I offer the following as food for thought....

I have done a lot in my life in the cause of civilization and in many places the United States is about to take a step backward.....

In my study of the Sun and the link to gravity, quantum physics and multi-dimentional theory, earthquakes and altered states mind I have learned many things...including about God....science and religion are not incompatable nor is evolution....


By Sandra Lilley
News planning editor
NBC News
Updated: 3:35 p.m. ET June 3, 2005

Sandra Lilley
News planning editor


The battle over teaching evolution is raging in communities across the country, but the headlines rarely focus on the “quiet” impact of this controversy.

Science is becoming a political “hot potato” for some students — transforming what should be a dynamic, fascinating topic into a total turn-off. And some students are choosing silence over losing a prom date.

“Children are very much worried about their place in the world. Some students only ask me about evolution privately, after class,” said Wes McCoy, PhD, who teaches Genetics, Biology and Astronomy at North Cobb High School in Kennessaw, Ga.

McCoy, who has won the Georgia “Outstanding Biology Teacher” award, is active in his Presbyterian church and also serves on the National Executive Board of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian faith, is saddened by what he has seen in his classroom.

“Students face consequences if they choose to accept evolution in a family or a church or a community that patently rejects evolution ... It might affect whether you get a date to the prom, or whether you get that summer job or not,” McCoy said. “You may even anger close family members. Conversations about evolution can make family reunions very tense.”

And at a time when the National Science Foundation projects that the number of scientists and engineers reaching retirement age is expected to triple in the next 10 years, McCoy and others argue that the “evolution wars” are taking time away from their life’s work — making these children excited and prepared — to become the next Jonas Salk or Bill Gates.

Science politicized

The town of Kennessaw, where McCoy teaches, is part of Cobb County, Ga. It was in Cobb County that a U.S. district judge recently ruled against the “evolution is just a theory” disclaimer sticker, which had been placed on science textbooks by the local school board.

So is this a “victory” for the educators, who argued against the stickers in federal court?

“The decision to place stickers on the books already reflects an unfortunate politicization of science,” said Brown University professor Kenneth Miller, the co-author of"Biology," the textbook that had the stickers removed.

“Clearly the right thing to do was to remove those stickers and treat evolution as any other subject. But in a sense it has already done damage to science teaching by implying that evolution is especially weak and especially shaky, when it reality it is neither,” Miller said.

Clare McKinney teaches biology and zoology at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana. She is also a Christian who has been on national news defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom.

McKinney explained why the debate over evolution versus creationism is appealing — and important — to children in her classes.

“For kids this age, fairness is a real issue. Many children, who are not even familiar with the sound evidence surrounding evolution, signed petitions to 'include' intelligent design because it seemed 'fair,'” said McKinney. That said, she also understands the pressure these children feel to “reconcile” their beliefs with science — she went through it herself.

According to McKinney, interested students have waited until they are outside the classroom to discuss what they perceive as “conflicting” views. “I have flat out told students that the more I know about science, the more glorious God seems,” said McKinney.

She stresses in her classroom that “science is not out to prove the presence or absence of God - whatever you believe, it’s OK," adding, “You can almost see the anxiety level diminish when I say that.”

A unified theory

But what concerns educators like Miller is whether this politicization of basic science dissuades children from going into the field.

Miller, an enthusiastic Catholic who wrote the book "Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution,” finds this troubling.

“Science is the one thing that is universal across cultures…and yet [after the evolution debates] some children in this country are seeing science as a potential minefield,” explained Miller.

“We are at a disadvantage if we don’t teach kids evolution, because it’s the one unified theory that can explain everything from antibiotic resistance to pesticide resistance over time,” Miller said. “If a child becomes a pharmacist and someone develops a resistance to a drug, that is evolution. We have to be able to teach it well.”

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

A statement on the nature of life and death

While serving as an intelligence officer I was poisoned. After which I was rushed to a hospital where I was pumped full of chemicals to stabilize me and to keep me breathing. Like the artist whose website I posted on this site in another conversation, I experienced a near death experience and altered state of consciousness.

In my case I felt my body and brain shut down and passed through the white light. What I was poisoned with is an unknown at this point but is suspected to be a lethal neuro-toxin, perhaps similar to that developed by the CIA and stolen like anthrax from Ft Detrick by persons with an unidentified agenda, again like the anthrax used against Washington DC. The toxic exposure has been confirmed by U.S. Laboratories, University Labs and Government medical Facilities.

Like the artist it took me a long time to recover from it. I had to rebuild my brain cognitive functions, function by function from a primitive basal consciousness that only desired revenge and justice to a full one tempered by reason.

During my recovery and reforming of my neural pathways, as well as regaining motor neural functions and reconstructing my memories, I experienced a number of visions and connections with certain beings, symbols and signs. These included a tree, the Cross, Star of David, Jesus Christ, God Satan., Lucifer, Baal Michael Lord of Hosts and a number of other matters and beings common to those that experience a near death experience.

It took me a long time to recover my skills and abilities; the trisection of the angle was the hardest for me. As for those who question what lies on the other side, I can only say that is more than you can possibly imagine and that there are penalties associated with attempting to cross the great barrier before your time, taking a life or probing to deeply for it is my strong opinion based on multi-dims ional studies that beings other than ourselves do exist that take interest in such matters. Where life starts and stops is a gray area I don’t even pretend to know.

As to the rest, perhaps one day I will record what I saw. Like the artist I was suspending in a moment of time that had no beginning or end. I saw the universe in all of its completeness and could only wonder at what a small primitive species we still are and why god loves us so.

I will to the day I pass, have a high degree of anger towards those that poisoned me. I am not Jesus Christ or St, Paul and forgiveness comes hard to me. I suspect it will take me a long time before I step foot into the capital that ordered my assignation. Which capital it is, is a secret that only I and those that poisoned me know. One more secret left over form the Coldest of Wars and the ashes of history.

