This blog is more than an account of Near Death Experiences. It ponders in detail the tough questions of life. Who are you, and why are you here in this physical world? What happens when you die, and is there a judgment? However, most anything could appear here. This is not a news blog, archived posts are just as relevant as new posts. Check the boxes at the top of the page for the Contents, Contact, Forum and other links.
I wanted to introduce the Gospel According to Thomas to those who have not yet read about it. It is worth the reading and understanding. I will offer a few of its 114 sayings that deal with the need to understand self first so the rest of the world can be put in proper perpective. The quote below in its entirety can be found here.
The Gospel According to Thomas is an ancient document containing 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. A nearly completely preserved papyrus manuscript written in Coptic was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt in December 1945. It was found in an earthenware jar by a farmer with over fifty other documents, together known as the Nag Hammadi library.
The work is composed of 114 sayings. Almost half of these sayings are equal or resemble those found in the canonical Gospels, while most of the other sayings were not known until its discovery.
The entire text of the Gospel According to Thomas can be found here. It is good reading, about half of these sayings are equal or resemble those found in the canonical Gospels, while most of the other sayings were not known until its discovery.
3 Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the (Father’s) kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.”
18 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us, how will our end come?”
Jesus said, “Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.”
22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom.”
They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].”
24 His disciples said, “Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it.”
He said to them, “Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.”
42 Jesus said, “Be passersby.”
49 Jesus said, “Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again.”
50 Jesus said,
“If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’
If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’
If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.'”
51 His disciples said to him, “When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?”
He said to them, “What you are looking forward to has come, but you don’t know it.”
66 Jesus said, “Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.”
67 Jesus said, “Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking.”
77 Jesus said, “I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
83 Jesus said, “Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the Father’s light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light.”
110 Jesus said, “Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world.”
111 Jesus said, “The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death.”
Does not Jesus say, “Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy”?
I like the sayings above because they remind me of the knowledge gathered from near death experiences. One enters the light and becomes the light. We are all One. Children of the Creator of Light, whose is the Light. Our task is to know who we are, to understand we are the children of the Light.
As we go about our daily business we give little thought about the focus of our mind and thoughts. This is automatic to us, our focus is on whatever task we are doing in the present moment. Our eyes, mind, and thoughts may be focused on the book we are reading or some article we are writing. While we are focusing on the object of interest, we are shutting out all those things around us save the object of interest. This is normal, nothing wrong with it, and the more intense our focus becomes the more we shut out the rest of the world to favor that focus.
Some people think they can multi-task, doing several things at once, but they are only kidding themselves. Their focus just moves from one task to another, their body responding with the appropriate moves for that task. It is impossible to focus on more than one thing at a time. We should be thankful for that do to the confusion the alternative would bring.
The intensity of our focus determines how easy or hard it is for someone else to get the attention of the focuser. If you are focused on watching the Super Bowl it may be very hard for someone to break though that focus to ask a quesion. So focus is very important to life, and where you focus is very important to your well being.
You can’t drive a car and use a cell phone at the same time without endangering yourself and others. No one can, so just don’t do it, if you have an accident and you were using a cell phone it will be your fault. Awhile back I had a young girl run into the back of my car as I was making a right turn, with blinkers on, we were lucky and no damage done. But again, just don’t do it.
It is a good idea to notice what thoughts you focus on during the day. Negative thoughts turn into negative action, so try to think about positive things most of the time. Do some affirmations daily and turn negative thoughts into a positive affirmation.
Keep your focus on the good things of life so you will experience the good things of life. Practice focusing on spiritual love for yourself and all people. There is no higher good than doing good things for yourself and others.
Mind, psyche, spirit, soul, are words used to describe the phenomenon of consciousness. It is our consciousness that determines our individuality. We are our consciousness. There is no good definition of consciousness, nor can it be shown where consciousness resides in body. Many think the brain produces the consciousness which is basically you. This would mean you have been created by your brain. But there is no proof of this, nor is there any physical proof of thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, residing in the brain. Brain activity is all science has to examine brain functions, and this activity has not been proved to be coming from the brain, or going to the brain as it is measured. Current near death research shows that consciousness and brain are two separate entities. That consciousness continues to live and function after the brain and body are clinically dead.
