around for God and though I felt as if I was with God, there
was no dominant force, no forceful leader. I somehow knew who everyone was; my
thoughts interacted with the entire community, it was like "Tapping
Into the Mind of God".
”But which is the true religion?” my thoughts momentarily queried.
A scenario rapidly unfolded that was like a staged play with actors situated in
their respective positions.
A Rabbi, a Christian minister, and an Islamic cleric appeared at an area that
was marked “The Gates of Heaven”. They eyed each other suspiciously. Peter
(the gatekeeper) asked if there was a problem.
The Rabbi told Peter, “Ours is the true religion. We have the word of God that
this is so and it is written in the Torah that God said we are the chosen
children of God, not the Christians or the Muslims.”
The Christian minister said, “Jesus told us that he is the Son of God and that
the only way to God was by following his teachings and that unless one is born
again, one would not get into heaven. What Jesus said is the word of God and it
is written in the Holy Bible”.
The Muslim cleric said, “God has told Muhammad that he was the last true
prophet and that everything that God told him was written in the Koran and that
those who did not follow what was written there, would not get into heaven”.
Other souls appeared and some sided with and gathered around each of their
leaders, while some other souls who sided with no one entered directly through
the gates of heaven.
Eventually Peter told the souls who had gathered around the souls of their
clerics, “In heaven there can be no disagreement and until you all are in
agreement, you have to move to the Purgatory area”. No agreement was reached
and eventually those souls seemed to fade away.
A sweet gentle voice seemed to relay:
“The lesson is that having tunnel-vision or being closed-minded, without
compassion for the belief of others around you can be bad for the body and the
soul. Most religions have the same goals and all who live righteously will be
with us”.
In a flash, as if in a recreation, I was taken back to 1956 when I was fifteen
years old. My father took me to a doctor who diagnosed it to be double
pneumonia, gave me a penicillin injection and recommended immediate
hospitalization. I thought that I was going to die. My father was temporarily
out of work and our family had no medical insurance or money, so my father took
me home to recuperate. I remembered the drive home vividly. Every breath was
painful and my chest felt as though a great weight was upon it. I watched the
cars and trucks drive by and I wondered how people could make long-term plans
when life was so unpredictable.
While I was recuperating I read the Bible diligently, then one night I had what
seemed like a puzzling experience of my spirit interacting with a spiritual
existence. As the years passed, I thought that this spiritual interaction
probably had been a dream. I didn’t think about it much afterwards and lived
my life normally, but I had no fear of death after that because I felt that the
afterlife would be much better than the present one.
A week after the dramatic experience following 9-11-01, I had another spiritual
experience that was in a progression that seemed to last throughout the entire
night. My spirit was weightless, uninhibited by any resistance or external
influences; I could travel to any star or planet instantly, explore the beauty
of the universe, and still be in sync with what I considered to be God.
My spirit witnessed the universe stretched out like a vast expanse with spirits
engaged in mental interaction, much like master craftsmen contemplating the
creation of a new frontier. My spirit observed the entire history and the
evolution of the universe and peoples varying perceptions of Jehovah, Allah and
God; as if in a fast-forward film. My spirit witnessed the beginning of life and
then physical rational life in the universe, and the bonding of the first two
souls that was the beginning of a spiritual unity. My spirit witnessed the
development of mankind and man’s first perception of God from the story of
Adam & Eve. My spirit witnessed Abraham & Moses, their quest into
spirituality, their interaction with God and the beginning of Judaism. My spirit
witnessed God’s interaction with Jesus and his life and physical death. My
spirit witnessed the beginning of Christianity & the senseless killings in
the Crusades; also God’s interaction with Muhammad, the beginning of the Islam
faith & the Arab struggles. My spirit witnessed the senseless New York Twin
Towers tragedy of 9-11-01. (See
picture)
My spirit understood that our life on earth was to prepare us and to give us
examples of the hereafter, that everything is progressive and accumulative. We
exist on earth to accumulate experiences of feelings, the beauty of every
organism that surrounds us, the landscape that adds to our perception and then,
when our life on Earth ends, we would begin our next spiritual journey.