During the Cold War we worked miracles and designed bomb driven starships that would have taken us to the stars on pillars of nuclear fire. Some will say we have fallen far and others will say we have progressed. All I know is that in the end it will be god that determines whether or not we have made progress or slid backwards into darkness.

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Quote:

Edward Chesky

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Quote:

I saw the universe in all of its completeness and could only wonder at what a small primitive species we still are and why god loves us so.

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Easter Island.

I just had a strange thought, to which I am given at times. What if Easter Island's stone statues are on 'tsunami watch'? It makes sense, that they would be staring out to sea for danger. Other than typhopns, what dangers exist for the islanders? Tsunamis! Call it calling on the power of the gods, but they may have built those as extra sets of eyes to be on the lookout for danger coming from the only place they could not control, the sea. Don't they all stare out to sea?

In my mind's eye, I can see the islanders inundated by a great tsunami, one where maybe half the island was destroyed. So to avert future disaster they erected 'eyes' of the gods to watch out for them, figuring their shaman would see impending disaster in a dream. Hundreds of years later, when another devastating tsunami hit, they abandon their work in frustration. An interesting way to test for this would be to find evidence of past tsunamis and corrollate the timeline to when the islanders abandoned their great works invoking help of the gods. Bad science, but they had hope of salvation from disaster for a long time. Science wins, now we have a tsunami warning system in the world's oceans.

Ah well, maybe another glass of good dry red wine will give me more ideas about gods and science.

Cheers, salute, Ivan

I am a firm believer that the great minds of ancient days around the world coded information into great constructions and works of art. The tragic part of all of this is that greedy private collectors tend to buy these tresures and horde them from public view and scholars.

The following is just one example of ancient data that has been encoded in our works of art.

Lost Ancient Star Catalogue Found
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Jan. 19, 2005 — An ancient star catalogue lost for centuries has emerged from a Titan's shoulder, according to a study into a Roman statue of Atlas presented at the recent American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego, Calif.

Known as the Farnese Atlas, the seven-foot-tall marble statue depicting the mythical Titan carrying the Earth on his shoulder is a Roman copy from the 2nd century A.D. of a Greek original dating to before the birth of Christ.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050117/loststars.html

In another example of such genius Michelangelo is reported to have coded a lesson in the Sistine Chapel during the dark days when exploration of human anatomy was forbidden by the church

Michelangelo Code’ seen in frescoes
Anatomy lesson hidden in Sistine Chapel, doctors say

By Carlos A. DeJuana


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8245414

Now imagine what else has been hidden by the great minds of ancient days....things forbinden by the authorities of the ancient days or out of fear of lack of proof or ridicule from the other minds of the day

Food for thought

All my best

Ed Chesky

A note on the great minds of history,

Galileo, Descartes, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo were all among the greatest of minds to walk the earth. Each had run ins with the temporal athorities of the time.

In response to these run ins and their understanding of the persecutions from deviation from established doctrine that would befall those that challanged the temporal athorites I have a theory that they have hidden in various works much knowledge that ran counter to the understanding of the scholars and religeous authorities of the day. I also surmise that these greats used geometry, encryption techniques, astronomy and secret societies to preserve and pass this knowledge along to later generations to build upon and evaluate when the time was right. I cite my previous posting as an indicator that this information does exist and wonder what else has been locked away. I also surmise that this type of information continues to the modern era as indicated by the geometric design of the Eiffel Tower which resists wind effects due to a previously unknown bit of geometry used by its designer when building it. This bit of geometry was discovered by a researcher who evaluated the notes of the towers designer.....much like the doctors that visited the Sistine Chapel....

Food for thought...

My Best Ed Chesky

Something from Albert Einstein

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." (Albert Einstein)

Just a note that science and religion are not incompatable

http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/VO.html

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

My Baha'i friends tell me their Founder,
Baha'u'lla, laid out ten basic principles of their
Faith, one of which is the unification of science
and religion. His son, Abdul'baha, said the
following:

"When religion, shorn of its superstitions,
traditions and unintelligent dogmas, shows its
conformity with science, then there will be a
great unifying, cleansing force in the world,
which will sweep before it all wars,
disagreements, discords and struggles, and then
will mankind be united in the powers of the love
of God."

(pg. 81, The Baha'i Faith, an introduction, by
Gloria Faizi.)

I might add that Bahai'ism is a split of branch of
Islam in the 19th century, showing progressive
ideas such as the unity of mankind on the planet,
equality of men and women, and an independent
investigation of truth.

The only fault I can find, in my opinion only, is
that the "investigation" is centered not on a
truly independent study of all that is, but an
investigation of the writings of the founders.
What is lacking, again in my opinion, is a
fundamental understanding within the writings on
the nature of individual human freedoms. But
nevertheless, given its time and place (Persia) it
was a tremendous leap forward in religious
thinking.

Ivan

[I should add that even science is not immune
from encroachments of dogma, where certain
beliefs are taken on faith, just like religion.]

The subject baffles doctors, having gone through this myself, I have described the experience. I suspect like myself that towards the end of life the soul sometimes returns and with supreme effort re-establishes contact. If the damage is too great then its a farewell conversation, with a clock that is ticking. If the damage is not too great then its a continuation of life...albeit a changed form of existence....

After 9 1/2 years, brain-damaged man perks up
Ex-firefighter asks, 'How long have I been away?'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7717220/

Ed Chesky

Near-Death Experience

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry?id=33431

Near-death experience, phenomenon reported by some people who have been clinically dead, then returned to life. Descriptions of the experience differ slightly in detail from person to person, but usually share some basic elements: a feeling of being outside one's body, a sensation of sliding down a long tunnel, and the appearance of a bright light at the end of that tunnel. The light is sometimes described as a benevolent "being of light" who directs the person in a review of his or her life so far and ultimately prevents the person from crossing some sort of boundary that signifies death. Most people who have had a near-death experience report that it strongly influences their subsequent lives, relieving anxiety about death and increasing their sense of purpose and their sensitivity to others.