Consciousness has been thought to evolve with the evolution of the species, but this seems to be wrong. It is consciousness, or self-awareness that determines the boundaries of self. So how could life appear without boundaries of self. Then at the same time self is defined by consciousness, not-self is also defined. So if life evolved without consciousness it would not be able to determine itself from the world it lived in. How would it know what to eat as nourishment? It could eat itself and not be aware without consciousness to guide it. If this sounds strange it is because it is strange. It shows the lack of rational thought put into the beginning of life as taught by science.
Science also teaches it was a fortunate random mix of chemicals that started life. A primordial soup so to speak. But if the world was randomness at that stage of evolution then why didn’t the randomness quickly change, and destroy the early mixture of chemicals, and life with it soon after it had been created. There are far too many assumptions here to be believable for me. That random changes formed an ideal situation for life to begin, then ceased to be random so that the fragile beginning of life would have time to grow, and not be destroyed by the next wave of randomness.
The only rational belief, seems to be that life started with consciousness, so there never was any randomness involved in the creation of life, nor the creation of the universe. So where did this consciousness come from?
It would have to come from a greater consciousness. I want to try to make the word consciousness more personal, because it is personal. When you say “I am” you are defining your being, you are defining your self. This includes self-awareness, of both self and not self, it includes your individuality, as you know that you are you. This is very important, so stop, and think about what “I am” means to you. This is the eternal part of you, your core being, in the spiritual world. This is the part of you that never changes. In the physical world you may have many names, jobs, locations, visit many places, explore new territories, but you will still be the same “I am” in the spiritual world that you are right this moment. You may, in the physical world, have many deaths of the body, illnesses, beliefs, memories, or loss of memory, you may even become insane, but you will still be the same “I am” in the spiritual world that you are right this moment. This knowing of the “I am” is your connection to the greater consciousness. There may be times in your physical life that you connect with the greater consciousness. Spiritual experiences that you never forget.
So consciousness, your consciousness, comes from the greater consciousness. In the spiritual world all consciousnesses, or people, or individuals reside in the greater consciousness. You are part of the greater consciousness and it a part of you. That is why during a near death experience when you return to the greater consciousness all knowledge is available for you. You have only to question and the answer appears in thought.
The greater consciousness is sometimes called God, and no one knows where God came from, so it is generally accepted that God or the greater consciousness has always been, it has no beginning, no end.
Much has been written about dreams, such as, how to interpret them, what causes them, whether they are meaningful or just nonsense, but I am not sure any of these writings hit the mark. So I am going to write my own explanation of dreams. An explanation I learned from my near death experience.
We are spiritual people enjoying a physical life for the purpose of learning about ourselves. Our physical body needs to rest, so it sleeps, but our spiritual consciousness has no such need. We are literally our consciousness (spirit), and while our body sleeps, we in spiritual form, explore the spiritual and physical realms. Overturning rocks, peering into crevasses, testing our skills, and just being curious about everything. While our body sleeps we go into the spiritual world to go to classes, help others, and to learn more about ourselves.
These journeys are necessary for us to stay focused in the physical dimension. We must leave our bodies and visit the spiritual dimension frequently or we become disoriented and fractured so to speak. We don’t go out of body every time we sleep, but there are indications of when we have been out of body. We will talk about them in the specific dreams section.
It has long been known how disoriented and confused people become when denied sleep for long periods of time. During WWII it was not uncommon to find soldiers laying on the ground, with no wounds, that couldn’t be woke up from their deep sleep. Only after hours of sleep they would wake up on their own. The soldiers may have been awake for days before collapsing into a deep sleep.
Some people can remember their dreams and others can’t remember them. Some only remember their dreams once in a while, but it doesn’t matter, you dream anyway whether you remember it or not.
Outlined below are some of the most common types of dreaming, and a brief explanation of them.
Lucid Dreams
These are dreams in which the dreamer is aware he is dreaming and can interact with the dream. Usually only spiritual persons with knowledge of their spiritual nature can have this kind of dream. It has a lot of advantages, you are able to change or quit activities in the dreams. You can shape, and choose the outcome of your own dreams.