I understood that we should live our life to its fullest. One hundred years from
now, almost every single person alive today will have died. Several billion
people wiped off the face of this earth. Our life is but a blip on the radar
screen of time. We are the most important person responsible for whether our
soul will live to attain continuity with God. Here we learn how to intertwine
with a community, there we can experience anything that the imagination can
perceive.
Envision yourself as a spirit that is uninhibited by any resistance or external
influences; you can travel to any star or planet instantly, explore the beauty
of the universe, and still be in sync with God. As an example: Imagine the most
advanced form of Virtual Reality that can access a super-computer and place you
in whichever setting you desire; you can play with the animals, be with your
loved ones, listen to the greatest opera, stage or musical performances, or
simply relax next to a bubbling brook and enjoy the scenery. You feel no pain,
despair, heartache, or negative emotions.
My experiences are not unique,
many people have had spiritual interactions and near-death-experiences. (NDEs)
Dr. Lommel provides an explanation for many of the questions relating to
NDEs) at the website of International
Association for Near-Death Studies.
Melvin Morse, MD, Pediatrics; Michael Sabom, MD, Cardiology; Peter Fenwick, MD, Neuropsychiatry and Pim van Lommel, MD, Cardiology all have one thing in common. They're in pursuit of verifiable evidence of life after death. Dr Lommel, et al, stirred a bit of controversy back in 2001 when they were published in Lancet, England’s noted medical journal. The publication described near death experiences in survivors of cardiac arrest.
I emailed Dr. Lommel about my spiritual experiences with some questions.
Dear Dr. Lommel,
I agree with your thesis about "The Continuity Of Our Consciousness" and also with your statement that religions are mostly “about power, not about spirituality”. I would appreciate clarification on a few points that you wrote about.
You stated: 1. “According
to our concept, which is based on the reported aspects of consciousness
experienced during cardiac arrest, we can conclude that our consciousness could
be based on fields of information, consisting of waves, and that it originates
in the phase-space”.
Q:
If we assume that consciousness originates in, yet is outside of the brain, can
we call this consciousness “spirit” and when is this spirit able to
intertwine with another spiritual existence?
2.
“During life we can receive aspects of our consciousness into our body
as our waking consciousness. During cardiac arrest, the functioning of the brain
and of other cells in our body stops because of anoxia. The electromagnetic
fields of our neurons and other cells disappear, and the possibility of
resonance, the interface between consciousness and our physical body is
interrupted, and our heightened consciousness may be experienced outside the
body, sometimes in another dimension without our material concept of time and
space”.
Q.
My first experience was a NDE due to severe pneumonia at age fifteen. The
body’s function had been subdued and the brain was in stasis.
After
my last two experiences my mind was somewhat trance-like or in a daze for a
couple of days and my spirit seemed to pre-occupy my mental faculties for
several months afterwards, it endeavored to interpret what had transpired. I
have since that time unsuccessfully attempted to repeat these episodes several
times. Does your research confirm that deep mental stress could be a
contributing factor toward these incidents?
3.
“Such understanding fundamentally changes one’s
opinion about death, because of the almost unavoidable conclusion that at the
time of physical death consciousness will continue to be experienced in another
dimension, in an invisible and immaterial world, the phase-space, in which all
past, present and future is enclosed. Research on NDE cannot give us the
irrefutable scientific proof of this conclusion, because people with an NDE did
not quite die, but they all were very, very close to death, without a
functioning brain”.
Q. Is
this phase-space possibly the fourth dimension? Science has recently somewhat
replicated NDE’s through inductions of electrical currents on the brain and
people have experienced bliss and seeing invisible lights, but have you had any
patients experience more than one vivid, graphic experience similar to mine?
4.
“The conclusion that consciousness can be experienced independently of brain
function might well induce a huge change in the scientific paradigm in western
medicine, and could have practical implications in actual medical and ethical
problems such as the care for comatose or dying patients, euthanasia, abortion,
and the removal of organs for transplantation from somebody in the dying process
with a beating heart in a warm body but a diagnosis of brain death”.
Q.
Isn’t a brain dead person diagnosed as completely being incapable of receiving
stimuli?
“There are still more questions than answers, but, based on the aforementioned theoretical aspects of the obviously experienced continuity of our consciousness, we finally should consider the possibility that death, like birth, may well be a mere passing from one state of consciousness to another”.