Research into the near-death experience was pioneered by Raymond Moody, who published Life After Life in 1975 after studying 150 people who had had such experiences. He and other scientists, such as cardiologist Michael Sabom, found that possible physiological and psychological causes for the phenomenon, including lack of oxygen to the brain, the influence of anesthetics, disruptions in neurotransmitter release, and prior expectations, could not sufficiently account for the experiences these people described. Their findings and a belief in a spiritual explanation for the phenomenon have been supported by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who pioneered the study of death and dying in the United States beginning in the late 1960s.

Near-death experience is an emotional issue, believed to be a profound spiritual experience by some and criticized as wish fulfillment by others. Many skeptical scientists believe that it is a simple physiological event misconstrued by people who have a compelling psychological need or who are comforted by interpreting the experience in terms of their religious or spiritual beliefs.

Bibliography

See R. Moody, Life After Life (1975); K. Ring, Life at Death: a Scientific Investigation of the Near Death Experience (1980); M. B. Sabom, Recollections of Death: a Medical Investigation (1982); M. Morse, Closer to the Light (1990); B. J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light (1992); E. Kübler-Ross, On Life After Death (1994).

Near-death experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymous Bosch)A near-death experience (NDE) is the perception reported by a person who nearly died or who was clinically dead and revived. They are somewhat common, especially since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques, and are reported in approximately one-fifth of persons who revive from clinical death. The experience often includes an out-of-body experience.

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001). Typically a near-death experience involves the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985). There have also been accounts of patients seeing things they apparently could not have seen had they not been out of their bodies.

A 'core' near-death experience reflects—as intensity increases according to the Rasch scale (Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004)—peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences. The same study also notes that the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time.

As an afterlife experience
Many see near death experiences as an afterlife experience, and some accounts include elements that they say are most simply explained by an out-of-body consciousness. For example, in one, a woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead. In another from the proactive Dutch NDE study[1], a nurse removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and was asked by him after his recovery to return them.

But researchers have been unsuccessful in running proactive experiments to establish out-of-body consciousness. There have been numerous experiments in which a random message was placed in a hospital in a manner that it would be invisible to patients or staff yet visible to a floating being, and thus far, no person experiencing a near death experience has been able to reproduce the message.

Regardless of the origin of the phenomenon, the subjective experience of NDEs is well-documented, and follows certain patterns:

It is generally accepted that some people who reported NDEs were shown to be clinically dead, sometimes longer than a day. However, it is not shown that the experiences themselves took place in any time other than just before the clinical death, or in the process of being revived. In altered states of consciousness such as this and during dream states or under the influence of drugs, the subjective perception of time is often dilated.

Those who report NDEs typically respond by a major change of life perspective and direction, generally away from self-orientation toward outward orientation, or what they call a more loving life. The NDE is reported by some to feel "more real than life"[2]. Some former atheists have adopted a more spiritual view of life after NDEs[3] (for example Howard Storm and George Rodonaia).

Those who report NDEs typically look forward to death, but DESPISE SUICIDE.

The similarities amongst the experiences of the many documented cases may simply show that the pathology of the brain during the dying and reviving process is more or less the same in all humans, as written by Russian specialist Dr. Vladimir Negovsky in Clinical Death As Seen by Reanimator.

As a naturalistic experience
Many see near death experiences as a purely naturalistic phenomenon.

One scientific hypothesis that attempts to explain NDEs was originally suggested by accounts of the side-effects of the drug Ketamine (see Dr. Karl Jansen). Ketamine was used as an anesthetic on U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; but its use was abandoned and never spread to civilian use because the soldiers complained about sensations of floating above their body and seeing bright lights. Further experiments by numerous researchers verified that intravenous injections of ketamine could reproduce all of the commonly cited features of an NDE; including a sense that the experience is "real" and that one is actually dead, separation from the body, visions of loved ones, and transcendent mystical experiences.

Ketamine acts by blocking the receptor for the neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate is released in abundance when brain cells die, and if it weren't blocked, the glutamate overload would cause other brain cells to die as well. In the presence of excess glutamate, the brain releases its own glutamate receptor blocker to defend itself; and it is these blockers Dr. Jansen (amongst others) hypothesize as the cause of many NDEs.

Critics of this hypothesis point out that although some aspects of the experience may be similar, not all NDEs exactly fit the ketamine experience; and that while it might be possible to chemically simulate the experience, this does not refute the possibility that spontaneous NDEs have a spiritual component. As even Dr. Jansen notes:

Claims that NDE's must have a single explanation (e.g. Ring, 1980), or that a scientific theory must explain all of the experiences ever given the name of NDE (e.g. Gabbard and Twemlow, 1989) are difficult to justify.
Swiss scientists published in 2002 in Nature[4] found that electrical stimulation on the brain region known as the right angular gyrus repeatedly caused out-of-body experiences to the patient[5].

Also see out-of-body experience in which experiences like NDE occur in epilepsy or during brain stimulation and lucid dreaming in which subjects also report experiences that seem more "real" than waking life.

Research

Dr. Raymond Moody is recognized as the father of NDE research. He has chronicled and studied many of these experiences in his books The Last Laugh, Life After Life and Reflections on Life After Life. Another early pioneer is Dr. Kenneth Ring, co-founder and past President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).

Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index (Ring, 1980) in order to measure the depth of the Near-Death experience, and the construction of the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1983) in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced a genuine NDE. These approaches include criteria for deciding what is to be considered a classical or authentic NDE. Well-known researchers in the field who support a moderate view, or sympathize with aspects of the after-life view are Kevin Williams, Bruce Greyson, Michael Sabom, Melvin Morse, PMH Atwater, Yvonne Kason, Sam Parnia, Peter Fenwick, Jody A. Long and Jeffrey P. Long. Much of this research is co-ordinated through the field of Near-Death Studies.