General Dreaming
The dreams listed below are examples. People can have more than one kind of dream mixed with other kinds of dream. They can have dreams that are not listed below, there are no set rules on dreams. But remember that during some dreams you will go out of body and into the spirit realms. Now in the spirit world there are many things that can not be translated into physical terms. There are no languages in the spirit world, only thought forms. Which means that your consciousness will try to symbolize what was seen in the spirit world using physical symbols. This can result in some really weird dreams which seem to have no meaning at all. However, all things including dreams do have meaning, whether we can understand it or not. I recommend you write down your dreams upon awakening, then compare them. It can be an interesting study. Dreams are not hallucinations, delusions, meaningless wandering of the mind, or even the mind sorting out daily activity. Dreams are the journeys of the soul while the body sleeps.
Flying Dreams
These are fun dreams, you go flying over houses, and countryside, you may know the landscape, or it may it new to you. Another form of this dream is skimming along a foot or so above the ground. This type of dream is almost always an indication you are out of your body, but still in the physical dimension.
Falling Dreams
In this dream you find yourself falling off a high place, going down really fast in an elevator, or some other form of falling. It makes your stomach feel funny, and there may be some anxiety associated with it. The good part is you always wake up before you get to the bottom of the fall. This dream is a sure indication you have been out of body, the falling nature of this dream indicates the process of going back into the body. Falling back into the body.
Paralyzed Dreams
This is not really a dream. It is the effect of being out of body. If you have been out of body, and wake up slightly before your spirit fully enters and takes control of your body again, you will feel like you are paralyzed. This can cause a lot of anxiety, but lasts for only a few seconds as control returns. A variation of this condition is when you wake up, and for a few seconds can’t remember where you are and what you were doing. In my opinion these conditions are not harmful, just scary.
Anxiety Dreams
These are very common dreams. You are being chased by a monster of some kind. A gang of bullies is going to beat you up. You have failed a test or missed some goal. You are lost and can’t find your way. You are searching for something you lost and can’t find it. It is scary, full of stress and anxiety. You wake up tired, feeling like you didn’t sleep at all. It is sometimes called a nightmare. Anyway you look at it this dream is not fun, and for some people it happens frequently. This is an indication of anxiety and stress in your waking life that needs to be addressed. It can be alleviated by using stress reduction exercises. Bringing spiritual principles into you life will help at lot. I recommend doing affirmations on a daily basis. Affirmations can be found at the top of this page.
Working Dreams
Here you may find yourself at the office or plant working away. You may be in a classroom learning something that you can’t remember. These dreams may indicate you are out of body and studying/working in the spiritual world on subjects you need to learn for spiritual growth. It is very hard to really know what you are studying or working with because of the inability to translate spiritual events into physical events.
Bathroom Dreams
When you dream about looking for a bathroom it usually means only one thing, you need to wake up and go use the bathroom. You may even find a bathroom while dreaming, but it will not help your body feel better. This sort of dream usually interrupts another dream.
Confusing Dreams
Most dreams have parts that are confusing and just can’t be understood. In the spirit world there are colors, sounds, forms, thoughts, and emotions that have no equal in the physical world. How can you translate a color from the spiritual not seen in the physical, well, you can’t. So I caution you here to not try to read something into dreams that can’t be readily understood. The old book of dreams where dreaming of money means you are going to get rich does not apply to the reality of dreams.
Helping Dreams
Advanced spiritual people help others while they are dreaming. They go out of body and act as guides, helping others to cross over. They sometimes help people near death to understand what is happening to them, they act as counselors, teachers, even healers while they are asleep. It is something done in love for others, and it can be tiring to help others all night, then wake up and help more people during the day. So the person needs to pace themselves with vacations from the nightly helping. It is a great honor to help others whether you are awake or asleep and out of body.
Future Dreams
Then there are dreams that foretell the future. Some people dream about the future, and their dreams come true. Other people dream about the future, and their dreams don’t come true. The future can not be foretold until it becomes the present. All events of the future can be changed by the choices made before the event happens. So unless you have a lot of experience with future dreams don’t put much faith in them.
The world of dreams is larger and more complex than the waking world, because it covers both the physical, and the spiritual world. Nothing written on dreams can be comprehensive. This is written as an outline of the dream world, hoping it will be of value to others.