Q. I agree. Will you conduct further research that extends past NDE’s in order to find out if other people have had similar experiences as I have? Is there a possibility that the people who are written about in the Bible had spiritual interactions and that these interactions were then interpreted by preconditioned minds; hence we have various religions?
I look forward to your response. K___.
(Dr.Lommel’s response)
Dear K___,
Thank you for mailing to me your near-death experience. The response from your father is what you usually hear from people who have experienced such an experience and try to communicate about it. This is such a hard confrontation. But I also know, that many, many people are open for it, and I also know that this is not a dream, hallucination or a vivid imagination.
Be careful in communicating about your experience, and listen to your intuition in finding people who want to listen. Be patient. I wish you all the best.
Q1. You can call consciousness outside the brain "spirit", if you like, but this can be confusing because not everybody has the same ideas about what exactly "spirit" should be. And there are several "levels" of consciousness, waking consciousness, dreaming consciousness, "subconsciousness", collective human consciousness, morphogenetic consciousness, higher consciousness, Cosmic consciousness, Divine consciousness. All these levels of consciousness are interconnected, and available, also during our life in our body.
Q2. I agree with you that also deep mental stress can facilitate the access to other levels or other aspects of our consciousness, See also answer Q1. But also NDE, meditation, regression therapy, isolation, depression, terminal illness and other circumstances can facilitate this effect.
Q3. This phase-space is a higher dimensional space, presumably not just the fourth dimension, according to Quantum Mechanics. Induced experiences are never the same as a NDE, sometimes several elements can be experienced, like flashes of the past, a feeling of not being in the body, or a period of unconsciousness, but aspects like a life-review, or transformation after the experience are hardly mentioned after induced experiences. All ND-experiences are personal experiences, where finding words for it is very difficult, and cultural, demographic and religious factors play a role in this. So I have never heard a similar experience ever.
Q4. Brain-dead is a sometimes very difficult diagnosis. But when the brain has no function any more, without circulation in the brain, there should be no access to stimuli whatsoever according current medical science, which "believes" that consciousness is exclusively produced in and located in the brain.
With kind regards,
Pim van Lommel, cardiologist
Several people whom I interacted with pointed out that my spiritual journeys were similar to what was written in the Urantia Book. I perused the book and was amazed at the superior knowledge that this book contained; the only thing lacking therefrom was the message from God: “All religions that promote peace, love and compassion toward others have equal validity”. This I have attempted to portray by editing the Urantia Book and retaining similarities therein of what my spirit witnessed in my spiritual interactions with God.
Those who believe that Jesus was a prophet and Messenger of God, rather than the only Son of God will share Heaven equally with all who have lived righteously. We are all children of God and as children of God, we are also sons and daughters of God; God shows no favoritism, He loves all of his children equally.
Messengers of God and Men of God who contributed to the compilation of the writings in the Holy Books such as the Torah, Bible, Koran, etc., were inspired by God to give us guidelines to live by.
This messenger is of little significance. It is the message
that needs to be taken into account and judged for its merits. The experiences I
encountered after the 9-11 tragedy helped me come to this conclusion: In this
21st Century, the Age of Technology, we are still plagued by religious beliefs
that are a contributing cause toward terrorism, killings and wars between
nations. Belief in a deity, who has caused catastrophes, thereby punishing
people, was brought about by hysteria and superstitions. This thought process
needs to be reassessed and brought up to date. Open-minded people must use
common sense to determine whether God was incorrectly perceived, misinterpreted
and misunderstood by the masses of a bygone era.
Some will say that my personal experience of Oneness with the Holy Spirit of
God is nothing but a dream or a vivid imagination. It doesn't matter whether
you accept or totally reject my story, what does matter is that we evolve to a
point whereby we can encourage open-minded people to offer solutions on how our
religious beliefs can be brought into the 21st century.
My concept is that God is a Spiritual Unity, a Oneness, a structured
government-like Spiritual Collective. God is a Master Planner who guides the
development of the universe. God is the progressive and accumulative Spiritual
Intelligence of the universe. God is the united peaceful coexistence of the
souls of many of our forefathers, past prophets, and all who have lived
righteously. Cultures change with time and God has always been the same but our
perception of God will vary with time.
Namaste, K___
Please contact kkawohl1@cox.net if you wish to have this book emailed to you as an attachment free of charge.