Among the researchers who support a naturalistic and neurological base for the experience we find the British psychologist Susan Blackmore, and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer. The possibility of altered temporal lobe functioning in the near-death experience is suggested by Britton & Bootzin (2004). In this study Near-Death experiencers were also found to have altered sleep patterns compared to subjects in the control group. Dr. Rick Strassman has attempted to induce NDE in a clinical setting by injecting subjects with DMT. This research is described in his book DMT - The Spirit Molecule (2001).

According to Martens (1994), the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue would be an international multicentric data collection within the framework for standardized reporting of cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac arrest-criteria as a basis for NDE-research has been a common approach among the European branch of the research field (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001).

[edit]
Spiritual and psychological after-effects
Accounts by NDE subjects sometimes include long-term after-effects such as a heightened sense of intuition; seeing apparently disconnected events being connected as in the phenomenon of synchronicity; and internal feelings of bodily energy and/or altered states of consciousness similar to those associated with kundalini (Greyson, 2000).

Greyson (1983) developed The Near-Death Experience Scale in order to measure the after-effects of a near-death experience. Research on the after-effects of near-death experiences note that the aftermath of the experience is associated with both positive and healthy outcomes related to personality and appreciation for life, but also a spectrum of clinical problems in situations where the person has had difficulties with the experience (Orne, 1995). These difficulties are usually connected to the interpretation of the experience and the integration of it into everyday life. The near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention and the inclusion of a new diagnostic category in the DSM-IV called "Religious or spiritual problem" (Code V 62.89) is discussed more closely by Greyson (1997).

Simpson (2001) notes that the number of people that have experienced an NDE might be higher than the number of cases that are actually reported. It is not unusual for near-death experiencers to feel profound insecurity related to how they are going to explain something that the surrounding culture perceives as a strange, paranormal incident.

A link to a man like Ed that had a conversation with beings during near death experience...

Rev. Howard Storm's near-death experience

There are some simularities and the issue of the cold war and nuclear weapons and life in the universe are addressed.

http://www.near-death.com/storm.html...

"The best religion is the religion that brings you closest to God." - Rev. Howard Storm

Howard Storm was in intense agony and dying.]

Struggling to say goodbye to my wife, I wrestled with my emotions. Telling her that I loved her very much was as much of a goodbye as I could utter because of my emotional distress.

Sort of relaxing and closing my eyes, I waited for the end. This was it, I felt. This was the big nothing, the big blackout, the one you never wake up from, the end of existence. I had absolute certainty that there was nothing beyond this life – because that was how really smart people understood it.

While I was undergoing this stress, prayer or anything like that never occurred to me. I never once thought about it. If I mentioned God’s name at all it was only as a profanity.

For a time there was a sense of being unconscious or asleep. I’m not sure how long it lasted, but I felt really strange, and I opened my eyes. To my surprise I was standing up next to the bed, and I was looking at my body laying in the bed.

My first reaction was, "This is crazy! I can’t be standing here looking down at myself. That’s not possible."

This wasn't what I expected, this wasn't right. Why was I still alive? I wanted oblivion. Yet I was looking at a thing that was my body, and it just didn't have that much meaning to me.

Now knowing what was happening, I became upset. I started yelling and screaming at my wife, and she just sat there like a stone. She didn’t look at me, she didn’t move – and I kept screaming profanities to get her to pay attention. Being confused, upset, and angry, I tried to get the attention of my room-mate, with the same result. He didn’t react.

I wanted this to be a dream, and I kept saying to myself, "This has got to be a dream."

But I knew that it wasn't a dream. I became aware that strangely I felt more alert, more aware, more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life. All my senses were extremely acute. Everything felt tingly and alive. The floor was cool and my bare feet felt moist and clammy. This had to be real. I squeezed my fists and was amazed at how much I was feeling in my hands just by making a fist.

Then I heard my name. I heard, "Howard, Howard – come here."

Wondering, at first, where it was coming from, I discovered that it was originating in the doorway. There were different voices calling me.

I asked who they were, and they said, "We are here to take care of you. We will fix you up. Come with us."

Asking, again, who they were, I asked them if they were doctors and nurses.

They responded, "Quick, come see. You’ll find out."

As I asked them questions they gave evasive answers. They kept giving me a sense of urgency, insisting that I should step through the doorway.

With some reluctance I stepped into the hallway, and in the hallway I was in a fog, or a haze. It was a light-colored haze. It wasn’t a heavy haze. I could see my hand, for example, but the people who were calling me were 15 or 20 feet ahead, and I couldn’t see them clearly. They were more like silhouettes, or shapes, and as I moved toward them they backed off into the haze. As I tried to get close to them to identify them, they quickly withdrew deeper into the fog. So I had to follow into the fog deeper and deeper.

These strange beings kept urging me to come with them.

I repeatedly asked them where we were going, and they responded, "Hurry up, you’ll find out."

They wouldn't answer anything. The only response was insisting that I hurry up and follow them.

They told me repeatedly that my pain was meaningless and unnecessary. "Pain is bullshit," they said.

I knew that we had been traveling for miles, but I occasionally had the strange ability to look back and see the hospital room. My body was still there lying motionless on the bed. My perspective at these times was as if I were floating above the room looking down. It seemed millions and millions of miles away. Looking back into the room, I saw my wife and my room-mate, and I decided they had not been able to help me so I would go with these people.

Walking for what seemed to be a considerable distance, these beings were all around me. They were leading me through the haze. I don’t know how long. There was a real sense of timelessness about the experience. In a real sense I am unaware of how long it was, but it felt like a long time – maybe even days or weeks.

As we traveled, the fog got thicker and darker, and the people began to change. At first they seemed rather playful and happy, but when we had covered some distance, a few of them began to get aggressive. The more questioning and suspicious I was, the more antagonistic and rude and authoritarian they became. They began to make jokes about my bare rear end which wasn't covered by my hospital dicky and about how pathetic I was. I knew they were talking about me, but when I tried to find out exactly what they were saying they would say, "Shhhhh, he can hear you, he can hear you."

Then, others would seem to caution the aggressive ones. It seemed that I could hear them warn the aggressive ones to be careful or I would be frightened away.

Wondering what was happening, I continued to ask questions, and they repeatedly urged me to hurry and to stop asking questions. Feeling uneasy, especially since they continued to get aggressive, I considered returning, but I didn’t know how to get back. I was lost. There were no features that I could relate to. There was just the fog and a wet, clammy ground, and I had no sense of direction.

All my communication with them took place verbally just as ordinary human communication occurs. They didn't appear to know what I was thinking, and I didn't know what they were thinking. What was increasingly obvious was that they were liars and help was farther away the more I stayed with them.

Hours ago, I had hoped to die and end the torment of life. Now things were worse as I was forced by a mob of unfriendly and cruel people toward some unknown destination in the darkness. They began shouting and hurling insults at me, demanding that I hurry along. And they refused to answer any question.

Finally, I told them that I wouldn’t go any farther. At that time they changed completely. They became much more aggressive and insisted that I was going with them. A number of them began to push and shove me, and I responded by hitting back at them.

A wild orgy of frenzied taunting, screaming and hitting ensued. I fought like a wild man. All the while it was obvious that they were having great fun.

It seemed to be, almost, a game for them, with me as the center-piece of their amusement. My pain became their pleasure. They seemed to want to make me hurt – by clawing at me and biting me. Whenever I would get one off me, there were five more to replace the one.

By this time it was almost complete darkness, and I had the sense that instead of there being twenty or thirty, there were an innumerable host of them. Each one seemed set on coming in for the sport they got from hurting me. My attempts to fight back only provoked greater merriment. They began to physically humiliate me in the most degrading ways. As I continued to fight on and on, I was aware that they weren't in any hurry to win. They were playing with me just as a cat plays with a mouse. Every new assault brought howls of cacophony. Then at some point, they began to tear off pieces of my flesh. To my horror I realized I was being taken apart and eaten alive, slowly, so that their entertainment would last as long a possible.

At no time did I ever have any sense that the beings who seduced and attacked me were anything other than human beings. The best way I can describe them is to think of the worst imaginable person stripped of every impulse to do good. Some of them seemed to be able to tell others what to do, but I had no sense of any structure or hierarchy in an organizational sense. They didn't appear to be controlled or directed by anyone. Basically they were a mob of beings totally driven by unbridled cruelty and passions.

During our struggle I noticed that they seemed to feel no pain. Other than that they appeared to possess no special non-human or super-human abilities.

Although during my initial experience with them I assumed that they were clothed, in our intimate physical contact I never felt any clothing whatsoever.

Fighting well and hard for a long time, ultimately I was spent. Lying there exhausted amongst them, they began to calm down since I was no longer the amusement that I had been. Most of the beings gave up in disappointment because I was no longer amusing, but a few still picked and gnawed at me and ridiculed me for no longer being any fun. By this time I had been pretty much taken apart. People were still picking at me, occasionally, and I just lay there all torn up, unable to resist.

Exactly what happened was ... and I’m not going to try and explain this. From inside of me I felt a voice, my voice, say, "Pray to God."

My mind responded to that, "I don’t pray. I don’t know how to pray."

This is a guy lying on the ground in the darkness surrounded by what appeared to be dozens if not hundreds and hundreds of vicious creatures who had just torn him up. The situation seemed utterly hopeless, and I seemed beyond any possible help whether I believed in God or not.

The voice again told me to pray to God. It was a dilemma since I didn’t know how. The voice told me a third time to pray to God.

I started saying things like, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ... God bless America" and anything else that seemed to have a religious connotation.

And these people went into a frenzy, as if I had thrown boiling oil all over them. They began yelling and screaming at me, telling me to quit, that there was no God, and no one could hear me. While they screamed and yelled obscenities, they also began backing away from me – as if I were poison. As they were retreating, they became more rabid, cursing and screaming that what I was saying was worthless and that I was a coward.

I screamed back at them, "Our Father who art in heaven," and similar ideas. This continued for some time until, suddenly, I was aware that they had left. It was dark, and I was alone yelling things that sounded churchy. It was pleasing to me that these churchy sayings had such an effect on those awful beings.

Lying there for a long time, I was in such a state of hopelessness, and blackness, and despair, that I had no way of measuring how long it was. I was just lying there in an unknown place – all torn and ripped. And I had no strength; it was all gone. It seemed as if I were sort of fading out, that any effort on my part would expend the last energy I had. My conscious sense was that I was perishing, or just sinking into the darkness.

"To appreciate heaven well it is good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell." - Will Carleton

Now I didn't know if I was even in the world. But I did know that I was here. I was real, all my senses worked too painfully well. I didn't know how I had arrived here. There was no direction to follow even if I had been physically able to move. The agony that I had suffered during the day was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. I knew then that this was the absolute end of my existence, and it was more horrible than anything I could possibly have imagined.

Then a most unusual thing happened. I heard very clearly, once again in my own voice, something that I had learned in nursery Sunday School. It was the little song, "Jesus loves me, yes I know ..." and it kept repeating. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I wanted to believe that. Not having anything left, I wanted to cling to that thought. And I, inside, screamed, "Jesus, please save me."

That thought was screamed with every ounce of strength and feeling left in me.

When I did that, I saw, off in the darkness somewhere, the tiniest little star. Not knowing what it was, I presumed it must be a comet or a meteor, because it was moving rapidly. Then I realized it was coming toward me. It was getting very bright, rapidly.

When the light came near, its radiance spilled over me, and I just rose up – not with my effort – I just lifted up. Then I saw – and I saw this very plainly – I saw all my wounds, all my tears, all my brokenness, melt away. And I became whole in this radiance.

What I did was to cry uncontrollably. I was crying, not out of sadness, but because I was feeling things that I had never felt before in my life.

Another thing happened. Suddenly I knew a whole Now I didn't know if I was even in the world. But I did know that I was here. I was real, all my senses worked too painfully well. I didn't know how I had arrived here. There was no direction to follow even if I had been physically able to move. The agony that I had suffered during the day was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. I knew then that this was the absolute end of my existence, and it was more horrible than anything I could possibly have imagined.

Then a most unusual thing happened. I heard very clearly, once again in my own voice, something that I had learned in nursery Sunday School. It was the little song, "Jesus loves me, yes I know ..." and it kept repeating. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I wanted to believe that. Not having anything left, I wanted to cling to that thought. And I, inside, screamed, "Jesus, please save me."

That thought was screamed with every ounce of strength and feeling left in me.

When I did that, I saw, off in the darkness somewhere, the tiniest little star. Not knowing what it was, I presumed it must be a comet or a meteor, because it was moving rapidly. Then I realized it was coming toward me. It was getting very bright, rapidly.

When the light came near, its radiance spilled over me, and I just rose up – not with my effort – I just lifted up. Then I saw – and I saw this very plainly – I saw all my wounds, all my tears, all my brokenness, melt away. And I became whole in this radiance.

What I did was to cry uncontrollably. I was crying, not out of sadness, but because I was feeling things that I had never felt before in my life.

Another thing happened. Suddenly I knew a whole bunch of things. I knew things ... I knew that this light, this radiance, knew me. I don’t know how to explain to you that I knew it knew me, I just did. As a matter of fact, I understood that it knew me better than my mother or father did. The luminous entity that embraced me knew me intimately and began to communicate a tremendous sense of knowledge. I knew that he knew everything about me and I was being unconditionally loved and accepted.

The light conveyed to me that it loved me in a way that I can’t begin to express. It loved me in a way that I had never known that love could possibly be. He was a concentrated field of energy, radiant in splendor indescribable, except to say goodness and love. This was more loving than one can imagine.

I knew that this radiant being was powerful. It was making me feel so good all over. I could feel its light on me – like very gentle hands around me. And I could feel it holding me. But it was loving me with overwhelming power. After what I had been through, to be completely known, accepted, and intensely loved by this Being of Light surpassed anything I had known or could have imagined. I began to cry and the tears kept coming and coming. And we, I and this light, went up and out of there.

We started going faster and faster, out of the darkness. Embraced by the light, feeling wonderful and crying, I saw off in the distance something that looked like the picture of a galaxy, except that it was larger and there were more stars than I had seen on earth.

There was a great center of brilliance. In the center there was an enormously bright concentration. Outside the center countless millions of spheres of light were flying about entering and leaving what was a great being-ness at the center. It was off in the distance.

Then I ... I didn’t say it, I thought it. I said, "Put me back."

What I meant by telling the light to put me back, was to put me back into the pit. I was so ashamed of who I was, and what I had been all of my life, that all I wanted to do was hide in the darkness. I didn’t want to go toward the light anymore – I did; yet I didn’t. How many times in my life had I denied and scoffed at the reality before me, and how many thousands of times had I used it as a curse. What incredible intellectual arrogance to use the name as an insult. I was afraid to go closer. I was also aware that the incredible intensity of the emanations might disintegrate what I still experienced as my intact physical body.

The being who was supporting me, my friend, was aware of my fear and reluctance and shame. For the first time he spoke to my mind in a male voice and told me that if I was uncomfortable we didn't have to go closer. So we stopped where we were, still countless miles away from the Great being.

For the first time, my friend, and I will refer to him in that context hereafter, said to me, "You belong here."

[Webmaster note: Howard believes his friend was Jesus.]

Facing all the splendor made me acutely aware of my lowly condition. My response was: "No, you’ve made a mistake, put me back."

And he said, "We don’t make mistakes. You belong."

Then he called out in a musical tone to the luminous entities who surrounded the great center. Several came and circled around us. During what follows some came and went but normally there were five or six and sometimes as many as eight with us.

I was still crying. One of the first things these marvelous beings did was to ask, all with thought, "Are you afraid of us?"

I told them I wasn’t.

They said that they could turn their brilliance down and appear as people, and I told them to stay as they were. They were the most beautiful, the most ...

As an aside, I’m an artist. There are three primary, three secondary, and six tertiary colors in the visible light spectrum. Here, I was seeing a visible light spectrum with at least 80 new primary colors. I was also seeing this brilliance. It’s disappointing for me to try and describe, because I can’t – I was seeing colors that I had never seen before.

What these beings were showing me was their glory. I wasn’t really seeing them. And I was perfectly content. Having come from a world of shapes and forms, I was delighted with this new, formless, world. These beings were giving me what I needed at that time.

To my surprise, and also distress, they seemed to be capable of knowing everything I was thinking. I didn't know whether I would be capable of controlling my thoughts and keeping anything secret.

We began to engage in thought exchange, conversation that was very natural, very easy and casual. I heard their voices clearly and individually. They each had a distinct personality with a voice, but they spoke directly to my mind, not my ears. And they used normal, colloquial English. Everything I thought, they knew.

They all seemed to know and understand me very well and to be completely familiar with my thoughts and my past. I didn't feel any desire to ask for someone I had known because they all knew me. Nobody could know me any better. It also didn't occur to me to try to identify them as uncle or grandfather. It was like going to a large gathering of relatives at Christmas and not being quite able to remember their names or who they are married to or how they are connected to you. But you do know that you are with your family. I don't know if they were related to me or not. It felt like they were closer to me than anyone I had ever known.

Throughout my conversation with the luminous beings, which lasted for what seemed like a very long time, I was being physically supported by the being in whom I had been engulfed. We were in a sense completely stationary yet hanging in space. Everywhere around us were countless radiant beings, like stars in the sky, coming and going. It was like a super magnified view of a galaxy super packed with stars. And in the giant radiance of the center they were packed so densely together that individuals could not be identified. Their selves were in such harmony with the Creator that they were really just one.

One of the reasons, I was told, that all the countless beings had to go back to their source was to become invigorated with this sense of harmony and oneness. Being apart for too long a time diminished them and made them feel separate. Their greatest pleasure was to go back to the sources of all life.

Our initial conversation involved them simply trying to comfort me.

Something that disturbed me was that I was naked. Somewhere in the darkness I'd lost my hospital gown. I was a human being. I had a body. They told me this was okay. They were quite familiar with my anatomy. Gradually I relaxed and stopped trying to cover my privates with my hands.

Next, they wanted to talk about my life. To my surprise my life played out before me, maybe six or eight feet in front of me, from beginning to end. The life review was very much in their control, and they showed me my life, but not from my point of view. I saw me in my life – and this whole thing was a lesson, even though I didn’t know it at the time. They were trying to teach me something, but I didn’t know it was a teaching experience, because I didn’t know that I would be coming back.

We just watched my life from beginning to the end. Some things they slowed down on, and zoomed in on and other things they went right through. My life was shown in a way that I had never thought of before. All of the things that I had worked to achieve, the recognition that I had worked for, in elementary school, in high school, in college, and in my career, they meant nothing in this setting.

I could feel their feelings of sorrow and suffering, or joy, as my life’s review unfolded. They didn’t say that something was bad or good, but I could feel it. And I could sense all those things they were indifferent to. They didn’t, for example, look down on my high school shot-put record. They just didn’t feel anything towards it, nor towards other things which I had taken so much pride in.

What they responded to was how I had interacted with other people. That was the long and short of it. Unfortunately, most of my interactions with other people didn’t measure up with how I should have interacted, which was in a loving way.

Whenever I did react during my life in a loving way they rejoiced.

Most of the time I found that my interactions with other people had been manipulative. During my professional career, for example, I saw myself sitting in my office, playing the college professor, while a student came to me with a personal problem. I sat there looking compassionate, and patient, and loving, while inside I was bored to death. I would check my watch under my desk as I anxiously waited for the student to finish.

I got to go through all those kinds of experiences in the company of these magnificent beings.

When I was a teenager my father’s career put him into a high-stress, twelve-hour-a-day job. Out of my resentment because of his neglect of me, when he came home from work, I would be cold and indifferent toward him. This made him angry, and it gave me further excuse to feel hatred toward him. He and I fought, and my mother would get upset.

Most of my life I had felt that my father was the villain and I was the victim. When we reviewed my life I got to see how I had precipitated so much of that, myself. Instead of greeting him happily at the end of a day, I was continually putting thorns in him – in order to justify my hurt.

I got to see when my sister had a bad night one night, how I went into her bedroom and put my arms around her. Not saying anything, I just lay there with my arms around her. As it turned out that experience was one of the biggest triumphs of my life.

"We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of hell together." - Mellen-Thomas Benedict, a near-death experiencer

The Therapy of Love and Enlightenment - Howard Storm

The entire life's review would have been emotionally destructive, and would have left me a psychotic person, if it hadn’t been for the fact that my friend, and my friend’s friends, were loving me during the unfolding of my life. I could feel that love. Every time I got a little upset they turned the life’s review off for awhile, and they just loved me. Their love was tangible. You could feel it on your body, you could feel it inside you; their love went right through you. I wish I could explain it to you, but I can’t.

The therapy was their love, because my life’s review kept tearing me down. It was pitiful to watch, just pitiful. I couldn’t believe it. And the thing is, it got worse as it went on. My stupidity and selfishness as a teenager only magnified as I became an adult – all under the veneer of being a good husband, a good father, and a good citizen. The hypocrisy of it all was nauseating. But through it all was their love.

When the review was finished they asked, "Do you want to ask any questions?" and I had a million questions.

I asked, for example, "What about the Bible?"

They responded, "What about it?"

I asked if it was true, and they said it was. Asking them why it was that when I tried to read it, all I saw were contradictions, they took me back to my life’s review again – something that I had overlooked. They showed me, for the few times I had opened the Bible, that I had read it with the idea of finding contradictions and problems. I was trying to prove to myself that it wasn’t worth reading.

I observed to them that the Bible wasn’t clear to me. It didn’t make sense. They told me that it contained spiritual truth, and that I had to read it spiritually in order to understand it. It should be read prayerfully. My friends informed me that it was not like other books. They also told me, and I later found out this was true, that when you read it prayerfully, it talks to you. It reveals itself to you. And you don’t have to work at it anymore.

My friends answered lots of questions in funny ways. They really knew the whole tone of what I asked them, even before I got the questions out. When I thought of questions in my head, they really understood them.

I asked them, for example, which was the best religion. I was looking for an answer which was like, "Presbyterians." I figured these guys were all Christians.

The answer I got was, "The best religion is the religion that brings you closest to God."

Asking them if there was life on other planets, their surprising answer was that the universe was full of life.

Because of my fear of a nuclear holocaust I asked if there was going to be a nuclear war in the world, and they said no. That astonished me, and I gave them this extensive explanation of how I had lived under the threat of nuclear war. That was one of the reasons I was who I was. I figured, when I was in this life, that it was all sort of hopeless; the world was going to blow up anyway, and nothing made much sense. In that context I felt I could do what I wanted, since nothing mattered.

They said, "No, there isn’t going to be any nuclear war."

I asked if they were absolutely sure there wasn’t going to be nuclear war. They reassured me again, and I asked them how they could be so sure. Their response was: "God loves the world."

They told me that at the most, one or two nuclear weapons might go off accidentally, if they weren’t destroyed, but there wouldn’t be a nuclear war. I then asked them how come there had been so many wars. They said that they allowed those few to happen, out of all the wars that humanity tried to start. Out of all the wars that humans tried to create, they allowed a few, to bring people to their senses and to stop them.

Science, technology, and other benefits, they told me, had been gifts bestowed on humanity by them – through inspiration. People had literally been led to those discoveries, many of which had later been perverted by humanity to use for its own destruction. We could do too much damage to the planet. And by the planet, they meant all of God’s creation. Not just the people, but the animals, the trees, the birds, the insects, everything.

They explained to me that their concern was for all the people of the world. They weren’t interested in one group getting ahead of other groups. They want every person to consider every other person greater than their own flesh. They want everyone to love everyone else, completely; more, even, than they love themselves. If someone, someplace else in the world hurts, than we should hurt – we should feel their pain. And we should help them.

Our planet has evolved to the point, for the first time in our history, that we have the power to do that. We are globally linked. And we could become one people.

The people that they gave the privilege of leading the world into a better age, blew it. That was us, in the United States.

When I spoke with them about the future, and this might sound like a cop-out on my part, they made clear to me that we have free will.

If we change the way we are, then we can change the future which they showed me. They showed me a view of the future, at the time of my experience, based upon how we in the United States were behaving at that time. It was a future in which a massive worldwide depression would occur. If we were to change our behavior, however, then the future would be different.

Asking them how it would be possible to change the course of many people, I observed that it was difficult, if not impossible, to change anything on earth. I expressed the opinion that it was a hopeless task to try.

My friends explained, quite clearly, that all it takes to make a change was one person. One person, trying, and then because of that, another person changing for the better. They said that the only way to change the world was to begin with one person. One will become two, which will become three, and so on. That’s the only way to affect a major change.

I inquired as to where the world would be going in an optimistic future – one where some of the changes they desired were to take place. The image of the future that they gave me then, and it was their image, not one that I created, surprised me.

My image had previously been sort of like Star Wars, where everything was space age, plastics, and technology. The future that they showed me was almost no technology at all.

What everybody, absolutely everybody, in this euphoric future spent most of their time doing was raising children. The chief concern of people was children, and everybody considered children to be the most precious commodity in the world. And when a person became an adult, there was no sense of anxiety, nor hatred, nor competition. There was this enormous sense of trust and mutual respect.

If a person, in this view of the future, became disturbed, then the community of people all cared about the disturbed person falling away from the harmony of the group. Spiritually, through prayer and love, the others would elevate the afflicted person.

What people did with the rest of their time was that they gardened, with almost no physical effort. They showed me that plants, with prayer, would produce huge fruits and vegetables. People, in unison, could control the climate of the planet through prayer. Everybody would work with mutual trust – and the people would call the rain, when needed, and the sun to shine. Animals lived with people, in harmony.

People, in this best of all worlds, weren’t interested in knowledge; they were interested in wisdom. This was because they were in a position where anything they needed to know, in the knowledge category, they could receive simply through prayer. Everything, to them, was solvable. They could do anything they wanted to do.

In this future, people had no wanderlust, because they could, spiritually, communicate with everyone else in the world. There was no need to go elsewhere. They were so engrossed with where they were and the people around them that they didn’t have to go on vacation. Vacation from what? They were completely fulfilled and happy.

Death, in this world, was a time when the individual had experienced everything that he or she needed to experience. To die meant to lie down and let go; then the spirit would rise up, and the community would gather around. There would be a great rejoicing, because they all had insight into the heavenly realm, and the spirit would join with the angels that came down to meet it. They could see the spirit leave and knew that it was time for the spirit to move on; it had outgrown the need for growth in this world. Individuals who died had achieved all they were capable of in this world in terms of love, appreciation, understanding, and working in harmony with others.

The sense I got of this beautiful view of the world’s future was as a garden, God’s garden. And in this garden of the world, full of all beauty, were people. The people were born into this world to grow in their understanding of the Creator. Then to shed this skin, this shell, in the physical world, and to graduate and move up into heaven – there, to have a more intimate and growing relationship with God.

[Webmaster note: In Howard Storm's book, "My Descent into Death" (2000), Storm describes the future of mankind as given to him by light beings he encountered during his NDE in 1985. Storm tells how they told him, in 1985, that the Cold War would soon end, because "God is changing the hearts of people to love around the world." Storm states, "Since the time in 1985 when I was told these things about the future the Cold War ended with little bloodshed due to the hearts of people being unwilling to tolerate oppressive regimes."

Storm described what the light beings told him concerning the way things will be on earth in about 2185. He asked the light beings the question: "Will the United States be the leader of the world in this change?"

The light beings replied, "The United States has been given the opportunity to be the teacher for the world, but much is expected of those to whom much has been given. The United States has been given more of everything than any country in the history of the world and it has failed to be generous with the gifts. If the United States continues to exploit the rest of the world by greedily consuming the world's resources, the United States will have God's blessing withdrawn. Your country will collapse economically which will result in civil chaos. Because of the greedy nature of the people, you will have people killing people for a cup of gasoline. The world will watch in horror as your country is obliterated by strife. The rest of the world will not intervene because they have been victims of your exploitation. They will welcome the annihilation of such selfish people. The United States must change immediately and become the teachers of goodness and generosity to the rest of the world. Today the United States is the primary merchant of war and the culture of violence that you export to the world. This will come to an end because you have the seeds of your own destruction within you. Either you will destroy yourselves or God will bring it to an end if there isn't a change."

Storm states, ".... I don't know if the richest country in the history of the world is doomed to lose God's blessing or if the people of the United States will become the moral light of the world. How long will God allow the injustice to continue? The future lies in the choices we make right now. God is intervening in direct ways in human events. May God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!"

Howard's light being friends told him more about the new world to come. According to them, God wished to usher in the kingdom within the next two hundred years. In order to do so, God had rescinded some of the free will given to creatures, in favor of more divine control over human events. This new world order, according to Howard, will resemble some near-death descriptions of heaven. People will live in such peace and harmony and love that communication will be telepathic, travel instantaneous and the need for clothing and shelter eliminated. The lion will indeed lie down with the lamb.]

"The quickest way to change the world is to be of service to others. Show that your love can make a difference in the lives of people and thereby someone else's love can make a difference in your life. By each of us doing that and working together we change the world one inner person at a time." - Dannion Brinkley, a near-death experiencer